congressional stalemate that could mean a bigger government bite out of your paycheck. i'm wolf blitzer. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room". -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com the lines have been redrawn in the battle for the republican presidential nomination and after months of focusing his fight on president obama, mitt romney is now going after the newest front-runner, the former house speaker, newt gingrich. romney's latest assault is the classic campaign tactic of using the candidate's own words against him. joe johns is joining us now. take us inside romney's latest attack on gingrich. >> now we know that mitt romney apparently is not going to sit around and wait for newt gingrich to make a mistake as some have been suggesting. romney's on the offensive right now, but as far as we can tell, the former speaker hasn't exactly launched any kind of counterattack. down in the polls with weeks left until iowa caucuses, mitt romney makes his move. direct assault on the new front-runner, newt gingrich. starting right between the eyes. with the former speaker's conservative credential ls, reminding iowa of one of my times when gingrich's mouth got him into trouble. that was when gingrich slammed the proposal by paul ryan. to change medicare as we know it into a voucher system. >> i don't think right wing social engineering is any more desire abl than left wing social engineering. >> because gingrich could have just said the plan needed a little work, but instead, he uttered what sounded to many like a crushing attack on a l litmus test idea. >> this is a place where speaker gingrich and i disagree. he called this right wing social engineering. i believe it's a very important step to, to protect medicare and to protect social security, we're going to have to make that i think changeses like the ones paul ryan proposed. >> but the attacks didn't stop there. the action committee posted, then took down another video that -- >> newt has a ton of baggage like the fact that gingrich was fined $300,000 for ethics violations or that he took at least $1.6 million from freddie mac just before it helped cause the economic meltdown. then there's the $37 million gingrich took from health care and industry groups and on the issues, newt's been on all sides. >> that last line just in case people forgot romney was not the only republican candidate who has gotten criticized for changing position. >> that's the attack on romney that's really sold in the republican party and beyond, that he's a flip-flopper, so romney is turning that on gingrich. >> gingrich has said he intended to stay positive in the tcampain and will try to keep the focus on president obama, but people who worked in congress when gingrich was speaker of the house say the most effective attacks on him could be yet to come. if people who serve with them go out in the open with their questions. >> a lot of those members had real questions about newt's leadership. the people who know him the best and severed with him in the congress are the ones who will be the most effective messengers. >> the danger is reminding people of gingrich's negatives will remind them of romney's negatives. we've heard from former members of congress with gingrich and say they can't or won't support him. >> but there's a sense the clock is ticking. they don't have a lot of time between now and january 3rd. they're going on the offensive, the romney people are? >> absolutely. very clear with these videos. the question is, how far you go with it. >> thanks very much. let's dig deeper with our chief political analyst, gloria borger. a little risky for romney and his folks to be attacking gingrich when it comes to paul ryan and his budget given how popular paul ryan is? >> for a couple of reasons. i think it's very risky. the paul ryan medicare plan turns medicare into a roucher system. when mitt romney proposed his own solutions on medicare, he didn't exactly hug the ryan plan. he said he liked it. he would take parts of it, but didn't totally embrace it because when you look towards the general election, if you completely embrace the ryan plan, then you're handing barack obama a real issue to use with general election voters. they're afraid of the ryan plan. medicare is a very opponent issue for senior citizens who vote, so by running to the right of gingrich, romney could hurt himself if he becomes the nominee. >> but the democrats have argued that what ryan has done would be ending medicare. >> and turning it into a voucher system. that's very, very potent for democrats. >> what about the line that the romney folks are saying that newt gingrich is a career politician and a flip-flopper? >> first of all, as gingrich himself pointed out, mitt romney might have been a career politician had he been elected to any office that he ran for aside from governor. he ran for the senator, the presidency. he didn't get elected to those offices cht as for the notion of flip-flopping, the problem is that romney himself as joe pointed out earlier, romney himself is a flip-flopper, so he could say newt gingrich has changed his mind on climate change and is now more liberal on immigration. what if health care mandates come up? gingrich used to be for health care mandates and romney. that's easy for gingrich to turn around on romney. i think a more lucrative line would be how was newt gingrich as leader of the house? why was it that after he engineered the republican takeover within a few years, people were planning a coup against him? >> republican conservatives, i know you've been talking to a lot of them. how are they feeling? >> they're very nervous. newt gingrich is reaching out to them, which they like. he met with a large group of them in virginia this week. they said it was a very, very good meeting, but there's a lot of areas in which they're going to have to agree to disagree. they're worried about his personal life, so they've got a couple of leading candidates there that they don't really embrace and that is why i think we need to be keeping our eye on ron paul in the iowa caucuses. because he could really surprise us there and do very, very well with those conservative caucusgoers. >> his son rand paul is going to be joining me live. he's really going after gingrich big time. thanks very much. working americans will soon see more of their paycheck disappear to kaczmartaxes unles congress can reach a deal on extending the payroll tax cut, but right now, the battle is at a stalemate. right now, kate bolduan is standing by. what's the latest on extending the payroll tax cut because only about 150, 160 million americans are about to be affected one way or the other. >> it sure seems like there's a bit of here we go again going on here. another showdown between democrats and republicans on capitol hill up against another holiday deadline. right now, there is no clear path to compromise. just one week before congress's targeted date and despite calls for action by both sides to extend the tax cut, the senate wasn't in at all today and the house left for the weekend for being in session after all of two minutes. something house democratic leader nancy pelosi took advantage of, holding a rare friday news conference in a capitol hallway occupied by more tourists than staff. >> families will soon be sitting around their kitchen table ma making decisions as to whether they can buy holiday toys for their children, if they're going to be able to come for them come january when the bills arrive. and what are we doing? we're out. >> house republican leaders plan to vote next week on their proposals to extend the tax cut and employment assistance set expire. but republicans are also spoiling for a fight with congressional democrats and the president over an issue unrelated to the payroll tax. demanding any tax cut extension also include a measure to speed up approval of the keystone oil pipeline project. president obama warned this week he would reject such a move, which aides say actually helped republican leaders rally support among conservatives lukewarm on the payroll tax cut. >> the fact that the president doesn't like it makes me like it even more. >> republicans called it a job creator. the white house delayed it saying it required further environmental study. the issue, now a key sticking point in this payroll tax battle. >> we're trying to make sure the american people understand that this payroll tax cut is being held hostage to issues that have absolutely nothing to do with the payroll tax cut. absolutely nothing to do with the unemployment insurance extension. >> it's pretty clear that the president's decided to push this decision off for a year conveniently until after his next election and at a time when the american people are still asking the question, where are the jobs, i think this is a proposal the president ought to endorse. >> harry reid in a statement today accused republicans of wasting valuable time with this keystone provision because he says it will no pass the senate. now, as house republicans prepare for a vote on their proposal, we're told that senate democrats, senate democratic aides especially, will likely be working through the weekend on another proposal of their own to extend the payroll tax cut. both sides acknowledging one thing. that next week could be make or break on this issue. >> next week is going to be a tough week r for members of congress and they should get back quickly because a lot is at stake. thanks for that. elaina kagan, she's under fire. >> why do you believe she should rekuz herself? >> the bottom line is you can't play coach and be referee in the same game. >> why some conservatives want her to sit out of the case of health care reform. plus, senator rand paul, he's out with a brutal op-ed slamming newt gingrich, saying he's not even a conservative, let alone part of the tea party. rand paul. the senator from kentucky. the son of ron paul, joins us live this hour. for 5 days only, get great holiday deals. like $100 off the 4g lte samsung galaxy tab. or buy one 4g lte samsung stratosphere for $99.99 and get another one free. hurry in, these deals end december 12th. the smartphones are ready. the tablets are wrapped. get the technology they love. on the network they deserve. verizon. rating the republican fear. the influence of tea party movement certainly has not endorsed a candidate yet. let's go to erin burnett. she's taking a closer look on who might the tea party endorse. what's going on? >> it's amazing, wolf. obviously, there have been a couple of influential tea party endorsements. the one in new hampshire yesterday. you've got hurricanes of groups that identify themselves as tea party. tonight, we're talking to tli. tea party patriots, the dallas tea party and the tea party coalition and none are ready to make a formal endorsement yet. one thing that stood out to me is you have tea party registered voters who are going to vote republican primaries who identify themselves as quote unquote tea partiers. they overwhelmingly are supporting newt gingrich. take florida. 62% of supporters take gingrich. in iowa, 42% of them. you see that there but not with the overall groups. michael leahy has gone so far as to grade've of the candidates on how they fair for his metrics for being a tea party loyalist, most of these are on if fiscal side, not the socialist side. he's got newt gingrich at a c minus. >> who are they in love with? anybody? >> what's amazing on this, it's going to say michele bachmann, a minus, rick santorum, b minus and these are the people now that obviously the rank and file voters are not leaning towards, so we're going to see tonight if we can get any of these folks to say what's it going to take for you to make a commitment and are we going to get any of these main big tea party leaders to come out and endorse one or the other if that's who it's going to be before we get to the first of this year where we start having all the action going on. >> i'll be watching. 7:00 p.m. eastern later tonight. good stuff. thank you. >> thanks, wolf. some conservatives are calling for the u.s. supreme court's newest member to sit out one of its most important cases in so many years. we're talking about the justice elaina kagan and the challenge to the health care reform law. let's go to brian todd. set the scene for us. what is the issue here? >> well, the issue is health care reform and the politics around it. the supreme court has not faced this probably since bush versus gore and right now, p pressure is the on elaina kagan and potentially clarence thomas. if she wasn't in her current job, she might be gearing up to fight president obama's health care law at the supreme court, but elaina kagan is now on the court and there's pressure from the right for her to sit out the health care case. why double she should rekuz herself? >> bottom line, you can't play coach and be referee in the same game. >> several opponents believe that as solicitor general in the white house, kagan had more to do with shaping the legal strategy from the law than she led on. there's one e-mail from kagan to a colleague. quote, i hear they have a votes, larry. simply amazing she says that's not the problem. she says kagan's principal deputy in the white house kept kagan close to the white house. >> he copied her on e-mails, promised he would keep her in the loop. he copied her internal strategy. >> and that, she says, means elaina kagan could not be impartial deciding whether the health care reform law is institutional, but there's no firm indication that she was actively involved in the health care strategy. the white house has long insisted that while the law was being shaped last year, kagan was walled off from the discussions because she was being considered for the high court. >> i can tell you with regard to conversations, i did not remember her being there for any of them. >> health care maybe the most important case in a decade. there's pressure from the left for justice clarence thomas to recuse himself because this woman. thomas's wife, virginia, at a tea party rally last year. she's had connections to conservative groups that want the health care law overturned. >> i think we need to repeal obamacare. >> conservatives say thomas has never been swayed by his wife's political activities. so, what are the chances that clearance thomas or elaina kagan will recuse themselves? analysts say it's not likely they will. the law says it is up to the justice him or herself to decide whether to recuse because of conflicts of interest. the supreme court says neither will comment on this. >> both justices, correct me if i'm wrong, have rekuzed themselves from other cases. >> elaina kagan has done it quite often in the term and a half she's been in office here. 28 times total by our count she's had to recuse herself. 26 last term. two far this term. but analysts say it's not likely she's going to do it this time. >> thank you. brood tobrian todd at the supre court. a 30 rock no fly zone. why some flight attendants want to ban alec baldwin's show from being shown on planes. plus, influential republicans are piling on newt gingrich. stand by. you're in "the situation room." nyquil (stuffy): hey, tylenol. you know we're kinda like twins. tylenol: we are? nyquil (stuffy): yeah, we both relieve coughs, sneezing, aches, fevers. tylenol: and i relieve nasal congestion. nyquil (stuffy): overachiever. anncr vo: tylenol cold multi-symptom nighttime relieves nasal congestion... nyquil cold & flu doesn't. lisa sylvester is monitoring other top stories, including the latest on the shooting yesterday at virginia tech. >> police at virginia tech are trying to learn the motive behind the shooting yesterday. authorities say the gunman had no contact with the officer before the shooting and they are close to identifying the shooter. a second person believed to be the gunman was found dead not far from where the officer was killed. a new labor agreement between the airplane manufacture and the union had a decision. the union had accused boeing of opening a plan in south carolina to punish it for past strikes. the issue was resolved after boeing agreed to build the fleet of match jets in the west. they said it was proof the white house was more concerned with pleasing unions than creating jobs. and hopes that europe is is finally taking its debt crisis seriously. fueled a weak rally. the dow jones industrial average closed up 183 points. the dow was up more than a percent for the week. investors also feel prospects here at home are improving as signs point to a growing recovery and american airlines flight attendants are fighting back against alec baldwin. they want the actor banned from the airline after being kicked off the flight on tuesday. the union says he was rude to workers who asked him to turn off his smart phone before a flight. flight attendants also want the show, "30 rock," banned. baldwin has already vowed never to fly american airlines. a little dust up there. >> never dull. thanks very much. another republican presidential candidate declined to take part in donald trump's upcoming debate in iowa. is he losing his influence with the republican pact? stand by. and senator rand paul says newt gingrich isn't a conservative. senator paul is here in "the situation room" live. he's coming up. he'll explain what's going on. hi, i'm cashing in my points... peggy? no more points - coupons now. coupons? coupons. coupons? next, you convert coupons to tokens. tokens? then you trade tokens for credits. and then i get the cash? then you call back. bye bye. peggy? hello? what just happened? want rewards that make sense? switch to discover. america's #1 cash rewards program. it pays to discover. 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? the... get in the car. get in the car! [ male announcer ] the epa estimated 42 mpg highway chevy cruze eco. from spending time together, to spending your lives together, chevy runs deep. here are some of the stories we're working on for our next hour. new hotel video from the night dominique strauss-kahn allegedly assaulted a hotel maid. who's side does it support? also, disturbing hostage video of a former fbi agent who went missing in iran almost four years ago. why is family releasing the video now? stand by. you're in "the situation room." let's get to our strategy session. lots of politics to discuss. joininging us, karen hanready and in new york, the democratic strategist, paul begala. karen, let me start with you. you're a good republican. some republican establish types and others, they're beginning to hit newt gingrich now that he has the front-runner. noonan writing in the "wall street journal," is he erratic and unreliable, yes, e egomaniacal, harebrained and impulsi impulsive, all true. what's going on here? >> those who know newt best seem to be most concerned about his rise in the polls. lindsey graham, who severed with him in the house, he's now in the u.s. senate. i think the nicest thing lindsey graham could summon up about newt, hoping he had matured. now, newt gingrich is 63 years old. so one would hope by the age of 63, a man is mature, but that is the question everyone's asking. does he have the temperment to hold through not just a primary, but if he were to win the nomination, does he have the temperment to keep out of the general election, which is going to be very difficult, probably going to be a very ugly election. >> david frum in his latest column writes this. prediction, he says. if gingrich has emerged as the nominee by then, according to the republican convention next summer, the mood of that convention will be full of unconcealed panic. you know newt gingri