Church to Protest Edwards Funeral; Polling the Bush Tax Cuts
T.J.  HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you all. If you are in the Midwest, it is frigid and potentially dangerous this morning with the weather. Minneapolis, under a winter storm warning at this hour. Other states are bracing for blizzard conditions as well. If you are not in that area, it could still impact you, because what's happening there could have some effects on travel around the country. So, you need to hear what's happening. We will explain it all for you, coming up. Also, it was a half-hour show-stopper at the White House. President Obama brings in former President Clinton to help him sell his tax plan to the public. But he ends up leaving the job to the former president, all together. We'll show you this extraordinary moment at the White House press room. From the CNN Center, this is your CNN SATURDAY MORNING for December the 11th. Good morning to you all. I'm T.J. Holmes. Also coming up today, we're just a few hours away from people paying their final respects to Elizabeth Edwards, the wife, of course, of the former presidential candidate John Edwards. She passed away Tuesday after battling breast cancer. At times, you know as well, she had to battle some pretty embarrassing revelations in the headlines. She was 61 years old. Of the headlines, though, some more headlines could be coming out today. And that's really a concern for a lot of people who loved and admired her. They are concerned the headlines might be about the protests and demonstrators who'd be outside of the funeral. A lot of people are wondering why in the world would she be the target of hate and anger -- an angry protest. Well, the Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church, they are the ones that are going to be demonstrating, or plan to demonstrate outside. They say Elizabeth Edwards is, quote, "in hell" for certain views and the way she lived her life. The church has been classified as a hate group by others, including the Southern Poverty Law Center. Now, Westboro Baptist Church, that might not sound familiar to you when you hear the name, but you'll know some of their acts. They are the ones who protest outside military funerals. They are the ones who say soldiers are being killed and America is being punished because it's tolerant of homosexuality. A lot of people would love to just ignore them, but it's hard to when they have chosen now this high profile place and this time to protest at the funeral of Elizabeth Edwards. Supreme Court is actually taking up the case of Westboro. They have heard arguments in the case against the church who was brought by the dad of a Marine who was killed in Iraq. The church protested at his funeral. Decision is expected before the summer recess. Now, counter-protests also expected today. They are going to try to counter what Westboro is doing. Two of the people who are organizing these counter-protests spoke with our Anderson Cooper.</s>BEN REQUENA, WESTBORO COUNTER-PROTEST ORGANIZER: This isn't about us. It's not about the thousands of people from the local community and abroad that are going to come over and help protest and spread the love. And it's certainly not about the Westboro group. This is about human decency and common courtesy. Our freedom to go there and counter-protest takes care of their freedom to protest in the first place. Like I said, if they are there and we aren't, they're the story. So, we want to be the bigger story, better story.</s>HOLMES: Elizabeth Edwards will be buried next to her son Wade who died in a car crash back in 1996. The funeral for Edwards is happening in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1:00 Eastern Time today. It will take place at the Edenton Street United Methodist Church, where the family worships. We'll have live coverage of Elizabeth Edwards' funeral, again, starts at 1:00 Eastern Time right here on CNN. Turn to politics now and political insiders can't remember anything like what we saw yesterday. Two presidents standing at one podium, Barack Obama and former President Clinton together. They are in the briefing room, the totally unexpected, unscripted moment. These are the two biggest names, really, in the party. They had the same job yesterday though. They were selling the administration's tax cut deal which many in the president's own party don't like it. The two men met earlier at the White House to try to come up with a strategy, but then they stepped out in front of the cameras. An extraordinary television moment, the current president handing things over to the former president.</s>WILLIAM J. CLINTON, 42CD PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think this is a net plus. And you know how I feel, I think the people that benefit most should pay most. That's always been my position -- not for class warfare reasons, for reasons of fairness in rebuilding the middle class in America. But we have the distribution of authority we have now in the Congress and what we're going to have in January. And I think this is a much, much better agreement than would be reached were we to wait until January.</s>HOLMES: There's another extraordinary moment that a lot of people are talking about today, a lot of political insiders. They're really breaking it down. Now, the current president, President Obama, actually stepped in for a moment as Clinton kind of got going there in front of the podium and he stepped out. President Obama said, hey, I got to go. I've kept my wife waiting. I'm going to take up and I'm going to leave this in his hands. And the former President Clinton stood there for about 20 to 30 minutes, taking questions there at the podium from the reporters, an extraordinary moment. He was certainly still basking in the glow of the White House, certainly enjoying himself there. He did give good support for, of course, the president's deal he made with Republicans, calling it the best bipartisan agreement we could reach to help the largest number of Americans. The president's deal with Republicans over the so-called Bush era tax cuts continues, though, to stir up controversy. Our deputy political director Paul Steinhauser examines what the American people think about extending the tax cuts.</s>PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Hey, good morning, T.J. The battle resumes Monday here in Washington over President Barack Obama's deal with congressional Republicans to extend those Bush era tax cuts. In the past few days, we've seen a lot of pushback on Capitol Hill against the plan by members of the president's own party, as well as by some conservatives. So, what do Americans think? Two new polls out in the past few days give us a clue. A survey by Gallup indicates that two-thirds of the public supports the part of the plan that extends those tax cuts for all Americans for two years, and an equal amount give a thumbs-up to the part of the proposal that extends jobless benefits for another year for the long-term unemployed. But six out of 10 question in Bloomberg national poll favor eliminating tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. Other recent polls from other organizations indicate the same thing. Remember, if there's no agreement here in Washington, the current tax cut rates disappear at the end of the year -- T.J.</s>HOLMES: All right. Thanks as always to our Paul Steinhauser. Speaking of D.C., take a shot of Washington, D.C. this morning. Lovely picture as always, live picture of the capital where work is always going on, even on the weekend. Well, coming up, no matter where you are today and what you're doing, if you have anybody traveling in your family or maybe you're traveling yourself, you need to see what's happening in weather today. We have some winter weather warnings taking place. And it is going to cause chaos in some places as far as the travel schedule goes. It's six minutes past the hour. Stick around.