Im craig melvin. Youre watching msnbc. Day five of the Government Shutdown, the house has just passed another piecemeal bill to pay furloughed workers once the government reopens. While theres still no end in sight to the stalemate, the blame game seems to be intensifying. Were live on capitol hill. Do you feel responsible for whats been happening to people . Look, i think it is indefensible that president obama and harry reid have forced a Government Shutdown. They shouldnt have shutdown the government. I didnt go around courting the media. And i certainly didnt go around trying to shut down the government. Were not going to let a federal Government Shutdown have an impact on our preparedness in the state of florida. So theres no light between us and the federal government. I am strongly, strongly against common core. It has increased my ability to reach more students. Tropical storm karen, the system weakens as it closes in on the gulf coast. Were live with the latest advisory released just seconds ago. Also, students and teachers caught in a political tug of war nationwide over standard. What is common core and why do folks seem to hate it so much. Were going to talk to a father whos daughters homework is overwhe overwhelming. And who was among the bikers who attack e tacked a new York City Driver this as Police Search for a new suspect. And drinking smart, how stopping drunk driving could be as simple as using a smartphone. Its todays big idea. A whole heck of a lot to get to, but we start with developing news out of the pentagon where later today defense secretary chuck hagel will order more than 300,000 furloughed civilian employees back to work. Theyre going to be called back to their jobs despite the ongoing shutdown. Lets get right to capitol hill with nbcs luke russert who is standing by. Luke, first of all, what does this mean . And whats behind the pentagons decision . Reporter well, this is significant, craig, because as you know last week one of the few things the house and senate were able to do in a bipartisan manner and get signed by the president of the United States was during the Government Shutdown all folks who are in the United States military, all the troops, would be paid included in that legislation is also the civilian contractors who often work handinhand with those troops who often are next to them in some capacity out in the field or back here in washington, d. C. So this is something that republicans had said needed to happen more quickly. And in fact this is now occurring and the pentagon has o okayed this, they said their lawyers viewed the legislation if it extended to paying the troops, it could be extended to paying these employees as well and calls them back. This actually does lessen some of the impact of the shutdown on the Nations National security. Remember, craig, essential people were included to be able to continue to do their work, but to add these folks behind as one member told me this makes sure the whole apparatus is up and running quite smoothly. How much of this is political . It depends who you ask. If you talk to republicans, they say that this was done by the administration, that it should have been done more quickly, that they had been dragging their heels. If you talk to democrats, they say, look, you had to look at how this was going to play out legally, whether or not this would apply to all those civilian contractors and whatnot. So it depends who you ask, craig. But this is one of those things where any time theres a delay, if congress feels that they have done their job that its been passing the law and theres a delay, theyre wondering why theres a hold up. Through the fault of the president of the United States. Before i let you get out of here, lets talk about floridas dennis ross. According to bloomberg a few hours ago, he has become the First Tea Party backed congressman who now says he would be willing to support a clear cr spending bill that does not include changes to obama care. He says hed be amenable to supporting this to open the government, weve lost the cr battle, we need to move on and take whatever we can find in the debt limit. How significant is this, luke . Reporter this is a pretty big deal, craig. I wont say dennis ross is in the house gop leadership by any means, but he is a very conservative member of congress. He has a 96 rating from the american conservative union. Hes not a moderate. Hes not a member of the Tea Party Caucus but certainly benefitted by grass root support. For someone like him to come out and say, look, this Government Shutdown fight were having right now over government funding over the president S Health Care law is pointless, its a waste of time. We should move on to the debt limit, is very significant. This is not some moderate republican congressman from pennsylvania. This guy comes from a very conservative area of florida. Hes a redblooded southern republican as they come. And for him to say this, i think it doesnt resonate for someone as it did in the gop leadership saying it, but it certainly speaks volumes youre starting to see the splinter within the house gop conference that maybe we shouldnt keep going on this all the way to october 17th. Maybe we should just quit this one and try and put everything in the debt limit. Which is interestingly enough what john boehner wanted to do two months ago. His entire strategy was to avoid this. Theyre deep in a hole. Luke, well come back to you later in the broadcast. Thank you, sir. The war of words, president obama in a new interview with the Associated Press kept the pressure on republicans to end the shutdown. We can vote to open the government today. We know that there are enough members of the house of representatives, democrats and republicans, who are prepared to vote to reopen the government today. The only thing that is keeping that from happening is i want to bring in Jonathan Allen, senior washington correspondent for politico, and also political reporter at the washington post. This is a rare treat. Good to see you. Jonathan, let me start with you, sir. No sign in that interview that the president is considering backing down. Whats his strategy at this point . Well, let me first wish you a happy anniversary upcoming, craig. I hope you got a nice gift for your wife. Thank you, sir. I would call because its my birthday. But, look, i think this strategy of the president has been clear all along. Hes not going to negotiate with the republicans. I think the white house let slip in a gaffe, which is often defined as saying something that you truly believe that you wouldnt normally want to say publicly when Senior Administration officials said to the the wall street journal were winning. I think the democrats believe to the extent that anybody is winning its them right now. So i think the strategy for the president is to continue to say he wont negotiate publicly and to say he wont negotiate privately. I think the idea here is to break the republicans and to break john boehner, the speaker of the house. I dont see any movement on that at the white house. There doesnt seem to be any urgency to stop the Government Shutdown there. Jamal, you wrote recently that for the republicans this was a huge miscalculation, americans are ambivalent about the president S Health Care law, yes, but they dont want it repealed. And they overwhelmingly oppose the gops decision to shut down the government over its funding. We just reported on dennis ross of florida at the top of the broadcast here. Do you see any signs that the republican line is starting to crack . I dont see any signs of the republican going to crack. There are a few republicans here and there who think they should get this over with and move away and essentially surrender. But my sense is that a good chunk of at least the republicans who are driving this, the Tea Party Republicans in the house, still very much think that things are on their side, that they can use this as leverage based on what . Why would they think that . I mean, im sure theyve seen the polls that are out there. Why would they think that . So i think they think that because in the past say the 2011 debt ceiling fight or the fight over the fiscal cliff, the prospect of something terrible happening to the economy was enough to get president obama to make concessions. I think what theyre missing about this particular instance is that its no longer about the particular policy that they want. Its that the white house and the president sincerely believe that if they were to concede anything they would be fundamentally changing the Constitutional Order and creating a situation for future president s where you can create crises that you couldnt win in the normal course of politics. Jackie, both sides have dug in their heels. Thats glaringly obvious. Whats the way out . How do we get out of this mess . One of the ways out is that boehner could bring this cr the clean cr to the floor. There are enough members in both parties to support this and get it through. However, to do that it would be politically very perilous for him to do that particularly because his conservative Tea Party Members are hearing good things from their district about this. They dont like the government to begin with. So theyre cheering some of their members on. So theyre not necessarily feeling the political heat that maybe someone like charlie dent from pennsylvania with a more moderate district is feeling from his people. So its very different regionally. Of course the republican brand in general, the national brand. Yeah. Might have a problem. But district by district is not necessarily the case. Jonathan, you write this morning the solution to the shutdown should be pretty simple, democrats and the small band of House Republicans could outvote boehner on the floor and pass a clean funding bill, but so far no one is moving to make it happen. You make it sound fairly simple. Is it that simple . Is it simple, something that the government just cant do . Its that simple procedurally. Its not that simple politically. What youve got right now is a group of 18, 20, maybe 22 House Republicans who have said publicly that they would vote for a clean cr, but theyre not doing it when theyve been given the opportunity to do that on the house floor. That is to say boehners not bringing up the bill to do that, but nkts if they use procedural votes that would allow for that to happen, they have the power to it gets complicated in types of votes, but motion to previous question votes, the republicans right now are in a comfortable spot. They are declaring that they would vote for the cr, but theyre not actually doing it. And so once they make the decision that theyre willing to buck their leader, john boehner, they could do it. But they still wont do it for the reasons that some folks have brought up in this interview which is that its harmful to john boehner for them to do that. Perhaps for them politically in their own district. Jackie, how long is this going to last . How much longer is this shutdown going to go . Ive learned not to predict these things. The conventional wisdom is that if this lasted a week, if it lasted two, it could go on for a very long time. If it was going to be short, it would have been short been two days and gotten back on track. Right now seems like both sides are dug in for the long haul. Depends on when the phones start ringing and people really start getting upset. Well talk about that later. Jackie kucinich and happy birthday to Jonathan Allen as well from politico. Good to see all of you. Take care. Folks, were also keeping a very close eye on Tropical Storm karen. At this hour we have a brand new weather advisory. I want to get straight to msnbc meteorologist bill karins for the latest. Now, typically youd be like whats that mean, but conditions just arent favorable for this one. Its literally just drifting now to the north. Its about 177 miles from new orleans. Its really not that far away. The winds are at 40 miles per hour. Its a very weak system. The radars not very impressive. Theres been some squalls that have gone through areas of louisiana, but no damage is really expected with this storm. And the forecast path just does bring it right along the gulf. I mean, if this had been a strong hurricane with this path, we would have been talking about extreme damage all the way from louisiana to florida, but not this time. We dpot lucky. As far as last night we didnt get lucky. We had horrible tornadoes go through areas right at the border of nebraska and iowa. And some of these, craig, were huge. Some were about one to two miles wide. I mean, we got lucky for the most part they stayed over rural areas. The town of wayne, nebraska, did get hit. The outskirts of the town about 2 million worth of damage there. As far as we didnt have any fatalities which was amazing because these were the type of storms that they went through a city we would have been talking dozens of dozens upon fatalities and injuries. Thats good. Worries we have today, that same big storm which by the way dumped 31 inches of snow in rapid city, south dakota. Is firing up some storms. Its not a pretty day right now from indianapolis and st. Louis. Strong storms heading your way. Its a weird map, craig. Were 90 today in washington, d. C. 90 degrees. Ever since the Government Shutdown its like someone turned the furnace up. Thats gods way. And weve been very lucky, craig. With the Government Shutdown we didnt need a big destructive catastrophe in the gulf. Weve avoided it. Bill, thank you, sir. Appreciate that. Day five of the Government Shutdown. And whos calling the shots for the gop . Word is its senator ted cruz, not Speaker Boehner in the house. Were going to ask republican congressman joe barton about that. Hes a member of the Tea Party Caucus. Also, searching for answers. A family questioning if Capitol Police used Excessive Force thursday. And sound asleep, an eye opening sight this week on the house floor. In the nation, sometimes bad things happen. Add brand new belongings from nationwide insurance and well replace stolen or destroyed items with brandnew versions. We put members first. Join the nation. Nationwide is on your side oh. [ female announcer ] stress sweat smells the worst. And secret clinical strength gives you four times the protection against it. Secret clinical strength. Well, we continue to cover the Government Shutdown of course. There are some other top stories we are keeping our eye on. Miriam careys sisters are questioning the Capitol Polices tactics the other day. Carey is the unarmed woman shot and killed after a highspeed chase. My sister could have been any woman or any person traveling in our capitol. Deadly physical force was not the ultimate recourse. And it didnt have to be. We are also learning more about carey this afternoon. Her boyfriend apparently contacted police in december and said he was worried about their childs safety. He also said that carey was acting delusional claiming president obama had placed stamford, connecticut, under lockdown and that her house was under electronic surveillance. Meanwhile today, new york police are asking for the publics help in identifying and locating this person of interest. Hes wanted for questioning in connection with that motorcycle attack sunday when a man was pulled from his suv and beaten after that suv hit one of the bikers. One person was arrested and charged friday. Were also learning that as many as six undercover cops were in that bike pack. Police are now investigating whether any of the officers were involved in the beating. The latest fight in washington is not merely between democrats and republicans. The conservative Tea Party Caucus is playing a strong role in how the negotiations do or do not move forward. This morning on the house floor one democrat begged, begged for some stability from the other side. Theres apparently a wall between the Tea Party Republicans and the mainstream republicans who would like to move this country forward. Mr. Speaker, tear down that wall. So, what is the tea partys next move . Whats the gops next move . Joining me live now veteran republican texas congressman joe barton, a member of the Tea Party Caucus. Congressman, good to see you. Good to see you. There seems to be a little bit of confusion about whos actually calling the shots in the gop right now in the house specifically. This quote is on the front page of New York Times today, asked what the house was doing, representative deafen nunes, republican of california, you really have to call cruz. Im not even joking about that. Thats really what you have to do because hes the one who set up the strategy. Hes the one that got us into this mess. So weve got to know what the next move is. So who really is calling the shots here, congressman . Is it Speaker Boehner or texas senator ted cruz . Well, first of all, i am a tea party congressman, so i are one so to speak. And i dont think theres any wall in the house between devin nunes and me. Were both on the same side. We dont like obama care. We dont like excessive government. And we dont like excessive spending. As for ted cruz, hes my senator, hes a friend of mine. I had lunch with him this past thursday. He does compliment the house of representatives and the republican majority on what were doing. Is he calling the shots . He is not calling the shots. Whos calling the shots . I think president obamas calling the shots. Hes calling the shots in the house . By refusing to neg