>> for a real change. >> reporter: -- of underwear. ♪ coming to a town near you >> reporter: jeanne moos, cnn -- >> don't touch the squishy parts. >> reporter: new york. >> follow what's going on behind the scenes in "the situation room" on twitter. get my tweets@wolfblitzercnn, all one word. thanks for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in the situation room. john king usa starts now. we begin with an eye opening now report about a rise in anti-government extremism and militia activity in the united states. within that report, a shocking subplot. evidence that james von bruin, the man who walked into the holocaust museum in washington 15 months ago and shot a security guard had his sights set on a bigger target, the president's top political adviser. what motivated these groups and why are more and more stock piling ammunition and training

for battle? "time" magazine, whose cover store this week, a six-month investigation. francis townsend served as white house security adviser under president george w. bush. she's a partner at the international law firm on bake er botts. as part of your reporting here you spent time with the ohio defense force. one of these militia groups around the country as it was conducting its annual exercise. you write this in your report. their unit seal depicts a man with a musket over the motto today's minute men. the symbol, who are today's red coats? who do they see as the enemy? >> well, this is a very common theme amongst the self-described patriot groups. they go back to the minutemen and lexington and concord and the first shots of the revolutionary war. they see washington as the

enemy. they see themselves in effect as heirs to the founders. that means that the present government of the united states is the heir to king george. so washington is the foreign tyrant. >> and fran townsend, as someone who has seen the intelligence on these groups over the years as they rise, and bart's reporting indicates they've risen quite a bit in a year or so. what is it from a washington government perspective that scares you about them? >> we first saw this beginning rise that bart really describes well going back to the immigration reform debate. during the bush administration we saw militias pop up along the southwest border. they didn't believe their government was doing enough. at that point the aim was to help their government. in 2007 when i was still at the white house, saw hate groups, supremacist groups begin targeting. that's why when i was still there we went to then senator obama and encourage him to take secret service protection

earlier than had been granted to anybody during a campaign. >> bart, you touch on that in the piece. you talk about the explosion of the number of the groups the government is tracking from 2009, throughout the year, 2009, how the number doubled then tripled. the department of homeland security as fran noted has been aware of this from some time. this is a report from 2009. prominent anti-government conspiracy theorists incorporated aspects of an impending economic collapse to intensify fear and paranoia among like minded individuals and attract recruits during times of economic uncertainty. the economy playing in that part from the report of the department of homeland security. you take it a step further and personalize it to a degree. the resir jans is seen among government and academic experts as a reaction to the shifts in american politics that allowed a black man with a foreign sounding name and muslim-born father to reach the white house. fair to say, a lot of this is about race? >> well, yes and no. for sure there are large numbers of people, you know, sort of on what you call the radical right,

who are bothered by obama's race or their beliefs about his religion or their beliefs about his country of origin. and so he's a kind of a uniting figure in that sense, for the first time behind the three major streams of bigotry on that side of the movement. but many of these groups at least profess, and i think honestly don't feel any great racial hatred. that's not their motivation. they are against what they see as an overweening federal government and they believe that the government is coming to get their guns, for example, or to declare marshal law or move people into concentration camps. for them obama is kind of an intensification. if you believe your government is alien, then the various ways in which obama has been cast as alien from the american mainstream has a way of amplifying that. >> so fran, if you're a government official, homeland security adviser trying to

dedicate whether it's intelligence resources, domestic or international, for money, programs, focus where al qaeda, osama bin laden or a home-based threat, where do you draw the line? >> the fbi has long used them as an example, has long had resources devoted to both. i will tell you going back to 2007 and 2008, they have had to devote increasing resources to this domestic extremist. we've seen cases, we've seen arrests in places like michigan as a result of those resources. >> bart, there's two big issues in your piece. number one, these groups, militia groups that have spread up under the patriot banner, if you will, correct me if i'm mischaracterizing it. then the lone wolfs, people who radicalized themselves and share information on the internet. one of them is the holocaust museum shooter. you say in your reporting, i made phone calls to verify this, that he shot the guard in the holocaust museum, but they found that he wanted to kill david

axelrod, the president's top adviser. >> that's absolutely right. he considered a number of targets and he thought the president, himself, was too hard to get to. in his world view the jews ran everything, obama was a puppet on what he called his jew owners. in that sense axelrod was a more valuable target to him than the president was. what freaked out the secret service and dhs and fbi is that here you had a guy, again, not just talk, here's a guy who has demonstrated the motive, means, intent, willingness to kill who has axelrod's name and other information about him in the notebook that he left in his car as he walked into the haul cast museum to open fire. >> and so, fran, again, what do you do about something like this? i was communicating with david today. he refused to talk about this. he said he can't talk about this at all. law enforcement sorts are saying bart's reporting is dead-on and

were alarmed by this when they saw it. is that more of a threat, that a loan wolf theory, somebody close to the president, maybe not the president, himself? >> immediately after 9/11 during the bush administration there was a security assessment done on the president's staff. most didn't require security. a national security adviser wound up with the details, so did the chief of staff. it's not unusual -- the secret service, as a matter of protocol, is constantly looking at threats around the president including his staff. i can well understand why when they saw this they would have wanted to be sure david got detail. >> bart, you spent six months on this. help us draw the line. some people out there watching are going to say there are people in the media talking about taking away our guns. draw the line between honest americans, people who live in big cities and people who are radicalized who have an extreme agenda? >> i liked a lot of these guys i was talking to.

they are, lots of cases, most cases, sort of motivated by their own sense of what's pate patriotic. i don't think anyone should begrudge anyone, their political beliefs. it's not a question about whether they're conservative, anti-government, don't believe that gun control is legal, any of that. what gets scary, what gets dangerous is when you have people who believe that the government may be coming for them, who are equipping and training to combat federal forces. because even this rather moderate ohio militia, the exercise of which was premised on the idea that muslim terrorists were rampaging through the midwest because the muslims sympathizing president would not intervene. the force that they trained against that they were trying to kill in their exercise did not look like any terrorist group on the planet. it was described as having modern military hardware,

incrypted communications, vehicle support, operating in uniform and platoon-sized strength. what they were describing is essentially was an fbi hostage rescue team or national guard platoon or an atf tactical force. they were practicing to kill federal troops. when you have people with that mindset, there are two big worries. one is that they will interpret some ambiguous act as an attack and do what they perceive as defends themselves. the other, within their midst there grows up a lone wolf who believes the rhetoric, keeps hearing the warnings, keeps practicing and can't stand it anymore and goes out own acts. >> they don't trust the government. who is it that can go to them and talk to them? is there a middle ground, or do you have to watch them and react? >> you really to have to watch them. the lone wolf bart describes is the most difficult. tim typically what will happen is the group, itself, expels him. there's no one around him to trigger law enforcement to know you have a real dangerous

threat. somebody who is armed, trained and prepared to act. >> "time" magazine, if you haven't seen it, it's the cover story in "time" this week. fascinating story. bart, thanks for sharing with us tonight. fran, thanks r f r the insights as well. the president is losing his right hand man. rahm emanuel wants to run for mayor of chicago. how do we rate him as chief of staff? is he the most effective in recent history or the most polarizing? stay with us.

the absolutely worst kept secret in washington will come official tomorrow complete with a presidential sendoff. rahm emanuel is resigning as white house chief of staff and will begin campaigning for mayor of chicago next week with visits to system of the city's neighborhoods. to his allies he's tireless, relentless, loyal, crafty. to critics he's ruthless, rude, hyperpartisan and hostile to those who don't see things his way. to me the question is this. how does he rate as a president's right hand man?

in atlanta, conservative ralph reed. here in washington, democratic strategist, and cnn contributor donna brazile. rahm is a longtime friend. how does he rate, if some of the critics say here's a guy who, if barack obama wanted to be different, wanted to be post-partisan, that for all his skills and all his appeal, rahm e manual was the wrong guy? >> i don't believe in style points. i believe in accomplishments. americans are going to have better, safer, cheaper health care in part of rahm's part. women are going to defend themselves in equal pay because of rahm's work. all of us who are consumers are going to have a better chance of not getting ripped off by wall street because of work rahm has done. he's made an impact on lives.

some on the far left and a few on the left hate him is fine with me. it shows he's done his job. >> let me put the question to you in the campaign context. if you judge it based on paul's list in 5 years, 10 years, 20 years people have a different perspective, but based on paul's list, the stimulus program is controversy on the campaign trail in rural america and red state america where democrats who won mccain and bush districts are in trouble. the health care bill is a net negative in this campaign year right now. does that effect his rating? >> you know, i like rahm. i've worked with him a lot over the years. interacted with him when he was in the clinton white house. i think he's a professional. i think he's a very capable political operative. i have to say, and this is no shot at rahm, it's just my honest analysis, i think this was really a mismatch of his skill set. i think he'll be better on his own as a candidate, or an officeholder. i thought he really shined in congress. it was where he was best able to show what he was really good at,

raising money, recruiting candidates, developing an agenda. here he was really ultimately more of a staff guy. and people tend to forget the chief of staff is not the deputy president, he's the staff guy. and the reality is that his client, the president of the united states has an average job approval in the last ten published polls of 45% in and a disapprove of 50. in some polls it's in the low 40s. the health care plan that paul alluded to, and i certainly understand why he believes that's a significant policy accomplishments, but the fact of the matter is, democratic candidates are running for the tall grass from this thing. they don't want to be seen as having voted for it. some are actually running ads bragging they voted against it. at least the rahm emanuel that i know who is a seasoned political pro, you know, that can't be satisfying to him. >> why, donna brazile, are they

people in your own party hoping the door hits him on the way auto? a prominent latino who contributes to us, he said in an e-mail, good riddance, good-bye. luis gutierrez, who supported rahm as chief of staff, he told the "washington post" this back in march. this is not just now. this is back in march. for rahm power and preservation of power is always the number one priority. >> you know, i've known rahm probably not as long as paul. let me tell you, rahm has been an effective chief of staff. he served the president well. he served his country well. his core served his party well. when rahm walked into the white house rahm understood the challenges. he was able to pull together a great staff with the president, who were hemorrhaging over 25,000 jobs a day. this economy may not be where the president wants it but because of rahm's help and leadership, we're further along in helping the economy in the

right direction. >> staff get too much blame during bad times and too much credit during good times. they're a reflection of the principle. i think rahm executed what the president wanted clearly. you mentioned style points. i think that you may not think style's important but the american people voted for a style change. they haven't gotten it so far in president obama. >> rahm's style can be a bit unique. we all know that. i want to go back to something the president of the united states said at the white house correspondence dinner last year in may 2009 describing his lovable, cuddly chief of staff. >> happy mother's day to all the mothers in the audience. i to ha i do have to say, this is a tough holiday for rahm emanuel, because he's not used to saying the word day after mother. >> rahm does occasionally, sometimes more than occasionally, have a flavor for the profan -- i remember during

the thing we called impeachment, you'd do a live shot at the white house and come back to the booth and the red light on the phone would be flashing and the producers would say, rahm? you'd pick up the phone and you'd get an earful if he didn't like what you said. president campaigned on new. a different tone in washington. i'm not blaming rahm. is it in hindsight, 20 months later, nobody out there in america thinks washington or sounds different? maybe a bad choice? >> i think it was a dumb promise. i'm sorry to be so blunt, but if you look at president bush, i didn't support him, but he campaigned all around the country saying i want to be a uniter, not a divider. me meant that. the most devicive president in history. okay. this is a divided town. nobody, nobody, maybe jesus was going to change the tone in washington. just get things done, change people's lives in the real world

would have been a better promise. that's what barack obama is doing. i think he's making great strides in changing people's lives for the better. again, who cares about washington. let's not be so seflf-indulgent and self-reverential. let's make a difference in people's lives. >> back in the day when he was running the inaugural committee in 1993 i went to rahm, rahm can be a little brusque. i say, look, we need tickets to give the kids east of the river to come to the inaugural. i said, kids, rahm said absolutely. tonight, kids with pre-existing conditions will be able to keep their health care because of rahm emanuel. thank you, rahm, god bless you. >> everybody take a time out. our panel is going to stay with us. we have a lot more to come including the test paul laid out. getting things done. when we come back, we'll give you the top news stories today. a blunt warning for the congress from michael bloomberg of new york. he says congress needs to do more. we'll go through the record of this session and see how much is

good and what is not so good. a bit later, you're worried out there. is the recession over? what should you do with your money? having a hard time saving? we'll connect your finances with the politics of washington with jean. sanjay gupta had an interview with michael j. fox about his long running battle with parkinson's. it's an emotional interview. sanjay will be with us to give us the details.

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welcome back. let's check in with joe johns for the latest political news you need to know right now. >> sources tell cnn at the white house today the top democratic leaders from the house and the senate pushed president obama to be more aggressive in the closing weeks of the campaign. according to the sources,

speaker nancy pelosi told the president they want to see more campaign rallies and rhetoric like tuesday's wisconsin appearance. meanwhile, minority leader john boehner today outlined his agenda if the republicans take the house and he becomes speaker. >> it's my view that we should open this process up and let the battle of ideas help break down the scar tissue that's been created between the two parties. yes, we're still going to have disagreements, but let's have them out in the open. >> i'm no doctor, john, but i just don't know if more battle is the way you break down scar tissue. could be. >> interesting speech from the man who would like to be the next speaker of the house. it's a process-oriented speech. a lot of people would say why. it was aimed at the tea party activists and independent voters who think and have good reason to believe this town is broken, that they can't get anything big done, incrementalism is a dirty

word. everything has to be big sweeping spending bills and they get held up because they're big which makes them controversial. is john boehner a credible spokesman for saying if you make me speaker the town will work. newt gingrich promised to be different. nancy pelosi promised to be dimpbts. barack obama promised to be different. maybe it's not them. maybe this town doesn't allow difference. >> well, i think what breeds cynicism is when people are asked to vote on a 1,300 page stimulus bill that spends $862 billion. and you know, it lands on people's desks an hour before they vote. and by the way, there were negotiations in the rules committee where house republicans sat down with democratic leadership, including the relevant committee chairs, offered amendments, were told they were going to be accepted, got to the floor to their desk, started flipping through the bill and they had disappeared.

this process is desperately in need of reform. committees have been totally bypassed. the legislative process has been disrespected. and it's no wonder that millions of people are pouring into the street and demanding that at a minimum representatives be required to read the legislation and be given adequate time to do so. so i don't think that this is just a republican versus democrat or a left versus right. if you look at the independents, john, they are breaking heavily. we're talking mid to high 50s against a president that they voted for 2-1 just two years ago. that shows failure. >> and paul, he's right about the independents breaking. he's right it's not democrat or republican. it's about power. the committee chairman or the ranking members have power. they don't want to have an open process. they don't want to have everybody gets a say. >> the question should be, is mr. boehner the right vehicle for a message of reform?

i don't know. maybe lindsay lohan is the right spokesperson for sobriety? i kind of doubt it. john boehner -- john boehner handed out checks from cigarette companies, cigarette packs, on the floor of the house from these merchants of death to republican congressmen who voted with them. that is legalized -- >> does he -- >> this guy's going to reform something is preposterous. >> does he have a chance to make the case, though? democrats have not delivered on promise of reform. >> they have delivered on reform. >> not the process. >> whatever. you just are so concerned with process tonight. what is the process of a guy who's handing out cigarette company checks on the floor of the house? that's the most corrupt thing i've seen in 25 years here. it was john boehner doing it. >> i'm consumed with what you're talking about during the break. a government that works and has things done. the activity we've had under the capitol dome. we said things about congress that were not polite last night. i got complaints. they did pass a stimulus bill,

health care reform bill, wall street reform, lilly ledbetter equal pay act, important legislation, small business incentive package, reforms to intelligence gathering and flood insurance reauthorization. significant achievements of this congress. let's go down here. the house passed and the senate stalled, this makes the house mad. energy legislation that included cap and trade. money to give health care to 9/11 responders. nasa future to change the space program. china currency bill to get tougher there. food safety legislation. offshore oil drilling rules. the senate would not act. come up a little further, neither chamber of the commerce passed these administration priorities. internet neutrality bill, immigration reform, neither passed a budget, they bunted on a debate whether to extend tax cuts, didn't vote on don't ask, don't tell, reimbursements for african-american and native american farmers. stem cell research. the reason, paul, my point is not about process. it's why can't they vote. why can't they just say, you

know what, we're going to bring these things to the floor? and we're going to vote up or down and someone's going to win and someone's going to lose. not we can't vote on this today because they'll use it against us in the campaigns. >> take it up with the founding fathers. mr. madison and the rest of the geniuses i think were right sat up a system in fundamental change is very, very difficult. you travel around the country and i do, too. >> they think this town's a daycare center. >> most people don't come up to me and say i wish congress passed more laws. they say, slow down a little bit. that's what the founders wanted. president obama and the democrats pushed the system to its limit in terms of passing as much as they can. this is what our founders wanted, to have a slow process. >> founders intended for congress to pass a budget, to put in total context the amount of spending so people could understand it. for political reasons, democrats chose not to. and that's part of the problem, making political decisions -- >> they're not the first ones to do it, democrats aren't the

first ones to do it. >> i'm not reviewing the history of congress. we're talking about the congress right now. >> republican amnesia. >> to your point, republicans got thrown out and four years ago democrats took over. they've had their chance and failed. >> john, this is ralph, it isn't just the budget and cap and tax. it's a situation we're in the deepest and longest recession since the post world war ii period. the democrats are leaving town for purely raw political reasons. leaving 26 million small businesses and 100 million families not knowing what their tax rate is going to be on january 1st. we're going to deal with this with a discredited lame duck congress or wait until january and have a new congress step up to the plate. that is irresponsible. the american people know that to have a sound economy, if we're going to make investments, if we're going to hire new workers we have to know what the tax on our investments is going to be

january 1st. the estate tax is scheduled to go from zero to 50%. to leave washington, d.c., in order to campaign, leaving the economy in limbo, leaving investors, small businesses and employers and employees in the dark is irresponsible and i guarantee you they're going to be punished for it. >> ralph reed, all that stuff is bottled up because republicans have used their filibuster. >> there's one thing that's true for this. eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth mentality in the house and senate. whoever gets control has the power and then they use it and sort of use the process to bat the other side over the head. so the question is, where is that going to end? because an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. >> first of, it's what jefferson did to adams, okay? it is. >> yeah. the point is -- >> i understand -- tom was

unavailable. i was at one of these conferences. somebody asked -- when are these politicians going to stop being so extreme and partisan? head said, when you stop electing them. it's we, the people. that's what the founders intended. i'm not happy with some of the republicans who may win. i have to honor the will of the people. >> the democratic leadership in congress chose against the request of 47 of their own members to not take up the tax bill. they could have passed a bill that completely guaranteed as all the facts that ralph stated, certainty going forward for the economy, for small businesses. they chose not to. >> republicans fill buibustered against a small business loan. they killed it. they opposed it. they oppose food safety. can't we eat a hamburger without the republicans trying to poisons us. >> i'm going to call a time-out and concede the fact we did not fix washington tonight. on this program we did not fix washington. it's adam's fault. it's paul and adam's fault. ralph, thanks for being with us

tonight. joe, paul and jim. thanks. we come back, a more civil conversation. an important conversation. jean chatzky's here. she's an expert on your money. you're a little worried right now. we know it. ♪ i love my grandma. i love you grandma. grandma just makes me happy. ♪ to know, know, know you grandma is the bestest. the total package. grandpa's cooooooooool. way cool. ♪ grandpa spoils me rotten. ♪ to know, know, know you

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expert, jean chatzky, latest book is called "not your parent's money book." i was joking before we got on the air, i'm going to give it to my son who started his financial applications and could use advice. if you look at the numbers, the market had a tough roller coaster year. the last month it's been up. the national bureau that tracks recession says, hey, we've been out of recession for some time. the president in a political environment is trying to say, hey, it's start to get better. why do three out of every four americans say no way? >> we're not creating enough jobs. we're creating 60,000 to 80,000 jobs. it's not enough to keep up with the number of people entering the workforce. until that is fixed and housing really starts to turn the corner we are not going it feel better. >> so because of those pressures and because of that feeling, your economic reality, the math in your life and what your brain and heart is telling you that might be pessimistic or fearful. what decisions are people making now that are perhaps contributing, maybe holding

back, maybe not spending themselves? >> we're getting a good indication of that going into the holiday season. there are a lot of fears out there about what kind of a retail environment it's going to be. if you look at the spending rates, they're starting to tick up. people are paying down debts, they're saving a little bit more. that's all very good for our individual futures, not so great for the economy but for people sitting at home it's what we need to do to make ourselves feel safe and secure and independent. >> you heard an example of the economic political debate in this town. over tax cuts. whether washington needs to make some decisions, take tough votes, so that big businesses out there understand what the tax climate will look like so they can decide, are we going to spend more money, open a new plant, hire new workers? do people feel that way? do everyday americans look at washington and say, help me out? >> i think if you look at the poll numbers that's absolutely what everyday americans are saying. it's all back to the economy stupid, as paul begala or james

carville said a really long time ago. that's how we vote, that's what we feel. that's why president obama is so worried. >> and we focus on the market, sometimes overfocus on the market because so many americans in the past generation have become owners of 401(k) plans. the average retirement account fell 24% in 2008. a lot of that's come back in 2009. how much are everyday americans when they're making those decisions, state school, private school, vacation, not, new car, just repair this one? how much of that is based on what happens in the 401(k)s? >> not all that much. when you look at the number of investors in the market and more importantly than that, the amount of money that those investors have in their 401(k)s, you're still not capturing the lion of share of america. more than half of the people in this country are living paycheck to paycheck. although they would love to put money in a 401(k) they don't have the wherewithal to do that. >> a driving force in family budget and politics the past

year or so has been health care. mcdonald's saying maybe it can't cover hourly workers because its carrier says it's going to cost too much. regulations are too much. i want to show numbers. help me understand what this does to people out there. the average worker paid 14% more in 2010 for health care costs. the employees' share of premiums are up 47% since 2003. overall, premiums up 27%. wages up 18%. so if you just -- i'm not good at math, but if premiums are up 27%, wages 18%, tha that's more money out of your pocket. >> absolutely. that's what people are worried about with this health care bill. there's a lot of good accomplished. i like the idea kids will be able to stay on their parent's insurance and all people will be eligible for having pre-existing conditions covered. but we're heading into the open enrollment period at our companies and we don't pay enough attention to the fine print. as we look at our policies we're going to have to ask the questions about whether or not we can afford this on an

individual basis, or we'll need to look at health savings accounts or cheaper coverage to get what we need for families. >> it's an interesting question. as a parent of a 17-year-old and 13-year-old, do younger people now in tough economic times, uncertain economic times, when their parents are anxious, is this a harder conversation, what to do with -- how your children should handle money? >> it's a harder conversation. so many parents have blown it. so many parents have forgotten the basics, themselves. how do you teach your kids? the kids want the answers. they want to know because i went out and i asked them. how much money is it going to cost me to become independent one day? so they need to learn how to work, how to save, how to spend wisely, how to invest. and the sooner they get that information the better off they're going to be. >> jean chatzky, thanks for coming in. >> my pleasure. >> come again sometime. tonight's top stories, including a very interesting tweet from a guy who's a candidate in alaska but was here in washington, d.c.. guess what he was doing?

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welcome back. let's check in with joe johns for the latest political news you need to know right now. hey, joe. >> hey, john. the ceo of johnson & johnson apologized to congress today. bill weldi iningen says the com let the public down by handling of recalls of some of its popular over the counter drugs including the pain reliever

motrin. sacksby chambliss of georgia personally apologized to a blogger and fired a staffer for posting an anti-gay comment on a gay and lesbian blog. and alaska republican candidate joe miller blames volunteers for some sweets his campaign calls inappropriate and had to take down. oh. one posted during a fund-raising trip here in washington, read, i'll do some house hunting while i'm in d.c. i though we had a sound bite there. very curious there, john, the democrat in the race, scott adams tweeted back while miller was picking furniture he was in alaska introducing a plan to get alaskans back to work. the funny thing about it, if you drive around in the streets of washington, d.c., and suburbs there are an awful lot of houses for sale. i don't think miller will have trouble at all once he gets past the election. >> if he gets past the election. a couple points here, joe.

number one when you're from far away alaska and the theme of this election year in your state and everywhere else in the country is anti-washington, anti-incumbent, before the election, it's not very smart to be talking about house hunting in washington, d.c. and now to the candidate, mr. miller's point that it was a volunteer who tweeted this, i would say this to mr. miller. you can only use the dog ate my homework excuse once. remember back a couple weeks ago after lisa murkowski lost the primary, there was a debate about this, that and the loather thing. he put a tweet up, a reference to prostitution and said then it was a volunteer or staffer that tweeted that out and they had to pull it down. let's break this down. our latest polling shows lisa murkowski running as a write-in. 26% for murkowski. 22% for mcadams. murkowski is right in this, except you can't trust the poll numbers. that's when the pollster calls up and says, who are you going

to vote for and lists all three names. her name won't be on the ballot. her ads are getting creative because she wants people not only to vote for her but they've got to do more. >> i'm writing in lisa. >> this is my chance and alaska's chance to get our senator back. >> that's one of several ads she's running telling people, joe, essentially, just don't be for me, got to know how to spell it. >> yeah. it's a pretty good race. going to watch that one real close. >> i may send you up to alaska. no house hunting. when we come back, a fascinating exclusive conversation. our dr. sanjay gupta sits down with michael j. fox to talk about his battle with parkinson's. words alone aren't enough. our job is to listen and find ways to help workers who lost their jobs to the spill. i'm iris cross. we'll keep restoring the jobs, tourist beaches,

and businesses impacted by the spill. we've paid over $400 million in claims and set up a $20 billion independently-run claims fund. i was born in new orleans. my family still lives here. i'm gonna be here until we make this right. in 2008 i quit venture capital to follow my passion for food. i saw a gap in the market for a fresh culinary brand and launched behindtheburner.com. we create and broadcast content and then distribute it across tv, the web, and via mobile. i even use the web to get paid. with acceptpay from american express open, we now invoice advertisers and receive payments digitally. and i get paid on average three weeks faster.

booming is never looking for a check in the mail. because it's already in my email.

actor michael j. fox is just 30 years old back in 1991 when he was diagnosed with parkinson's disease. he's been fighting the disease ever since and been activist for the cause. he talked exclusively to our dr. sanjay gupta with a special

report. sanjay, let me get into the details, what struck you most about the exclusive conversation? >> he's 19 years with this disease. and he looks pretty good. one of the things that's striking about michael j. fox, when you think of parkinson's, you think of the characteristic being a slow movement. having a tremor that is so characteristic. as well as have expressionless face. he responds, you can see there, john, to medications pretty well. he's actually -- i didn't quite know what to expect. i'd heard about his progression with the disease for so long. i think that's what struck me is that he looks pretty good. >> and one of the fascinating parts of the interview that struck me and i want to play it for our viewer, he talks about when he's beginning the journey, the search, he's looking for the medical community hills, a support community. and he looks and he can't necessarily find one. let's listen. >> the cures don't fall out of the sky. you have to go up and get them.

i just assumed -- i just assumed there was a departments of cures. a minister of cures. a secretary of cures, but there isn't. but there isn't. >> that's a good position. secretary of cures. >> it's a thankless job. >> right, high failure rate. >> so we've kind of -- at the same time, we want to get involved, we appoint ourselves then, in the sense that our actions reflect a burning interest in getting this done and finding all avenues to solutions. >> it strikes you, it's lonely, even for a guy had has the financial resources and probably has a good family support, and you're looking for help and you're alone. >> he has certain expectations. he's 29 years old. he's famous, he's had a lot of success. he started to get a twitch on his pinkie finger. that's how it started, john.

as it progressed, he had expectations. the expectation was let's get this fixed and move on. at some point, he realized, as he said there was no secretary of cures. he was going to have to live with. something that he would have to deal with for rest of his life, as far as what we can do now. it's a striking thing to hear someone reflect on that part of their life. that moment when everything changed for him. >> has there be any significant advancement, a, toward a kushcu and b, in the interim, a treatment? >> just not any kind of cure through the surgical procedures to reduce the tremor. there are procedures such as deep brain stimulation. some people have heard about this. to turn off the tremor, so to speak. he had hey procedure about 12 years ago which was beneficial to him. he had a procedure on the right side of his brain which affected the right side of his body. it helped. but then the right side of his

boat started to get worse. he's not sure if he wants surgery again. the treatment again is largely the same. dopamine for the brain, you replace that dopamine. that's the treatment. which something big happens, it's going to be a sea change when you look at parkinsons. >> dr. sanjay gupta, thanks for your time here. at the top of the hour, sanjay gupta reports a conversation with michael j. fox. you don't want to miss it. thanks again, doc. how many days in your place of business, how do you think that compares to members of congress. financing their fleet, sharing our expertise, and working with people who are changing the face of business in america. after 25 years in the aviation business, i kind of feel like if you're not having fun at what you do, then you've got the wrong job. my landing was better than yours. no, it wasn't. yes, it was. was not. yes, it was. what do you think? take one of the big ones out? nah.

congress is gone. leaving washington today to hit the campaign trail. they're leaving a week earlier than planned which offbeat reporter pete domenic asked this questioner would you leave, if you still have work to do? take it away, pete. >> that's right, john king. i wanted to find out if people were all right with their elected leaders going home a week early. asked if they would do that if they had an opportunity. congress is headed home a week early, what do you think? >> that sound goods?

0. >> why. >> that way, they can't do any more damage. >> that's a good thing for them. not for us, but for them. >> everybody else works, they ought to work, too. if they go home, they aren't getting that much done. >> they weren't getting that much done anyway. they might as well head home. >> aren't they just trying to protect their own jobs, or am i too cynical? >> you're too cynical. >> slap me. >> am i too cynical? >> i don't think so. to see if they'll stay in office for all of their constituents to see if they'll vote them in another therm. >> they need a vacation. >> it's not really a vacation. they're still going to get work done. >> it's not really vacation. >> we've got all the time in the world. >> you're very patient. >> and thank you, president obama.