>> congress needs to pass an extension of the payroll tax cut and unemployment insurance without drama and without delay and without needs to pass this without drama and delay and without linking it to some other ideological side issues. we've been through this before, remember? we've seen this movie. we don't need to see it again. the time for self-inflicted wounds to our economy has to be over. >> let's go straight to cnn congressional correspondent kate bouldan. kate, this is a surprising turn-around. what are you hearing there? what made them decide to make this move? >> jessica a surpriseding turn-around and sharp and surprising reversal by house republicans on the issue of the payroll tax cut. as you know, one of the demands house republicans have been making all along during this month's long battle over extending the payroll tax cut is their incidentses that the payroll tax cut and other measures be included in the deal be paid for. be covered and paid for by offsets that would include spending cuts elsewhere in the federal budget. well, what we hear now from house republican leaders as they put out a statement a short time ago, they're saying they're introduce what can they're calling a backup payroll taex extension, a simple 10 month extension set to expire at the end of the month and they're dropping this demand that it be paid for. according to a house republican aide, this is designed to reduce the leverage that democrats have in this political battle that has been a bitter, partisan battle. they say democrats have refused to have spending cuts by way of paying for this. this is a statement in part from the house republican leaders in announcing this. they said in part, democrats refusal to agree to any spending cuts in the conference committee has made it necessary for us to prepare this fall-back option to protect small-business job creators and ensure taxes don't go us on middle class worker ee republicans wanted to be avoid be ray belled of opposing this. but according to democratic sources they tell cnn from their view, up here on capitol hill, this is a major cave on the part of republicans. one senate democratic aide said the republicans made the offer on the payroll tax cut extension without being paid for elsewhere, made this offer over the weekend and according to this aide, house republicans should send this on over, according to this aide. so they see it as a major breakthrough and republicans are trying to spin it in their favor and democrats in theirs. but still, a major development of the ongoing battle over the payroll tax cut. >> and democrats in the white house will accept it. they say they want unhe want insurance extended but they'll accept this, a big victory for democrats. how soon do you expect house republicans to actually move on the this? >> as early as this week, according to the republican aides. the house leadership and house republican leaders are meeting with rank and file members tomorrow evening. they will be going over this plan. according to one top house republican aide, they expect meaning they're leaning on and looking to house democrats to help vote for this and push this through in the house because they may have trouble. they need to obviously, gage the opinion and rank and file republicans. but some may have real issues with this as this has been part of their philosophy all along. if you're going -- anything that's going to require spending is -- we're going to require spending is going to have to cut spending elsewhere, jessica? >> right. so they could take some heat from their constituents in their base but that means real money in the pockets for 160 million americans, thanks for your reporting, kate. and the other major story happening now, her death rocked the music world. whitney houston is being remembered as equal parts unparalleled talent and tortured soul. two days after the singer was found dead in the bathtub of her beverly hills hotel ream, what killed her still remains a mystery. c nch cnn don lemon is outside the los angeles county coroner's office. don, you've been covering this story from the moment it broke, i know. what have you learned today from officials there in los angeles? >> well, quite a lot, as a matter of fact. usually in one day we don't learn this much information but one of the latest things we learned, jessica, is that whitney houston's body according to the assistant chief coroner of los angeles county, is not -- no longer behind us in this building. we're being told it was -- it left here a short time ago and that it is somewhere in route to the airport and will be flown by private plane back to the east coast to her home state of new jersey. so that's one thing that we learned. i also had the chance to speak with the assistant chief coroner here and he told me about what led up to the death of whitney houston. he's sayings the at least an hour before she died she was seen alive and well in her hotel room. and then, hour later, when someone left and came back they found whitney houston's body in the bathtub. the person called for help. they removed her from the bathtub and tried to revive her and they couldn't. we know at 3:55:00 p.m., pacific time, on saturday, whitney was pronounced dead at the beverly hilton hotel. and they've since, jessica, they have completed the autopsy on whitney houston and usually from an autopsy one would think they would know the cause of death, but the coroner said it will be six to eight weeks until they get toxicology reports. i said, shouldn't you have some idea? you should know by now, at least have an idea? and he agreed and then disagreed. you can take a listen and we'll talk after. >> toxicology report is just a confirmation but you have some idea, usually, just from the initial looking and in her body as to what the cause of death might be. i know you don't want to speculate. >> that's not true. you can look at a body and not know what the cause of death is. you might have a suspicion but the person could have suffered a heart attack or embollism or something and no matter what medications they're taking, until we run a tox and see the level and what's in the system, we're not going to speculate. >> so you can say they had sort of a suspicion about it but most people will tell you they have an idea and they pretty much know what it is but as a confirmation they're waiting for the toxicology reports. and, again, a short time ago, the beverly hills police department, jess, held a press conference talking about what happened in the hotel room and what they're saying is that they have completed their investigation at the hotel. they released whitney houston's body and it's going to her family and they'll hold some sort of services sometime this weekend. let's take a look, jess, at the last time people saw whitney houston alive. her last performance was at a club, called club try. she performed with kelly price. they believe that was the last time she performed. there were pictures of her leaving the club and she appeared, you know, to be somewhat disshelved. but kelly said there were champagne flowing. partying inside of that club. and so, it was hot and warm in there. whitney, according to her, her friend, didn't show any signs of any sort of drug use, at least in her estimation just that it was hot and when they left the club, anybody parting for that long is sweaty so that was the last time whitney was seen. people have been drawing a lot of conclusions about the pictures but the pictures only tell a snapshot in time. so what we do know is the body is gone. toxicology reports, at least, six to eight weeks before we know and whitney houston, there will be services back in her hometown in new jersey sometime this weekend. jessica? >> don, there's so much tragedy out of this story. one of the tragic left pieces her daughter. an 18-year-old daughter bobbi kristina. >> on saturday night after being with her mom, she wasn't there. when she got word of her mom's death, she rushed up to the room to go see her mother's body. beverly hills police, the police would not let her in. she became hysterical and there was a bit of a shouting match as anyone can imagine, 18-year-old girl, i want to see my mother, i'm the daughter. i should be able to see her. she became hysterical and they took her to the hospital. they released her the next day and she was overwhelmed with grief again. they took her back to the hospital and she was released. we're told that bobby brown on air reunion tour with his old group, "new edition" came back in mississippi to los angeles to take his daughter back to new jersey to be with her family. so that's the latest. and she's fine now. so that's what we're hearing about her. you understand, jess, an 18-year-old girl losing her mother suddenly and hearing about it from someone in a hotel will bey or on the television news you would be hysterical yourself. >> yeah, yeah. so upsetting, don. all right, well our hearts go out to the family and thank you for your reporting. you've been covering this nonstop and we'll check back in as it goes on, don. . we've breaking news now with the supreme court we're going to our senior producer bill meers who has this breaking news about supreme court justice steven briar, bill what can you tell us. >> we can report that he was roshed by an intruder armed with a machete last week while he and his wife were vacations in a crib yen islands. the family owns a vacation home there. his wife and two guests were in the home when the intruder came in, ronned the family of about $1,000 and left. nobody was hurt and so far, no arrests have been made. >> so to be clear. you said there was a machete used but this happened last week so everybody is fine? >> everybody happened. it happened last thursday about 9:00 p.m. in the evening. somehow this intruder got in armed with a machete and he demanded money. $1,000 was turned over and the intruder left and everybody is fine. >> do we know where justice brieer is? >> the court son recess. he had some free time available. >> he was on a vacation in the caribbean. any indication the robber knew who he was and targeted him because he was a supreme court justice? or we don't know? >> we don't know. the justices typically, when they travel keep a pretty low profile. they're not usually recognized even around neighborhoods here in washington. so most of them keep a pretty low profile. it would not bun usual that vacation homes down there would be targets of intruders. but it's unclear what this particular intruder knew who justice breyer was? >> do they travel with security? >> they are very hush-hush about the security they pef traveling around the country and from their homes and overseas. no indication of what kind of security he might have had. this investigation is being handled by local authorities. the federal officials at this point are not involved. >> bill, thanks so much for your breaking news. again, u.s. supreme court justice stephen bryer was broken into by an intruder with a machete and he's fine and the robber took $1,000. we'll continue to follow the story as we get more developments. and moving on, rick santorum in the horserace politics. he describes himself as mitt romney's main competitor for the republican presidential nomination. and a new poll is now backing him up. the pew national survey after the triple win last tuesday thoughs 30% of registered republicans want him to face president obama in november compared to 28% who want mitt romney to. although with the margin of error that's really a statistical tie. we'll get more on this with cnn correspondent joe johns. joe, what is the latest on the race between romney and santorum? >> jess, as you know mitt romney claims a stake in at least three states. massachusetts where he was governor. new hampshire where he has a home. and michigan, the state where romney grew up and got his legacy in politics. now, though, the question is whether michigan could be up for grabs in the race for the republican nomination. home sweet home perhaps no longer mitt romney woke up to find out that michigan is not necessarily romney country anymore. with the primary there less than two weeks away, the latest american research group poll shows former senator rick santorum slightly ahead among republican voters in michigan. a poll taken during santorum's big week where he won three state contests. but the fact is that reality may have set in over the weekend after romney, narrowly won the main caucuses and the straw poll of conservative activists in washington. santorum was suddenly calling for newt gingrich to get out of the race, claiming that it's now between him and romney. >> we think this is a two-person race right now. >> reporter: but he was also left grumbling sunday about how the straw poll contest starnts get out their vote. >> the campaigns that want to win go out and recruit people and provide free tickets for them to come and vote and there's nothing wrong with that. that's absolutely a strategy. we just don't think it's a good use of our resources. but governor romney, obviously, you know, may have a different idea. >> reporter: other factors clearly help santorum including a sly of social issues hitting his political sweet spot. the uproar over contraceptives. a court decision overturning a gay marriage bannen an issue he raised about whether men in combat might have a natural tendency to protect women soldiers. issues that might help him in the short term but one republican strategist says it's the big-ticket items the voters care about. >> the key is who will defeat barack obama on the issues of jobs, the economy, spending, debts and deficit? republicans often say that democrats are tax and spend liberals to the point that it's become a cliche'. the reality is that cliche' as we saw with the budget today is often true. >> reporter: and it's also true that mitt romney has a lot of work to do. in michigan romney opposed the governor-sponsored bailout of the auto industry writing an november 2008 op ed in "the new york times" calling for the industry to go bankrupt. his campaign says he favored a managed bankruptcy which is essentially what happened. for romney it's important which part of that message voters are paying attention to. >> if you can communicate a positive message but if it's heard negatively that's a problem. that's where candidates need to be careful. so often candidates worry about, as they should, what they say. what's more important is what voters hear and ultimately that's what voters respond to. >> reporter: i asked the romney campaign about santorum's strong showing in the polls and they say in their view there hadn't been that much focus on the santorum record at all and thinks that will change as the public takes him more seriously as a candidate. newt gingrich is on the west coast raising money. romney and santorum will visit michigan later this week and that's when we may get a better feel for how the romney campaign is playing in the state where his dad used to be governor. >> thanks so much. people are going to focus more on his record or they happen to know that because they'll see to it? >> the television ads we've seen o'before. >> thanks so much, joe. rick santorum has made a series of controversial comments about women. those comments come back to haunt his campaign, will they? we'll talk about that with donna brazile and rich gay lin in our strategy session. and osama bin laden's advice to his children and grandchildren, don't follow in my footsteps. and israeli embassy staff, the target of bombs in india and the republic of georgia? new details straight ahead. [ male announcer ] this was how my day began. a little bird told me about a band... ♪ an old man shared some fish stories... ♪ oooh, my turn. ♪ she was in paris, but we talked for hours... everyone else buzzed about the band. there's a wireless mind inside all of us. so, where to next? ♪ [ male announcer ] for our families... our neighbors... and our communities... america's beverage companies have created a wide range of new choices. developing smaller portion sizes and more low- & no-calorie beverages... adding clear calorie labels so you know exactly what you're choosing... and in schools, replacing full-calorie soft drinks with lower-calorie options. with more choices and fewer calories, america's beverage companies are delivering. >> here's jack with the cafferty file. seems mitt romney is not selling what conservatives want to buy. apparently his focus on jobs and the economy isn't connecting with the right wing of his party. the daily beast says -- the republican base is more fired up about how to keep government from destroying our liberty than had you how to use government to grow the economy. yes, conservatives see shrinking government and boosting the economy as related but their focus is on greater freedom. it helps explain the success of many of the previous gop candidates who caught fire this time around. michele bachmann, ron paul and currently, rick santorum. all of them described the 2012 election on some level, as a struggle between government tyranny and individual freedoms. chances are in more americans want to hear how the next president can fix the economy and create jobs and that would play into romney's strength but for now he has to figure out how to make conservatives like him. his speech over the weekend was not the answer. in that speech he described himself as a, quote, severely conservative republican governor." that is just awful. "with severe live conservative?" sounds like a disease. it highlights he has problems on the right but romney got good news over the weekend after the santorum sweep last tuesday rochl any narrowly defeated ron paul to win the main caucuses and he won the straw poll vote as well. and there's this. should romney become the nominee eventually, conservatives could fall into line faster if it means defeating president obama in the fall. so here's the question. why can't mitt romney catch fire with conservatives? go to cnn.com/cafferty files and post your answer. >> thanks, jack. we'll check back in a bit. coming up, she's written her own -- about her own struggles with substance abuse. up next, we'll talk to hln jane velez-mitchell about the death of whitney houston. and then, he lived in the shall dose and was hunted at one of the world's most wanted terrorists. osama bin laden may have had vastly different hopes for his children. his advice to them is coming up. you can with green giant frozen vegetables. over twenty delicious varieties have sixty calories or less per serving and are now weight watchers-endorsed. try green giant frozen vegetables with sauce. 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 own my own restaurant. when i grow up, i'm going to start a band. 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