Can Boehner get 'ultimate leverage' with the president?

>>> with a look at the "playbook."

>> can we first talk about the copy editor?

>> mike, john heilemann wants to talk to you for a second. he wants to blame something that's entirely his fault on you.

>> i'm not blaming anybody. i'm just saying you guys got to work on the copy editing in "politico."

>> what are you talking about? explain it. go ahead.

>> again, you read the sentence. in the 2008 farewell address to hagel , mcconnell praised hagel 's heroism in vietnam knowing how hagel saved his brother. saved his brother. referring back to mcconnell, not to hagel .

>> excuse me --

>> especially the word "own" would have solved all the problems there. just one little word.

>> a quick grammar lesson, grammar refresher, a pronoun refers to the proper noun or the noun before. if you actually look at that sentence -- look at the word his and look at the noun or proper noun before that, it should be hagel .

>> mike, do you got a white board there?

>> i love this. so you were the guy that listened in english class.

>> we're so glad you're here.

>> what's that rule, the pronoun what?

>> it would refer to the noun or the proper noun before it. and if you take a look at the sentence --

>> wow, that's awesome.

>> -- you'll see his brother, hagel , clear as a bell.

>> what's a gerund?

>> gerund is something -- it has an ing on the end of it.

>> it ends with i-n-g.

>> mike, can you conjugate the verb "brew"?

>> i think a gerund would be highla heilmann digging himself deeper.

>> i like that.

>> he said you're not pinning this on me. just to recap.

>> my bad.

>> chuck hagel saved his own brother.

>> his own brother.

>> not mitch mcconnell 's.

>> "the wall street journal ," mike --

>> decoratedecorated.

>> -- wrote an article endorsing. what does he have to do? he's got a couple more fights in the near future. how's he going to keep those republicans happy?

>> he does and he's going to be a lot tougher. we're told he may even, as they say, shoot the hostage is the expression that one person used with us. that is has to be willing to go over a cliff, has to be willing to shut down the government, default on debt. in an interview with "the wall street journal " today, speaker boehner says that he thinks that the ultimate leverage with president obama is that republicans are very willing to let the automatic spending cuts, those sequester spending cuts that had a two-month extension in the fiscal cliff deal, republicans are willing to let those kick in. the white house had figured it hits defense. republicans won't want to. so now it looks like the white house more doesn't want those to kick in. we remember during the debate the president said it wouldn't happen. so we're going to see a john boehner who's less of a bridge between the republican conference and the white house and more of a spokesperson for the republican conference, starting with a retreat he's doing with republicans. he's going to talk about how he can channel his conservatives more effectively with his rightward pressure that we're seeing.

>> so mike, does he feel like because the perception inside his own caucus is that he gave too much on the fiscal cliff deal, that on the next one he's going to have to stand up more to the president, just politically anyway?

>> that's a great way to put it. it's not just the perception. i think you read speaker boehner 's words, he feels used. and the white house -- "the wall street journal " writer who sat with him, steve moore from the editorial page , said boehner looked battle weary. and he really took some shots at the president, talking about how he was overly ideological, quoting back how when he kept saying to the president, we have a spending problem, speaker boehner says that president obama said to him, you know, john, i'm tired of hearing you say that. whatever bond these two had over the fact that they both had difficult constituencies seems to be broken.

>> mike allen going to be back in our next hour to talk dangling participles.

>> gerunds.

>> alex has the definition of gerund. he's going to tell a waiting america that definition now.

>> a gerund is a form that is derived from a verb but that functions as a noun.

>> oh, wow! i like it when you say it like that, alex.

>> i think we've got a spending problem.

>> that's weird.

>>> up next --

>> and joe, mika, real quick, also just while i've been on the air, we've been told that along with senator hagel today, the president also will be nominating john brannen to head the cia. john brannen who worked at the cia for decades is very well known around the white house . right now he's the white house counterterrorism and homeland security adviser. so this is a never the comfort food pick by the president, somebody he's personally comfortable with, going over to succeed david petraeus .

>> looking forward to lindsey graham 's press release, questioning his qualifications as an irish-american, whether he can stay sober on the job.