Of congress back in their home districts today facing their constituents still feeling the impact. Joining me for daily fix Chris Cillizza msnbc contributor and host of post tvs in play. Kelly odonnell and luke russert. Kelly and luke you have been doing yeomans duty. Nice to be off the hill. Good to have you home. Welcome home. For sure. Kelly, people are still going to be very angry about the way this played out and its only kicking the can down the road. One of the best things about Congress Getting out of town, they do have to look their neighbors, the the people they represent in the face and hear from them directly about what it meant and how they feel about it. Even people who feel these were legitimate issues, they need to be confronting this in a personal way. It is shortterm. In 90 days we get to do this dance again. We hope that the effect has been so great people will approach it differently and maybe, maybe one positive is there will be a seriousness about the budget. The guy you cover, luke russert, john boehner, the speaker of the house was at the airport. Somebody caught a shot of him at the airport. There it is with the sneakers on and golf pullover. Thats what he likes to wear. Ready to head out and head home. These member of Congress Really have some splaining to do. Theres a fascinating report from jake sherman, a wonderful antidote where president obama pulls john boehner aside and said, john boehner, what happened . I got overrun. He did get overrun. His leadership was questioned by raucous members in congress. The last 16 days has emboldened him, made him more respected within the conference. I do think while Mitch Mcconnell says the government will not shut down, these members in the conference will want something in exchange for funding the government what is it they get . We dont know. Fascinate how it plays into Election Year of 2014. I dont think its lets pass a clean cr. They are going to want something in return. Boehner might have to get creative. First thing they wanted to do defund the health care law, pass it through senate, strip it out. Allow members to get on the record and vent some steam. Chris cillizza, lets talk about virginia. This race in virginia has widened. First example we have in a poll, nbc news maris poll. The election is 18 days away. Were seeing Terry Mcauliffe is pulling away from Ken Cuccinelli, off year election and low turnout could favor the republicans. Still within reach for cuccinelli. This has been one of the most negatively advertised campaigns ive seen. Whats interesting, andrea, i was driving into work and i heard a radio ad for Terry Mcauliffe which a narrator of that ad blasts cuccinelli, a tea Party Shutdown conservative. If there was any doubt that the shutdown, or at least democrats believe the shutdown can and will be used against Ken Cuccinelli in this final closing couple of weeks, that should clear things up. I interviewed Ken Cuccinelli a few weeks back. He said, the shutdown would not help my campaign. He wouldnt say it would hurt his campaign. I think its just dominated conversation hurt the republican brand. If you candidly asked john boehner has this been good or bad for the republican brand, hed say bad. Thats heart. These off year elections particularly in a state like virginia where the sort of washington, d. C. Media markets goes to fairfax and loudoun county, many in swing areas seeing all of this coverage, it can affect things. When republicans look, as they have looked in the last six weeks or so, and when Ken Cuccinelli makes a decision also mentioned in the ad to bring ted cruz to campaign for him, its doing to be hard for him to separate out from National Republicans that have not done the party any favors. Chris, lets face it, we have people, federal workers living throughout this area in the district in maryland and virginia. In addition to federal workers who live in virginia, youve got all of the military, all of the federal defense contractors thats a huge part. That is a huge part of it. Look, if you go back and look how bob mcdonald won in 2009 he did it by winning in places like Fairfax County and loudoun county. The sort of nearing to urban parts of the state. If you cant win there as a republican its a lot harder and Ken Cuccinelli is not winning there. A point of personal privilege. I want to talk about when Congress Actually worked. There was a nasty politics, tom foley has died today. His wife heather has confirmed that. Tom foley was speaker of the house, the democratic leader at a time when there still was a lot of civility and they got things done. Im not sure which signing that is, probably not the nafta signing. There was a lot of legislation passed. He got along with people on both sides of the aisle. He was defeated as speaker when he lost reelection from his district, he had been there 30 years representing spokane washington. He lost that because of a series of elections, the house ruled by democrats for generations. So they had gotten many would say corrupt. There was house banking scandal in the rank and file. He was partly defeated because he supported the assault weapons ban. The nra in spokane washington went after him. The speaker of the house lost his reelection. Kelly and luke and chris, it was quite a devastating loss but foley picked himself up. He was made the ambassador to japan and served ably in tokyo. As we know the japanese love having people like mike mansfield, former majority leader from the senate and former Vice President mondale and tom foley was in that ilk. Caroline kennedy not yet sworn in. I can say i knew him very, very well. I covered him and got to know him and his wife heather. He is really going to be missed. One of the stories he loved to tell was how when he was first elected in 1964, he was all puffed up, a member of the house. He was pulled off a plane at Dulles Airport because the president of the United States was on the phone. So he was called out and, of course, everybody acknowledged, well, the president is calling this man. It was because Lyndon Johnson wanted to twist his arm on a bill. But when he got on the phone, he said, this is tom folly yrg, mr. President. He said tom foley, thats not the foley i wanted. He cursed and hung up the phone. So as a freshman let tom foley know exactly how unimportant he was. Thats back in the day. The other thing he used to talk about during all of our Social Security debates back then and coming up now when they get back into this budget conference, talk about he could not persuade his elderly mother in spokane that her Social Security wasnt piled up like gold bricks in a lockbox. He told that so often to al gore that may be where he got lockbox from. Very much a reformer. I was reading history today, a Committee Chairman at 45, which was very uncommon at those times. He led a reform after watergate to break up strength of commodity chairman. Is that correct . That is absolutely correct. It was eventually the revolution this brought him down and in 1994. He was ailing, in hospice. Nancy pelosi visited him tuesday. In the midst of everything going on she went over. Complications of a stroke. Its nice to hear your reflections because the humanity of politicians is often forgotten especially after what weve been through. To acknowledge him and his service. The speaker making flags go to halfstaff. While speakers are divisive at times theres a fraternity, sorority as well with nancy pelosi. Job well done. The two of you have been quite the team with other members of the team on the hill. Frank and casey as well. Chris cillizza, see you later. Thank you again. Fallout over healthcare. Gov, website set up for americans to shop for Health Care Plans. Technical glitches not allowing thousands to sign up before the deadline. Here is tom costello with surprises. Who is behind the website, the prime contractor is the u. S. Arm of a Canadian Company cgi federal. Cgis business with the government grew dramatically during the bush administration. On october 4th, 2011, it was awarded 55. 7 million for Computer SystemsDesign Services to build the website with a ceiling price tag of 94 million. By may of this year the contract shows cgi had spent 196 million. The ceiling price tag had soared to 292 million. Is this escalation in price due to the fact of the quick turnaround time to get this up and running . Are there technical glitches and bugs driving the cost p . The government said the cost went up as more states joined the federal exchange. For weeks cgi has declined a comment to nbc news about the rollout. Last week the canadian province of ontario canceled cgi and canceled its 46 Million Contract accusing the company of failing to build a registry online. They tell us they are in talk to resolve the issue. Tech experts say the problem with the u. S. Website are serious. It doesnt work. Its supposed to get you a quote. It doesnt do that. Luke owns Software Database company. If this was your product, what would you say . Id be embarrassed and use language with my Development Team that couldnt be on the air. This is ridiculous. Tom costello joins me now. Tom, how does this happen . Were a nation leading the world on hightech, Silicon Valley and this Obama Administration was reelected with the most sophisticated web search devices and crowd sourcing in history. I dont think theres a lot of short answer toss that. The Washington Examiner reporting today they did not do a beta test on this. They did not test the final product until five to six days before october 1st. The white house is not talking to us about any of the specifics and they still arent giving any numbers on how many people have successfully enrolled. I think its important to say there are increasingly, and weve heard a lot more of them today, stories of people who have had success. They are getting through the process. Its taken a long time. If they are persistent they are getting there. The problem now may not so much you get a red error on the screen but rather Insurance Companies are reporting that people are signing up. They think they are signing up their three children and a spouse when in fact they are signing up three spouses and a child. I think thats illegal. It is in some states. Or they think they are signing up for one product and they sign up for another product. Somehow the wires are not connecting properly. By all accounts, this is a mess. Even the administration acknowledges this has been a big problem. The question is at what point does this start to undermine the Affordable Care act itself . They need young people to offset the cost of people who have significant medical issues. Those people are going to be a big drag and draw on Insurance Companies. They have got to do this quick lichlt i will tell you the Kaiser Family foundation an objective arbiter of this thinks they will get it together. Tom costello, i know youre going to stay on the case. Thank you very much. You bet. At the top of the hour, new appointment, cabinet level appointment, jay johnson pentagons former top lawyer, general counsel at an early fundraiser for obama in 2008 to Head Department of Homeland Security, succeeding janet napolitano. Since leaving the pentagon the former prosecutor and corporate lawyer has been outspoken about the u. S. Drone program and changing face of al qaeda. As he noted with us just last spring. Al qaeda as it looked in 2001 is very different now. Its morphed. Its broken into small affiliates. We see terrorist organizations in africa and elsewhere, so its time to develop a new approach from the one weve been in for the last 12 years. Now hes going to get a chance. Jeh johnson must be confirmed by the senate. Health and human secretary Kathleen Sebelius said it has been a rocky start for the federal governments Online System to shop for health plans. Can the administration get it fixed before the political damage becomes severe . Who is going to get the blame for the continuing problems. Joining me now David Gregory moderator of meet the press. David, this has been sort of a side benefit of the shutdown, if you will, if there was one, people werent focused on the Health Care Plan and online problems and now they will. The white house telegraphed it said every wart, problem will be well documented. If the big fight here was not about the budget but obama wear for this shut down crisis, those Tea Party Conservatives say, hey, were going to keep on chugging. They want to make this big for 2014, 2016. I was struck by jim demint saying repealing health care was not the centerpiece of 2012. We wish it would have been. They certainly want to keep it there for midterms and 2016. How about the fact senator orrin hatch called out demint and heritage on chucks show on the the daily rundown. That shows the schism between main conservatives and Tea Party Conservatives. Right. It doesnt the way forward on this for the Republican Party is going to be to win or to somehow deal with this insurgent part of the party thats not going away. Sarah palin is talking about going next to kentucky, talking about Mitch Mcconnells challenger on the tea party right. I dont see them really backing down. They understand the farther obama care goes, the more it becomes part of the firmament of the entitlement state, difficult it will be to make adjustments. It was only 2010 when it was a major factor that led to republicans taking over the house. What they are trying to do what democrats are trying to do is get as many people signed up as possible before january 1st when it kicks in to prove they have got the base of young people to make it economically viable. I also want to point out youve got some elections coming up. Ken cuccinelli has clearly been hurt by this, by the shutdown of the government. Hes more vulnerable. Hes in a state where hes vulnerable to being hurt because of how virginia has changed demographically and how it looks on the electoral map for democrats. But thats not necessarily the case in some of these other states. Kentucky is an interesting example because its got a democratic governor and exchanges they are working well. They are getting people signed up. Its an interesting test case for how obama care goes. I want to talk about dick cheney because the former Vice President who you covered, you covered eight years of the Bush Cheney White house was a lot more sick, not necessarily in the white house but after he left the white house than he had previously discussed. He had been pretty open about his heart attacks. In his book heart which weve just received, we started going through it yesterday. It comes out next tuesday. Its pretty dramatic, talking about the fact he came so close to death before the heart transplant. Talked to his family. For them talking about it made a difficult situation already worse. I needed them to know and i needed to say goodbye. He talked to them about funeral plans, cremation, going back to wyoming and having his ashes distributed there. He had that artificial pump with an external and internal pump with external batteries, which he showed to jamie in that memorable interview in 2010 and got the heart transplant and says he was showing jamie, he was so matter of fact about it, he wore the vest and kept that pump going. That was merely a place holder until he could get the donner. It is remarkable to get this kind of detail, most of it after he served. I remember in 2000 during the campaign when this came up, you got the full scope. It was early in the administration when he to be rushed to the hospital. As i recall then it was to have the stint put in. Hes ballotsed this throughout his public life. You think about the stress on him. He was, by his own admission, overweight in those white house years. How potentially problematic it was. Its remarkable to hear details now. Briefly on that day when you were with the president traveling and he was rushed to nebraska on 9 11 and into the bunker, cheney had had a blood test early that morning and learned while he was in the white house bunker, learned, actually, on the helicopter when he was going to the secure location, camp david, the white house doctor passed him a note and said youre going to have to be retested. It was a lethal level of potassium and could have caused a heart attack. Theres a picture of him and glen looking at the note. He said not now. Not tonight. Ill do it again in the morning. Unbelievable. I think theres more and more scrutiny of Public Officials and their health, particularly their heart health as we learn more details about this. And meet the press. Meet the press, the fallout from the crisis this week, weve got an exclusive interview with jack lew on what the damage has been from the shutdown going to the brink. Talk with senators coburn and schumer. Lot of Lessons Learned and budget talks to come. Thanks, andrea. Attendees at Al S