american people and don't raise tax on them right now. now is not the time to slam on the brakes. now is the time to step on the gas. now is the time to keep growing the economy, to keep creating jobs, to keep giving working americans the boost that they need. >> our chief white house correspondent jessica yellin with more on the president's bush. you don't add an event unless you see moment dlul. >> reporter: they want to beat that drum every day. they see this as a win for the president. the pay roll tax cut issue. on the merits and the politics. on the specifics, the president's argument is that if republicans don't stepped the cut, tax increase on regular americans, $1,000 more they'll see taken out have their paychecks. and then therefore, it is inconsistent with the republicans pledge not to raise taxes. the white house believes it would be hurtful politically for republicans and democrats if people's taxes go up next year. and so on the politics of it, it is a win-win for the president if taxes go up, then the president can point his finger at the republicans who presumably would be the ones blocking it saying, they did that. i didn't. and if they vote to extend it, the president can claim that as a political win for himself and say look what i did. now, the bottom line is, they believe fundamentally that congress will vote to extend this in the end and the real drama here is by what means? how will it be paid for? this is a bit of a game of chicken at the very en. still the drama is the president pressing, making sure he gets the president for this extension in the end and sure it gets done before congress goes on break. >> the holidays fast proef approaching. nothing gets congress out of town faster than the holidays. let's go to kate for a reality check. the democrats had a new proposal today. they say it is a paired back compromise. will it sell? >> reporter: that's a great question. on its face, it doesn't seem the republicans will be going to be getting on board with this. here's what democrats say they're offering. they call it their compromise offer. this latest offer still extends and expands the pay roll tax credit for employees, going from 4.2% to 3.1%. as they say, kind of in aed in a to republicans to win over more republicans, democrats in this latest offer, they're dropping a provision to sentence the pay roll tax cut to employers to bring down the overall cost. and they're also making the surtax on millionaires smaller, going from just over 3% tax to just under a 2% tax. as they say, to make it more palatable for republicans to be able to sign on. they, obviously they're pushing to try to win over more republicans. but right away, even before the full details were coming out, republicans were are ready coming out to slal it saying it is still a political maneuver, a political show boat that's not going anywhere. >> let's assume republicans under no circumstances will accept raising taxes on millionaires or billionaires. are there three or four people in a room somewhere working on the final plan or is that yet to happen? >> reporter: i know there are conversations happening. it didn't seem, especially with this latest offer from democrats, that that was a product of ds and rs behind closed doors talking to each other. as many republicans took pains to point out, they were not consulted or what the details were about this offer coming before we started reporting it. in the end as jessica said, but there is an understanding or thought that they will reach some great. we have plenty of time to fight about this. >> posturing first, perhaps a deal later. from capitol hill tonight. thank you. >> newt gingrich and nancy pelosi have a personal and policy feud that case back more than two decades. today it flared anew. pelosi issued what sure sound like a threat in an interview with points memorandum officially listen to this. one of these days we'll have a conversation about newt gingrich. i know a lot about him, pelosi said. i served on the investigative committee that investigated him. four of us locked in a room in an undisclosed location for a year. a thousand pages of his stuff. speaking to reporters in new york city, gingrich took issue. >> i want to thank speaker pelosi for what i regard as an early christmas gift. >> what's that? >> she is suggesting she is going to use material that she developed while she was on the ethics committee. that is a fundamental violation of rules of the house and i would hope members would immediately file charges against her the second she does it. >> cnn's reporter was in the room. when you watch politicians taking questions, the body languages tells a lot. the glint in his eye, the locked jaw. this is a long time rivalry, a long time feud. and that got under speaker gingrich's skin. >> that's right. it felt like old times. it was like a seinfeld flash back going back to the 1990s. and lets just be honest about this. the house democratic leader nancy pelosi started this fight telling talking points memo that she basically relishes the idea of newt gingrich running for president and talk b the possibility that while someday we may release some of the research that we have on speaker gingrich from his days in leadership from the house investigation into potential ethics violations, an investigation that resulted in the speaker being reprimanded back in 1997. and when newt gingrich, i have to say. when the former speaker was asked that question, i asked the question about that press conference. he wasn't shrinking from it. he fired back immediately with the line about it being an early christmas gift. and it is not a bad thing in the republican party to fight with nancy pelosi. this might have been a fight newt gingrich was looking for, quite honestly. >> we'll see how it works in the long material. jim acosta, thank you. let's get some perspective from the former colleague, our chief political colleague, gloria borger. i want to get to the substance. let's deal with the politics. if you're a conservative, seeing newt fighting nancy pelosi, you think, yay, good for you. at a time when he is rising in the polls, trying to say that he is a new fresh voice, this does remind that you, a, he was a long time politician, and b, a pretty controversial one. >> i don't say that he is a fresh voice. newt has been around a long time and i don't think he would even say he is a fresh voice. but fighting with nancy pelosi is not a bad thing in a republican primary. you recall about three or four months ago, the junior senator from oklahoma in a town meeting in oklahoma said that nancy pelosi was a nice lady. he got booed. so i mean, she incites the same type of anger and consternation with republicans that george bush did for democrats. >> coburn said he wouldn't support newt, right? >> newt cuts both ways. >> but she is clearly, i mean, they go back a ways. let's be clear. they go back a ways. she was on the ethics committee, in a leadership committee on the democratic side when newt came to power. there's a lot of bad blood there and you sense it. let's listen to what newt gingrich is saying about nancy pelosi's motives are. >> i think it talks about how capricious she was. how tainted the outcome was that she was on it. and what she said to you today should explain a great deal about what happened in the he think i. process when nancy pelosi was at the heart of it and is now totally prepared to abuse the process. >> first, the bad blood is obvious and b, when you look back at the history, this is grass half empty or half fulfill let's look at the record. the house voted 395-28 to reprimand speaker gingrich. that means a lot of republicans voted to reprimand their speaker. so it wasn't just democrats. they ordered him to pay an unprecedented $300,000 penalty. that is a big fine. and yet, speaker gingrich can say in the end by the time this all wrapped up that 83 of the 84 counts were eventually dropped. this was complicated stuff about foundations and gold pack and political committees. more to my point, it helps with conservatives but does it remind voters this guy has some baggage and do you really want to send hill against obama? >> absolutely. what i saw was a little of the old newt gingrich relitigating those charges before the ethics committee. going back over it and saying 83 out of 84 were not real and all the rest and it was bad advice. that's not what newt gingrich really ought to be doing. he released an ad in iowa today that was all positive and rosie. he is trying to reintroduce himself. and reinvent himself to a certain degree. relitigating his old fights with nancy pelosi is really not the way to do it. but newt did not bring it up. he was asked the question at a press conference and he responded. but also on those charges, no irs charges. they cleared him. the guy never went to jail. what, i mean to say that they would release that. >> going to jail is not -- >> that's ethics committee, republicans used it for sport, democrats used it for sport. so you know, what came out of it? >> there is more history. >> later in the day, leader pelosi's office, this gets confusing because both gingrich and pelosi were speakers. nancy pelosi is now the democratic leader in the house. saying pelosi was clirly referring to the extensive am of information that is in the public record, including the comprehensive committee report with which the public may not be fully aware. all of the other campaigns already had that report. they're preparing whether or not they'll use it but now they have it. do you think, gloria, the democrats know he is combustible. the democrats know he gets mad when you question his past. does nancy pelosi say wait for the day. is she planting a seed? is it on purpose? >> i think she is planting a seed. and, but it is clear that everybody knows that the history is there. i think the question with the romney campaign right now, it's not really about nancy pelosi. it is about mitt romney. what does mitt romney do? he's been calling him a career politician. actually, i would think that the way to confront newt gingrich would not be on the career politician but would be on this question of power and how he used power and can you trust him with power in the future. that might be a little more -- >> do you trust him with power? >> we'll see. i'm only one voter and i think he will have to take that argument to the voters and throughout the south and throughout the primary campaign. but i think if you look at newt, you compare apples to apples. romney has a problem. newt has problems, bachmann would have problem, perry has had problems. the republicans, we have six or seven to choose from and newt is one of them. >> and there are no perfect candidates. thanks for coming in tonight. still no herman cain. that means no 9-9-9 plan. does anything professor gingrich say complicate his message now? 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[ pneumatic wrench buzzing ] [ slap! slap! slap! ] [ male announcer ] your favorite foods fighting you? fight back fast with tums. calcium rich tums goes to work in seconds. nothing works faster. ♪ tum tum tum tum tums how about we spend a little time going back to school with newt gingrich? and mindful of the fact he was paid more than $1.5 million for his work with freddie mac. you decide whether it is telling it like it is or bald hypocrisy. >> i'm a theodore roosevelt republican in the sense that, one of my conclusions out of the last ten years, if you are too big to fail, you're too big to manage. i would break out fannie mae. i would break out freddie mac. i would break out aig. i wouldn't defend any of the biggest banks. if you're too big to be managed, you need to become smaller. >> that was march 2009 at a tulane university class. you might have seen him there. we'll call him professor james carville. he is with us tonight. and david gergen. james, you invited me to your class that day. we wanted to go back and look at those tapes. we want to match up what he was saying then with now. he said if you're too big to manage, you should be broken up. this is a guy who took all that money from freddie mac saying break it up. will opponents grab that and say which is it? what do you really believe? >> well, you know, they've already plowed that ground pretty, been plowed and replowed. the truth of the matter is, i would give hill a little bit of a pass because he was in a classroom and we like for people to be provocative so i appreciate him coming down to my class. i obviously have serious differences and issues with the former speaker. but i never criticize a guest of mine. i'm going to shy away from what he said. >> let's see if i can see over the next few minutes if you stick to that. >> no, no, anything not related to the class, i'm ready to jump in. >> one of the reasons we wanted to go back and look at this tape is because when they're not running, he is and not running for anything. they tend to be more relaxed. more revealing. i want you to listen to a little more of the snippet of the class. carville was trying to get speaker gingrich to make a bush-obama comparison in terms of the economy. the speaker from time to time presents himself. he likes to talk in grand historical ways. >> you're kidding. >> listen to how you teshs a bush-obama conversation into the roman empire. >> it seems to me that you're suggesting, you're suggesting that economically, the bush and obama administrations are a contin continueum. >> yes. >> we're saying for republicans to become a more, is populist a better word? or to sort of be less wall street, less party, more, is that what -- >> i wouldn't use populist. but i would go back to the role an model of popularity. there was a party which ultimately caesar had at the end which basically that any fight between the elites and the great mass of people, be on the side of the great mass of people. >> he's not an elitist, right? he is not in the elite. he is with the people. >> he is with the people. he does have a grandiosity about him. i think as james says, within the context of a classroom, to go back and cite roman history, that's looked up to. not looked down on. >> go ahead. >> yeah. just reminds my students, we had a pretty good class but i wanted to be provocative because i want mr. gergen to come talk to them. i want him to feel he can be as provocative as he wants to. >> just keep the cameras off. >> trump says he still might run. i don't think gergen will run so i think he can come down to your classroom. here's one example where gingrich the political analyst is actually dead right in terms of, if he's analyzing how president obama lost his popularity. and he is dead on. listen. >> i think the challenge for obama is actually the challenge that george w. bush has. george w. bush failed to perform. failure to perform is the greatest problem an american president can have. because we are a ruthlessly consumer cent rick company. when something doesn't work, we change. how many of you have ever changed a brand? all of you, right? so just think about it. and what happened was the republicans starting in 2005, i think this city was the first enormous break point. although i think the first big mistake was the social security plan. but this city then became the break point. when bush came down, this is my personal analysis. and i don't know of you agree or if james agrees. when bush came down and said, brownie, you're doing a heck of a job, i think the whole country looked at him and thought this guy is out of touch with reality. which is the jimmy carter problem. >> a couple things, number one, a pretty fair assessment. the competency question undid president bush. what are you doing in iraq? number one, the big mistake was the social security plan. the speaker says he wants to have an opt-out for younger americans. remember that was proposing an opt-out for parts of it. the part that struck me most, have you ever changed a brand. remember how important to you, james, to you first, newt beginning was in changing the republican brand when they took power in the 1990s. >> yeah, do i! and these guys, he has a lot of problem running for president. from freddie and fannie. my guess is we're only in the second inning about things we'll find out. that's just a sense of where it is. to say today with speaker pelosi brings up something that we all knew about, gloria, you and i, the general public had forgotten about that to the extent they ever knew about it. i think they're getting ready to be reminded of that in spades. >> you mentioned that he gets puffed up, self-importance. a lot of politicians do. i'm not picking on speaker gingrich by any means. what is your next question now that he's made it to the top of the field? >> i think he's known all along he will be heavily vetted and 52nd 90s scrutinized. what has been interesting is how much animosity there is among the insiders. we heard a little of it from senator coburn. i walked with him. i won't support hill. you see others. i didn't talk to vin webber but he was a friend of his. >> a lot of people who served in the house. a very bad feeling about it. >> don't you think those stories are coming? >> without a doubt. a lot of people looked to him as their leader and then he let them down in a drault way. and that matters, especially in a long protracted primary. to that point, next week john king usa is getting out of here. we're going to eye waffle we want to hear from you. tell us what's on your mind, especially if you're in iowa. up next, we'll look at what a herman cain-less caucus means for the other candidates. brad, where we going? just a second. just, just one second. ♪ what are you looking at? don't look up there. why are you looking up? ♪ get outta the car. get outta the car. ♪ are you ok? 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