Change in tone: How fiscal cliff talks are different in 2012

>> us mr. mike allen . has a look at the playbook.

>> good morning, guys.

>> let's talk fiscal cliff. your lead story this morning on the white house new strategy to attack the fiscal cliff calling it kind of a road show . i guess the opposite of the way they've negotiated inside with john boehner and others on past deals.

>> yeah, the president feels he has very strong cards here and one of the strategies of the white house is that if we go over the cliff, if all those tax cuts are allowed to expire, the president has real ways to extract pain from the republicans. polls already show people are more likely to blame republicans and here's something very important. republican leaders know that. joe scarborough writes on politico right now that when eric cantor , the number two house republican was there on your set, that he noticed a different tone from him and seeing more and more signs of that as the week goes along, the republican leaders recognize that the president has an inaugural address , a state of the union address and a lot of high-profile ways to pin the blame on them and so today we have this remarkable movement position by tom cole , one of the most politically savvy republicans who told their whip team that they would be better off to cave, that they would be better off to give what he calls the early christmas present of a tax cut for almost every voter, everyone except those top income earners and then fight the president later. so we saw that clip at the top of the show as of stephen colbert with a lightning bolt for grover norquist . someone every day becomes less afraid of him and putting him in the politico playbook breakfast asking around town about him and somebody said they told me grover now reminds them of a a '70s rock star who didn't cut their hair or one of those japanese soldiers who didn't know world war ii was over. the times have changed. the math has changed so we'll ask grover norquist what is his survival strategy? he runs a $30 million operation and doesn't want to see that vanish.

>> a lot of democrats emboldened saying we'll shield entitlements altogether. thanks so much, mike.

>> on thursday night, house republicans are going to go see "lincoln" together, the number three house republican kevin mccarthy has rented a theater saying we need to make a deal.

>> mike allen , thanks so much.

>> what's so interesting, it wasn't really just eric that came on the show and said nothing yet we picked up a tone that something was different. same thing yesterday with dick durbin who came on the show because eric said, okay, we'll do deals on taxes, but you brought up capital gains tax , no. carried interest , no. raising the actual marginal rates, no, we don't want to do that yet when he left we got calls from democrats saying does he really want to make a deal?

>> i got two yesterday that --

>> i got e-mails from democrats going wow, he sounds like he wants to make a deal. one senator said did he really mean what he said? considering that he said nothing, yeah, i guess so but it was the tone then yesterday dick durbin came on and we had to basically stop asking about medicare about three or four minutes in because it was nonsensical talking about creating new programs. but this is a guy that also supporting simpson bowles and let us know like eric , we'll make a deal and figure it out.

>> both sides at various times tells you something about recent history. you think about where republicans were a year and a half ago, where their attitude was, no, we will not discuss revenues, not one penny, ever, ever, ever so for cantor to say, of course, we'll discuss new revenue and then he talks about the ways in which he won't -- that's a huge concession from where they were a year and a half ago. interest a lot of democrats who said for years these entitlement programs are sacrosanct to say, of course, medicare is on the table. it's just -- it's a big -- even when they don't go into details it's a big change from their ferocity and intransigence.

>> speaking of that on the democratic side as willie said and mike said, we're not going to touch entitlements -- you know what, the president is already telling them, guys, relax, that's not the case, if this thing blows up it's bad for the economy. if all the tax cuts expire it's bad for the economy. the president understands he's got -- he's got -- talking about lincoln, you got radical democrats that don't want to touch entitlements or don't want to touch revenue and this president is going to have to hold both sides together.

>> andrea mitchell , who knows washington, incite and out, they're saying nothing and they're saying nothing, right?

>> i think there is some movement. maybe i am more optimistic, a lot are arguing you have fewer people in the middle in both parties as a result of the election and don't have democrats willing to make the concessions of on spending cuts and health care , medicare as you don't have republicans on one side, but i think -- i had bob corker on yesterday or the day before with klim clyburn yesterday and they were praise ing -- clyburn was praising what corker had to say. the president has a lot of leverage. what he said to congressman cummings, don't pack your bags . we're going to be around pore a while. i have alan simpson coming on our show.

>> fantastic.

>> all right, andrea mitchell . 1:00, thanks.

>> thank you so much, andrea. up next, baseball loses marvin miller . if you don't know the name, you ought to know the name. perhaps the most influential figure --

>> absolutely.

>> baseball but also in the history of professional sports . mike barnicle will help explain why. sports is next. two years