>>> the president and first lady are scheduled to host a white house picnic tomorrow with members of congress. no word on the menu but one thing is for sure, there will be a food fight starting on thursday. in just two days, house republicans are expected to vote to hold attorney general eric holder in contempt of congress over the fast and furious investigation. on saturday, transportation funding is scheduled to get cut along with three million construction jobs. on sunday, lower student loan rates will double unless lawmakers reach an agreement to extend them. joining us now from washington is the sage of capitol hill and my celebrity doppelganger, nbc's luke russert . what's the word?
>> good afternoon, alex. good afternoon. congress is like you and college, leaving it all up to the last minute.
>> wow. wow. you didn't even know me in college. but you speak the truth, sir. last time we talked to you, the big question was chicken caesar wrap or tuna fish . tell us the latest about the holder fast and furious decision. is there any chance we are going to reach a deal before thursday?
>> most likely not. the reasoning is as follows. today, darrell issa sent off a very sharply worded e-mail to president obama essentially accusing president obama of either obstructing a congressional investigation or having direct knowledge of the fast and furious cover-up. the white house has said no, the use of executive privilege by president obama doesn't necessarily always have to pertain to white house papers. it can go throughout the administration. so that battle is still very much head-on. who is directly involved in that battle, well, it's the battle of the house gop versus the white house , mr. eric holder . as of right now, the contempt vote is scheduled to happen thursday. now that's also the same day the health care decision's going to come down so there won't be as much media attention focused on the eric holder vote which is pleasing to both sides because the gop leadership, while they have gone along with this fight and thrown red meat to their base, it does distract from the message of the economy as well as it hurts mitt romney 's ability to talk about the economy. so eric holder , the contempt vote most likely will occur. it looks that way now. neither side is really celebrating it but the rank and file of the house gop , they are very excited about it because they wanted blood in the holder situation for some time.
>> michael steele , when we talk about the timing, certainly not just a coincidence that the contempt vote will be held on thursday. speaker boehner 's office released a memo that said we didn't ever suggest there was collusion between the white house and doj. as luke sort of intimates, is this leadership saying all right, guys, you've had your fun in the sun, let's get this over with and keep it moving?
>> i think luke has it exactly right. the leadership is looking at the health care decision from the supreme court to be that pivot point to get back talking about the economy, because of all the economics around the health care decision. i think luke has it exactly right in terms of, you know, issa 's play here, in terms of pushing back against the white house to save face, quite frankly , because he saw some slippage, issa did, from among republicans who were last week going well, okay, enough's enough. i think this is a very interesting moment. thursday is going to be a lot of fun. it's going to be sort of the denouement.
>> and the ramping conversation. do you think there's any sort of collateral damage here in terms of his reputation? the " washington post " says this presents an immediate practical challenge. holder's appointment of two prosecutors, talking about the leaks here, one an obama campaign donor to investigate the national campaign is damaged before it begins.
>> that's what i would expect him to say. look, if the facts were actually able to come out in terms of fast and furious , part of the reasons the republicans are backing off is during the bush administration , they took the opposite position. communications at the white house , communications among agencies, those can be protected. they knew they were on slippery ground there. the vote is going to happen and go away but don't forget there's a conspiracy theory underneath all this that actually, the obama administration, chairman issa said this over the weekend, said it to the rna, this is really about fomenting violence in mexico so we can get assault weapons ban done and weaken your second amendment rights. that's crazy town thinking but i don't think it's going to go away.
>> you know what crazy town thinking is? luke , talk to us about actual crazy town which is washington, d.c. this transportation bill , three million jobs on the line and yet the house and senate can't come to a deal.
>> it's quite striking. this is just the apotheosis of a jobs bill and it's something that harry reid on the senate floor earlier today, there's better than a 50/50 chance of it getting done but it's hung up on a few issues. number one, the senate passed a bipartisan deal, had 74 senators two years, $109 million, it would then have the certainty and trust for the job creators to take those funds to hire people. well, the house said that wasn't good enough because they wanted a longer bill and wanted the keystone pipeline in there. now there's this big conference committee , barbara boxer said it's on the half yard line about to go over. what's the holdup? we still don't know what exactly is going to happen with the keystone provision. however, senate democrats supposedly have watered down some environmental permitting regulations to get enough house republicans on board. the ball will really be in speaker boehner 's court after it comes out there's some sort of agreement as to whether they will get it on the floor in time and pass it forward. so far, the house and speaker ba boehner have said let us try to do a six-month extension. this deadline is coming up on the 30th and if they don't get it through the parliamentary process, you very well could see a temporary extension, not the full two year one. however, what senate democrats are doing is now there's the idea of attaching the student loan interest rate issue to the transportation bill . so follow me here. when you are doing a transportation bill it's usually funded by the federal gas tax . however, there's more money in there that needs to be paid more, about $12 billion in this case. the student loan bill costs $6 billion. they need to find offsets for that. there is talk between republicans and democrats about finding $18 billion in offsets through different things they can do, the transportation bill and student loans bill, coupling them together and getting it through congress so everyone loves it because no one wants to be against student loans , no one wants to be against construction workers . we'll see if that happens.
>> that sounds like that stuff, the tortilla wrapped in the enchilada with the guacemole on the outside. one thing is for sure, you will not be watching baseball this weekend. i have a sneaking suspicion you are going to be in the halls of congress. thank you as always, luke russert .