Taxes becoming the line in the sand for cliff talks

>> is tim geithner's day on the hill. is this a sign that talks are being accelerating or hitting stumbling blocks? joining me now senator kent conrad . sir, great to have you here. we showed the headline at the top of the show, from politico, the fiscal framework emerging. are the contours of the deal really taking shape? you heard kristen welker saying the description of that phone conversation may not have been so curt as originally quoted.

>> truth is, i don't know. because i've not been involved in those direct discussions. what i did know is in talking to colleagues, democrats and republicans, there is a growing sense that this has to be done, needs to be done in the national interests and that it will get done. so i'm encouraged by what i'm hearing in terms of the tone of comments from my colleagueses.

>> so you talk about the tone of colleagues from the left, but also on the right, tom cole took heat from john boehner and others in the gop for urging his party to go along with the president's tax plan. take a listen.

>> i told tom earlier in our conference meeting that i disagreed with him.

>> i think this is a minority position within the party.

>> i think this is a false choice.

>> i believe the majority of the conference disagrees with it, but we shouldn't be talking about raising taxes right now. we should be talking about whether we're going to cut spending.

>> on the daily rundown, cole said he never meant for the remarks to go public.

>> now that advice was given in private, but you guys have a way of figuring out what is said in private. and somebody leaked it out. that's fine.

>> you didn't intend for this to go public?

>> no.

>> so, sir, when you hear statements like that, when at first you think that there are signals that there will be compromise moving forward, but then we see people like grover nor norquist, and i know there is no love lost, but he's saying people on the right are having impure thoughts about potentially raising taxes , do you frng that grover norquist , his anti-tax pledge, is seeping back into the conversation here and keeping the right with the cement shoes on?

>> sure, for some that's the case. and it is also the case that some on our left have their shoes in concrete, as well. they don't want to touch any spending. but the hard reality is we have to do both and every bipartisan group that's worked on this has reached that conclusion. so at the end of the day , i think people who are in the sensible center know you're going to have to come bodo both. revenue near a 60 year low as a share of our national income . spending is near a 60 year high as a share of our national income . so we're going to have to work both sides of the krequation.

>> senators on the right have been very controversial in their remarks regarding susan rice and whether or not she will be nominated for secretary of state. but i want to play for everybody how the president defended rice yesterday.

>> mrs. rice is extra ordinary. couldn't be prouder of the job that she's done.

>> the applause led by hillary clinton . what's your estimation about if she were to be nominated, are these some really choppy waters ahead based on what we've heard from senator collins, ayotte, graham, mccain and the like?

>> undoubtedly yes, but i think it's totally unfair -- let me be very clear. i'm on the intelligence committee . what ambassador rice did is precisely what she should have done. talking points from the intelligence community that were unclassified. she did not use classified information and that's precisely what she should do. she shouldn't use classified information . she is required in her position to use unclassified information. and that's precisely what she did. information provided to her unanimously by the intelligence community . to go after susan rice is totally and completely unfair. and those who are doing it repeatedly ought to back off. that is not where fault lies.