we'll tell you why that country has sent her packing "today," wednesday, september 22, 2010. captions paid for by nbc-universal television >> and good morning. welcome to "today" on a wednesday morning. i'm matt lauer. >> and i'm meredith viera. things are heating up for both parties with the midterms fast approaching. >> michelle obama will use her popularity and influence in six state where is democratic candidates are in trouble. this as lisa murkowski is being accused of trying to split up the republican party in alaska by starting a write-in campaign for her senate seat. we're going to have more on all of this coming up in just a couple of minutes. talking about controversy, that custody battle between mel gibson and his estranged girlfriend. the actor apologized for his behavior in those intimate phone conversations. so why is so much of their dirty laundry being aired so publicly and is oksana behind it all? this morning their attorneys speak out in an exclusive live interview. and that british girl who just won the title of america's perfect teen. how do her fellow contestants feel about that? we're going to talk to her when she joining us from wales in a live interview. >> reporter: the president can be particularly effective raising money for democrats and he'll do that again "today," but democrats will now pass the popularity of the first lady for the first time since the 2008 campaign. it's a season where every issue and every personality comes down to politics. soon adding her voice to midterm politics -- >> thank you! >> reporter: the white house announced tuesday that michelle obama will campaign in six states, where several senate democrats are in trouble. >> i think she will go out and make a forceful and positive case for what this administration has done. >> reporter: tuesday, senate democrats tried and failed to deliver on two issues that motivate liberal voters, ending the don't ask, don't tell policy. >> we have got thousands of americans who are patriotic who want to serve and who happen to be gay or lesbian and we're telling them you can't. >> reporter: democrats also tried to pass a narrow immigration reform, where children brought her illegally could qualify for green cards by completing education. >> one can only draw the conclusion that this is all about elections. >> reporter: democrats tied both gays in the military and immigration to a big military spending package. but republicans called it a ploy. >> a transparent attempt to show their special interest groups that they haven't forgotten about them ahead of the election. >> reporter: and voted no. >> the motion is not agreed to. >> reporter: disappointed, democrat al franken choked up with emotion, remembering troops he entertained as a comedian. >> and i'll also have this from doing u.s.o. tours seeing soldiers with their arms around each other and crying. >> reporter: in those u.s.o. tours, franken used humor to protest don't ask don't tell. the same goes politics makes strange bed foal lows, that's al franken in the '90s on the same television show with christine o'donnell. o'donnell appeared on fox news tuesday night saying she would talk issues and try to avoid more controversy. >> i'm not going to do anymore national media because this is my focus, delaware is any focus. >> reporter: that she says, is advice given to her by sarah palin, who released a new video tribute to the tea party and notably, palin never used the word republican. >> this party that we call the tea party is the future of politics and i am proud to get to be here "today." >> reporter: and former president bill clinton is giving advice to democrats as well telling them not to get caught up in all of the tea party attention and to recognize the anger that those sorts of candidates are tapping into among voters and also "today," vice president biden, he's campaigning too working on behalf of blanch lincoln of arkansas who's one of those democrats considered to be very vulnerable this year. it is 7:05 and here's matt. >> now to a big battle brewing in alaska. incumbent senator lisa murkowski recently lost the republican primary there but she's not going away quietly. she's launched a write-in cam pain and that's infuriated some of her fellow republicans. nbc's lee cowan is in anchorage with the latest. lee good morning to you. >> reporter: yeah, a lot of senator murkowski's colleagues not only in washington but among the party as a whole including those here in alaska are really frustrated by the fact that she's continuing to push this write in campaign. murkowski insists that it was her backer who is wanted her to give this one more shot. it's just before dawn at the local diner in anchorage and just as a fresh pot of coffee is being brewed, embattled senator lisa murkowski is brewing a fresh campaign. alaska's senate race was turned on its head when murkowski lost the gop primaries to a lawyer named joe miller, a tea party favorite. miller's victory should have been the nail in murkowski's incumbency, it wasn't. she stunned her vo. >> they tell me you cannot do it. alaskans can't figure out how to fill in an oval and spell m-u-r-k-o-w-s-k-y. >> a write in candidate who some republican leaders are now characterizing as a sore loser. >> i'm more concerned about what the people of alaska are saying about me as opposed to what they're saying back in washington, d.c. as far as i know, not too many of them back there can actually vote. >> reporter: most agree she's got an uphill battle and then some. >> how do you tell the voters, you made a mistake, you were wrong, you missed it the first time, you got to get it the second time, and you got to spell my name right or some semblance of it while you're at it. >> reporter: a staunch republican says he's not worried about murkowski. >> basically we have to make a move toward -- >> reporter: he's a yale and west point grad who campaigned on a platform to phase out medica medicaid. >> it's not just that we're broken fiscally, but it's also this concept that the federal government has gotten far beyond what was intended. >> reporter: he was buoyed by more than $500,000 from the tea party express. the former alaska governor beat murkowski's own father in 1976. >> the tea party coming in, the california-based group setting their sights on me saying i'm not republican enough for them, i do believe that they influenced the outcome of this primary election in a substantive way. >> reporter: now she says the gloves are off, miller says he's ready. now still, matt, there are a lot of people here who say that murkowski does have a shot here, she's got a lot of money, she's only got about six weeks left to spend it and she still has one of the most recognizable names in alaska politics. >> senator lisa murkowski is also in anchorage this morning, senator, thanks for waking up this morning, good morning. >> you bet, thank you, matt. >> when i read the books on politics, the system works like this, candidate loses primary, candidate endorses winner in primary, candidate endorses the other candidate and then candidate rides off into the sunset, you read a different book, apparently. >> we're writing the book at this point in time. i'll tell you, what is going on here in alaska is about providing -- providing alaskans a choice in this election. i did not prevail in that primary. but what happened after that primary was absolutely an uprising, from the people of the state of alaska saying, lisa, you cannot end this, please stay in this fight, please give us a choice. it was an outpouring from thousands of alaskans, from all over the state. >> but senator, all candidates have -- >> what do you do? >> all candidates have staunch backers, but the people of alaska spoke a couple of weeks ago, you gave them a choice and they made a choice and they went with a political outsider named joe miller. >> and in fairness, 85% of the alaskan electorate did not have an opportunity to participate in that. so what i am doing is responding to their request, please give us a choice, give us a voice to guide alaska into the future. so this is a tough call, absolutely, it's not been done since john thurmon in 1954. >> right. >> but what i'm doing here, what i'm doing is trying to respond to the people of the state of alaska. >> what you're doing also is raising the anger of a lot of republicans, senator. karl rove says this one is, quote, sad and sorry. jim demeant says you've put your only personal interests ahead of everything else. and they're proposing to strip you of your leadership role on the energy committee. how do you respond to their words and their actions. >> what i am doing is i am putting my state, the state of alaska before my party. and in today's political world, that's practically unheard of. people can't believe that i would do this, that i would make this effort, make this push, why don't i just fade quietly into the sunset, as you say? i'm doing it because the people of alaska have asked me to do so. i'm putting everything on the line to do it. >> let me ask you to look beyond alaska for a second. this strategy is tough to succeed with, it's also risky for your party. so would you suggest that a mike castle in delaware or a tre grayson in kentucky do the same thing? should they run as write-in candidates and risk splitting their party? >> i don't know what the mindset is in delaware or kentucky amongst the electorate. i can only be responsive to the people that i represent here. when you have -- again, when you have thousands of people stand up and say please give us this opportunity, when you've got 4,000 people sign on to a facebook page in a matter of a week who are saying, please give us this chance, i don't -- i'm not going to advise mike castle or tray grayson, i'm listening to alaskans and i'm putting alaska first, it's as simple as that. and it's difficult for the political insiders to understand that. what would motivate somebody like myself who's got a political future out there to put it all on the line for the people that she represents? it's really about who i represent and who i am. >> and we'll see how it all shakes out. thanks for getting up earlier, i appreciate it. >> i want to make a special shoutout because we're really proud here in alaska of melissa and jeremy, jeremy is actually stationed here as one of our airmen in airmen. >> senator murkowski, thanks. >> now let's get a check of the the rest of the morning's top stories from tamron hall who's filling in for ann. a new book by bob woodward is outlining deep divisions at the white house over the war in afghanistan with advisors arguing over the war and some doubting if the president's strategy will work. nbc's chief war correspondent chuck todd joins us, so some big disagreements we're talking about? >> we're hearing about the diplomatic side and the -- the white house is already reacting to the book this morning. senior administration official putting out a fairly lengthy memo about the book, saying these policy divisions were well known at the time, this is the way the president operates, he wants different points of views, he wants a lot of information before he comes to a decision. so in many ways they're downplaying these divisions and saying, nothing to see here. we'll see if there's personnel recriminations down the road. >> another economic advisor is leaving. >> reporter: that's right, larry summers, chairman of the national economic council, he's now the third member of the president's economic team to announce his departure from the white house in the last 60 days, the budget director has already left, they're trying to get a new one in. the chief economist, she's already out. the way folks are looking at around here, they're trying to find someone from the corporate world who will also not upset labor unions and they would also like a little bit of diversity. so if they could find a woman ceo to replace larry summers. mr. summers is headed back to harvard. the recent salmonella outbreak linked to two outbreaks in iowa. the heads of those two farms have been called to testify. today the u.n. is announcing a global health campaign aimed at saving the lives of 16 million mothers and children worldwide in the next five years. word wide every year, an estimated 8 million children die before their fifth pirt day. . the fed decided to leave interest rates alone. trish reagan is at the new york stock exchange, what are we watchi ing today. >> watching gold and -- it's all because of what the fed had to say yesterday. basically the fed is saying growth is going to be pretty slow for the foreseeable future. they're even concerned about very low inflation, which of course we all know can lead to deflation where wages and prices go down, a very hard thing to combat. one of the big questions is what can the fed do right now about the economy? and there's actually very little because interest rates are effectively zero, but the fed is making large purchases of u.s. treasury bonds which effectively helps to keep interest rates on everything else very, very low right now. >> this morning, paris hilton was kicked out of japan, she was sent packing two days after she pleaded guilty to a drug charge in las vegas, japan has strict immigration laws that bar those convicted of drug offenses. and in cambridge, massachusetts, drivers can get upset and relaxed at the same time. parking tickets now come with instructions for yoga. it is 7:17, back to matt, meredith and al. >> that's really going to help. >> here in the city they come with instructions for kung fu. >> good morning, things are quiet here at home. partly cloudy skies with a chance for a shower or thunderstorm later this afternoon. the bigger story is the change in >> that's your latest weather. there are new details in the tragic death of a police chief's daughter in north carolina. hundreds attended funeral services for 23-year-old valerie hamilton tuesday as the man accused of killing her appeared in a new york state courtroom. good morning, tom. >> reporter: meredith, good morning to you, that man accused of killing valerie hamilton is expected to be brought back here to the charlotte area soon. the investigation is focusing on several places including the storage facility where hamilton's body was discovered and now more questions about the cause of death. meryl hamilton and his family arrived at the funeral for the law man's daughter behind a police escort. joining them at the church were family, friends and hundreds of law enforcement officers, passing treats lined with purple ribbons, they came to mourn and remember 23-year-old valerie hamilton, the police chief's daughter who wanted to work with children. >> people all over the nation are people that supported the chief. he's a good chief and we have all just been heart broken for him. >> reporter: after a nationwide manhunt, 34-year-old michael neil harvey was arrested monday charged with hamilton's murder. >> we had indications from the county sheriff's office in charlotte, north carolina that the defendant is wanted on charges of murder. >> reporter: the convicted sex offender with a long history of drug abuse said he would not fight extradition back to north carolina where the investigation of hamilton's murder continues. hamilton's body showed no signs of what they call traditional physical trauma. according to police witnesses hamilton voluntarily left the bar last week with harvey and went to his house where the two used drugs. witnesses say something went wrong and hamilton needed, quote, immediate medical attention but harvey never called for help. instead, investigators say harvey moved hamilton's body and made great efforts to clean up any potential crime scene before he disposed of her body. hamilton's body was found this past weekend in a storage shed. >> i'm telling you what, if you've got kids, you've got daughters, my daughter was perfect and what my daughter did or didn't do or whatever, in these daddies eyes and those mama's eyes my daughter was perfect. >> reporter: among the mo mourners -- >> we all work for the district attorney's office here, we believe in justice, we fight for justice and we know that valerie will get justice in this case. >> reporter: and investigators are still waiting on toxicology results and also results from a sexual assault examination kit, both will be able to shed more light on what happened to valerie. the volatile custody future against actor mel gibson and his estranged girlfriend oksana. ♪ [ monkey cheeps ] [ male announcer ] a bath becomes even more pleasurable when you know that your water is being heated in an environmentally- conscious way while saving you hundreds of dollars on your water-heating energy bill. the geospring water heater from ge with advanced hybrid technology. heating the water in your home any other way is just going to seem primitive. [ monkey cheeps ] ♪ maryland residents can save up to $780 while funds last. just ahead, a popular birth control patch too dangerous to be on the market? we'll tell you about the results of the investigation. >> and jenna hager bush drives a nascar car. [ male announcer ] the new subway $2.50 breakfast combo! best deal this side of sunrise, so come in and we'll make yours! get a western egg white muffin melt and a 16-ounce cup of freshly brewed seattle's best coffee. just $2.50. build your better breakfast today at subway! just $2.50. ♪ happy birthday to you. ♪ happy birthday, happy birthday... ...happy birthday to you. you guys ready? yup. yup. ♪ [ man ] blue one. recessed lighting. it's absolutely -- blue one. ♪ [ grunts ] blue one. [ children ] blue one! blue one! [ male announcer ] the routan. the only minivan with the soul of a volkswagen. can we do it again? [ boy ] yeah! sure. [ male announcer ] awarded "most appealing minivan" by j.d. power and associates. starting under $26,000. it's a whole new volkswagon. and a whole new game. >> good morning, everyone. time for a check on your morning commute. >> good morning, everyone, still dealing with a west found problem on interstate 70. two right lanes are still closed. right now the traffic is completely jammed up and it will be there for a while, unfortunately. if you are going to be traveling in the city, watch for overturned vehicles. mount vernon is shut down for the book festival. down to 18 miles per hour on the west side. that is the heaviest delay this morning coming out of the white marsh area. 895 southbound, if you are headed out this morning on the outer loop it is about an 18 minute ride. a quick, live look at traffic on the inner loop, a disabled vehicle in the right lane traffic slowing down again. we will keep you posted on that. meantime switching over to 895, accidents are clear southbound. tony? >> the big story in the weather today is the change in temperature. still 59 degrees in most places, but we will wind up in the 80's in most places. the last day of summer, but those temperatures are holding on with a chance for thunderstorms late this afternoon and evening. a chance for a thunderstorm in the afternoon. >> be sure to check the bottom of your screen for updated news and traffic throughout the morning. we are back in 25 minutes with our next live update. 7:30 now on this wednesday morning, september 22, 2010. our friends are busy soaking up the last rays of summer, fall officially arrives tonight at 11:09 eastern time. i'm meredith viera alongside matt lauer. and ahead a growing concern over a popular form of birth control. >> nearly 30 million prescriptions have been written for the birth control patch, but does it carry too much risk. we'll hear from a mother who believes the patch is to blame for her daughter's death. and we'll hear what experts are saying about this. also ahead the british teenager at the center o