and the legend of nick roves. the question is how did snl handle the linsanity in its open sketch. good morning, i'm willie geist. i'm glad you're up or listening live on radio. you can shoot me an e-mail or tweet me. let me know what you're doing up at this hour. or you can do what senior republicans who wish to remain anonymous and text the word response. the next 30 minutes will be your cram session for this monday, february 20th. it is president's day and there's a lot to tell you about including the fight in syria moving to the streets of the capital city.

plus, saturday night live rolls president obama and bill cosby into one character with that woman, the great maya rudolph returning. beeel show it to you later in show. first, let's get to the news. in the race for the white house, rick santorum says despite what he's being accused of, he was not attacking president obama's fate with this line in ohio over the weekend. >> this is what the president's agenda -- it's not about you. it's not about you. it's not about your quality of life. it's not about your jobs. it's about some phony ideal, some phony theology. oh, not a theology based on the bible. a different theology. but no less a theology. >> it's the phony theology line that caught the attention of the public. santorum was asked about those remarks.

he says his comments were not about the president's religion, but rather his environmental policy. >> the president of the united states is exercising his values and trumping the values of the church. you don't want to call it a theology, i'm fine. you can have them let me know what they want to call it. but it is a different set of moral values that they are imposing on people who -- >> this idea that man is here to serve the earth as opposed to husbands of resources and be good stewards of the earth. i think that is a phony ideal. i don't believe that's what we're here to dod. >> when you have a world view that elevates the earth above man and says that, you know, we can't take those resources because we're going to harm the earth by things that are, frankly, are just not scientifically proven. for example, the

politicalization of the whole depate, this is just all an attempt to, you know, to centralize power and to give more power to the government. this is not questioning the president's belief in christianity. >> the obama campaign says sant's comments went well over the line. santorum coming back to that environmental defense later, not one he made in the original comments. >> now that the bottom line is that a lot of prenatal tests are done to identify deformities in utero and the customary procedure is to encourage abortions t. we know that 90% of down syndrome children in america are aborted. so to suggest where does that come from? i have a child with a disease that almost a hundred percent

are aborted. >> his daughter was born with that genetic disorder, was recently hospitalized. despite backlash, santorum is looking to strepgten his conservative. the latest poll showed santorum with a 4 point edge over romney. that lead has closed dramatically at least in this role. remember, there was another pole from detroit news that showed a fou fou fou four-point spread. romney has all but ruled out the possibility that he could end up losing the state's primary. gingrich says 34imy is a must mf rin 23r romney. >> if he can't carry his own state, the rationale for why is he a candidate? he was the candidate because he was the inevitable winner. there's a whole rationale on his ability to win.

if he loses his home state, i don't see what it says the next morning to his donors to stay in the race. if any of the three of us lose our home state, if santorum loses pennsylvania, romney loses michigan or i lose georgia, you have a very, very bad candidacy. if romney cannot win in michigan t republican party needs to go back to the drawing board and convince somebody else to get into this race. but influential leaders say that ship has already sailed. >> do you think it's possible? and even advisable that someone else should get into the race on the republy can side? >> first of all, it's february. these things have a way of taking time. i assume this will drag out well into april.

a group of u.n. nuclear experts arrived in teheran. the standoff has been going on for months, of course. only now, the economic imply kagss are beginning to show themselves. iran says it has stopped now, oil shipments to the united kingdom and france. they're above the nations set to impose a boycott this summer. israel says those sanctions not enough to stop iran's nuclear ambitions. israel insisting the nuclear strike may be the only effective option. >> we are of the opinion that this iranian regime is a rational actor. and it's for that reason that we think the the kurnt path we're

on is the most prudent path. a strike at this time would be destabilizing and would pt achieve their long term objectives. but i also understand that israel has national interests that are unique to them. and, of course, they consider iran to be an existential threat in a way that we have not concluded that iran is an exfen shl threat. >> none of us want iran to have nuclear weapons. but i don't think it would be a wise thing at this moment forrize real to launch a military attack on iran. i ran has agreed to a new round of talks. but there are few signs teheran is going to back down. in another volatile part of the world war, the unrest in syria. thousands of people following the funeral of a protester

killed by government forces. meanwhile, opposition forces appear to be growing bolder. yesterday, a judge and a senior prosecutor were assassinated. government forces continue to assault rebel-eld positions where more than a dozen were killed yesterday. egypt is publicly shunning by withdrawing its ambassador. and whitney houston was laid to rest in a private bur yal attended yesterday by close friends and family, following a star-studded ceremony at her childhood church on saturday. houston was remembered during the four-hour event. emotional performances by the likes of stevie wonder and alicia keys chlts both tyler perry and kevin costener eulogized their good friend.

>> neither height nor depth, no matter what she had to go through, it still wasn't enough to separate her from the love of god. nor principalities or power. nor things to come. nothing was able to separate her from the love of god. >> the whitney i knew, despite her success and worldwide fame still wondered am i good enough? am i pretty enough? will they like me? it was the burden that made her dwraet. and the part that caused her to stumble in the end. whitney, if you could hear me now, i would tell you you weren't just good enough, you were great. >> after that ceremony, houston's casket was carried out ofts church while her 1992 song played throughout the church. she was discovered dead last

weekend on the eve of the 54th grammy awards. coroners are still awaiting toxicology results before declaring houston's cause of dwet. death. still ahead here, jeremy lin puts the knicks on their backs. how long can they keep this up? fornler cast member returns to give snl a great show delivering her beyonce as glamorous new mother. highlights on a good snl and a check on weather when "way too early" comes back. >> oh, that view is tremendous. >> the word is go. and john glen is go. and with him, one day touching the unattainable stars.

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5:43 in the morning, a beautiful live picture of the united states capitol. let's get a check of weather. >> morning, willie, we're in the home stretch. one week, just a little bit over a week. mardi graas this week. we did get a little bit of snow. that is now gone. so the roads should be clearing out. yesterday was definitely not a day to be on the roads, especially there in virginia. richmond picked up three inches of snow. president's day, it's a cold, blustery morning as they big storm pushes off the coach. it will be breezy all day. so definitely the winter gloves and definite will the hat, too. especially in the middle of the

country, that's where winter is going to continue this week. we're watching light snow in areas of wyoming and colorado. will work its way through northern illinois. maybe an inch or two of snow. but, for tomorrow morning, we could have some issues there. so today's forecast, cool in the east but at least it will be sunny and dry. as we look at tomorrow, what a day it's going to be in the east. the sun is going to be out, templetures getting into the features. three or four days this week. so maybe even 60s by friday. >> really rkts that's something about this winter when you say today is cool in the east and 46 in february. let's dig into the new york papers. this wurngs i hadn't seen yet. >> i like this one, in your facebook.

apparently, mark zuker burg was at the game yesterday. lin tops himself. you are officially a cultural force when you make the opening sketch of snl as one knicks point guard did just the other night. >> you better lock me up. i mean, i am criminally linsane. my feelings are lintents. >> it's lin describable. >> jeremy lin and the knicks have been riding high since the harvard grad was named the starting point guard. yesterday, his toughest test with dallas mavericks at the garden. first quarter, knicks out to an early lead. new inside j.r. smith who came up big. knicks up by as many as 12 in the first half.

but in the second half, defending champs come back. jason kid for three. . maverick went up eight, but lin turned it back around. a big steel and how about this, a throw down for the point guard. the fans at the guard b onnen on their feet. spike lee is loving it. jeremy lynn harvards jersey. novak getting a boost. novak scored all in the fourt quarter. >> novak is drifting in the corner. lin, overdirk. oh, oh. time out, dallas. how good is this? >> jeremy lynn floating a three.

knicks go up nine and the mavs could not cap up. if you need anymore proof, jeremy lin is influential. how about this? lin scored 200 points, that's more than any point guard over that stretch. his 7 v assists are secondary only to john hopkin. i should say his first starts, lin has 53 turnovers. >> before finding his way on the knicks's roster. he talked about the low-points of the season. >> i mean, there were nights last year where i was just -- i have actually just reduced to just tears. i couldn't take it anymore.

for me, it's, you know, what really hurt was i felt like -- i felt like i had the ability to do it. even the beginning of this year, getting waived twice, you know, i was thinking if i don't have a team, what's going to happen? you know, do i go to the d league? do i go overseas oar do i take a break all together. all of hose options were running through my mind. a 48 day black out ended on friday. the governor was quoted as saying the hiegtenned pressure from lin led to a deal between the long-time fighting time warner and msg. boxing, british heavyweight got himself into trouble before, during and after his wbc title fight.

it started on friday during the weigh in with its show down. the next days, moments of the other brother. vladimr. the brothers showing some restraint. he did his talking. they're beating by a unanimous decision. during the post-fight news conference, he gets hichls into an exchange with a different heavyweight boxer. a full on brawl breaks out at the press conference. camera equipment flies. bottles were broken own people's heads. it was ugly. >> and that, my friends, is the sport of boxing. kming up, the obama

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the latest polling has michigan native mitt romney a near statistical tie. and the primary that falls one week from tomorrow, romney has made up a little bit of ground. if you want to stand smart today, dating back to 1972, no canakancandidate has won his pa nomination without hiting the water cooler. >> the show is almost always good when a former cast member comes back to hoek. host. here, maya does her beyonce impersonation. celebrity friends stop by to wish her and j.j. worth on birth of their own baby. >> it was perfect, l.l.l.a.

we were in the possible, just me,my husband jay and kanya. first, my kbroer was like. and then i went into labor and then i was like. >> and then the baby came out and i was like. and i asked my doctor, ♪ did i have a boy >> and he said no, you had a single. >> now taylor swift is here. >> taylor, we are so honored to have you in our home. >> yeah, well, taylor, let me see that.

>> the gag is to be stunned when people clap for her. well done. a spot on kre creation of the snl. the old cosby show opened with fred doing a little kos by and the president on a little bit. >> i hear by approve this hoagie for eating. but, first, some amepdmentes. can i have a little salami? i also hear i'm being tolds. >> hi, barack, my meeting was

cancel. >> my beautiful wife is ohm? >> barack obama, is that a hoe guy. you know you're never, never, nevada, nevada,tham. >> i know i i just found it here. i think one of the children must have made. >> by the way, this is the original scene right here. still ahead on way too early, why must have for's day. people with a machine. what ? customers didn't like it. so why do banks do it ? hello ? hello ?! if your bank doesn't let you talk to a real person 24/7,

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