Michael Steele, Blair Lee, Ed Henry and Peter Brookes joined WMAL on Thursday.

Listen here to Thursday's show.

INTERVIEW — PETER BROOKES – Senior Fellow, National Security Affairs at the Heritage Foundation and a former deputy assistant secretary of defense. Brookes was a navy pilot and served in President George W. Bush’s administration as deputy assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific affairs. In this post, he was responsible for U.S. defense policy for 38 countries and five bilateral defense alliances in Asia.

INTERVIEW — ED HENRY — Chief White House correspondent for Fox News Channel

 INTERVIEW – BLAIR LEE – Maryland political analyst – discussed Governor Hogan’s State of the State address.

Mornings on the Mall

Thursday, February 5, 2015

Hosts: Brian Wilson and Larry O’Connor

5am – A/B/C DRIVE AT FIVE INTERVIEW – FMR MD LT. GOV. MICHAEL STEELE

• Hogan outlines tax relief plans, redistricting reform in State of the State speech.– ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) – Republican Gov. Larry Hogan laid out an ambitious legislative agenda Wednesday in his first State of the State speech, proposing several forms of tax relief, charter school expansion and reforms to how Maryland draws its legislative districts. Some Democrats, however, were angered by Hogan’s characterization of Maryland as having a “floundering” economy. They also questioned where Hogan would find the money to cut taxes, after struggling to close a $750 million budget hole. “High taxes, over-regulation and an anti-business attitude are clearly the cause of our economic problems,” Hogan said. “Our economy is floundering, and too many Marylanders have been struggling just to get by.”

5am – D         Barber offers free bad haircuts to shame misbehaving kids. (ABC 7) — SNELLVILLE, GA — If your children are acting out, one barber is now offering a solution: shame them with an 'old man' haircut. At the A-1 Kutz barbershop in Atlanta, barber Russell Fredrick, 34, and his team are asking parents to bring in their misbehaving children to receive the free "Benjamin Button Special," as a new form of discipline. "So u wana act grown…well now u look grown too," the barber wrote on Instagram after posting before, during and after photos of the first client to receive the punishment. According to The Washington Post, "The cut involves shaving hair off the child's crown until he begins to resemble a balding senior citizen, inviting that unique brand of adolescent humiliation that can only come from teasing classmates and unwanted attention." Frederick, the barbershop co-owner and a father of three, said he was inspired to offer the service after trying out the disciple on his own 12-year-old son, Rushawn, and saw immediate results. Immediately after Rushawn received his old man haircut for doing poorly in school, Frederick says his son's grades skyrocketed.

5am – E         DC Transportation News:

• DC Council committee meeting today on metro: On Thursday, February 5, 2015, Councilmember Kenyan R. McDuffie, Chairperson of the Committee on the Judiciary, and Councilmember Jack Evans, Chairperson of the Committee on Finance and Revenue, will hold a joint public oversight roundtable to examine the responses of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority and public safety agencies to the January 12, 2015, incident at L’Enfant Plaza Metro Station.
• Feds to conduct safety inspection of DC Metro. (The Hill) — The Department of Transportation is conducting a “safety management inspection” of the Washington, D.C. Metrorail subway system after a recent deadly smoke incident on the capital area transit network.  A passenger was killed when a train heading toward Northern Virginia on Jan. 12 was halted in a tunnel between stations because of an electrical issue, trapping passengers underground in smoke-filled cars. The DOT’s Federal Transit Administration said Wednesday that it is conducting a system-wide assessment of the safety of Metro’s trains and buses in the wake of the fatal smoke incident.  “The purpose of the inspection is to help WMATA assess the strengths and weaknesses of the safety of operations and identify areas where the agency can further reduce risks and make other safety improvements,” the agency said in a statement.
• D.C.'s Planned 37-Mile Street Car System in Jeopardy. (News4) — News4's has learned that the District's troubled streetcar system could be dramatically scaled back even before the first paying passenger steps on board. Tom Sherwood reports on the growing skepticism that could result in cutbacks as early as this Spring..

6am – A/B/C NBC’s Brian Williams recants Iraq story after soldiers protest. 'I spent much of the weekend thinking I'd gone crazy. I feel terrible about making this mistake.'  WASHINGTON — NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams admitted Wednesday he was not aboard a helicopter hit and forced down by RPG fire during the invasion of Iraq in 2003, a false claim that has been repeated by the network for years. Williams repeated the claim Friday during NBC’s coverage of a public tribute at a New York Rangers hockey game for a retired soldier that had provided ground security for the grounded helicopters, a game to which Williams accompanied him. In an interview with Stars and Stripes, he said he had misremembered the events and was sorry. The admission came after crew members on the 159th Aviation Regiment’s Chinook that was hit by two rockets and small arms fire told Stars and Stripes that the NBC anchor was nowhere near that aircraft or two other Chinooks flying in the formation that took fire. Williams arrived in the area about an hour later on another helicopter after the other three had made an emergency landing, the crew members said. “I would not have chosen to make this mistake,” Williams said. “I don’t know what screwed up in my mind that caused me to conflate one aircraft with another.”

6am – D         New defense secretary airs differences with Obama over Ukraine, Gitmo. (Washington Times) — President Obama’s pick to be the next defense secretary on Wednesday assured senators reviewing his nomination that he will be an independent voice inside the administration, even going as far as to suggest his perspective differs from the White House on such critical issues as Guantanamo Bay, Ukraine and putting soldiers on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan. Ashton Carter’s performance before the Senate Armed Services Committee provoked an immediate response from the White House, where the chief presidential spokesman Joshua Ernest cautioned that Mr. Obama, and not Mr. Carter, sets policy.

Does Ashton Carter realize who his boss will be? (Washington Post/Jennifer Rubin) — The president’s nominee for secretary of defense, unlike his predecessor, is fully on top of the issues and is an impressive witness. There is little doubt that Ashton Carter will be confirmed. But does he know who he’ll be working for? He roundly condemned the Budget Control Act and concurred with Robert Gates’s original baseline budget that would have specified about $70 billion more in defense spending. But Obama has signed on to the BCA and held defense spending hostage to a tax hike. Carter says underfunding defense sends the wrong message to foes. Carter says he will pledge to be a “stickler” on the chain of command. But this is a White House notorious for politicizing national security decisions. When an Obama political hack calls one of his commanders or interposes herself between Carter and the president, what will he do — resign?

6am – E         Fox News breaks from pack and shows ISIS video. (CNN Money) — That point of view has been echoed by executives at many other major news organizations. Almost unanimously, the news outlets are refusing to show any portions of the video. But Fox News is standing out by showing an image of the hostage being burned alive on television and by posting the entire 22-minute video on its web site.Fox's decision was assailed by some terrorism analysts and journalists — "even by their standards, running barbaric ISIS snuff movie is really appalling," Stuart Millar, the Guardian newspaper's head of news, wrote on Twitter. The newspaper quoted counter-terrorism and radical extremism expert Malcolm W. Nance as saying that Fox is "literally — literally — working for al-Qaida and ISIS's media arm" by spreading the video more widely. Bret Baier, one of the main anchors at the highly-rated cable news channel, explained the decision to show an image from the tape on Tuesday night. During Baier's program, "Special Report," he warned the audience about the disturbing nature of the image before explaining the news outlet's reasoning. "The reason we're showing you this is to bring you the reality of Islamic terrorism and to label it as such," Baier said. "We feel you need to see it so we will put up one of these images on your screen right now." At that point, a single image of the hostage, military pilot Lt. Moath al-Kasasbeh, being engulfed in flames was shown. The image remained on the screen for roughly 40 seconds as Baier described the the video. Then Baier told viewers that it was safe to watch again.

7am – A   INTERVIEW – BLAIR LEE – Maryland political analyst – discussed Governor Hogan’s State of the State address.

7am – B   Jimmy Fallon reunites the cast of Saved by the Bell. The Tonight Show hangs out with Zack, Kelly, Slater, Jessie and Mr Belding. Ah, Bayside High. For anyone born in the mid-Eighties, this fictional California faculty left an indelible impression: it was the setting for early Nineties teen sitcom Saved by the Bell. The series, which managed to tap into the hearts and minds of millions of preteens everywhere despite not actually being that funny, followed the antics of a class of 14-year-olds and their good-natured principal Mr Belding. Such was its popularity, Jimmy Fallon, the host of The Tonight Show, has spent the past few years trying to stage a cast reunion. Last night he finally got his wish. The nostalgic sketch saw Fallon enroll at Bayside High, where naturally his best friends are wise guy Zack Morris (Mark-Paul Gosselaar), jock AC Slater, cheerleader Kelly Kapowski (Tiffani Thiessen) and fashion-obsessed Jessie Spano (Elizabeth Berkley). Mr Belding (Dennis Haskins) also made an appearance. The funniest line was handed out to Gosselaar's Zack. After hearing that Fallon is planning to move to New York to hopefully become a comedian and perhaps get a date with Nicole Kidman, he quipped: "Jimmy going on a date with Nicole Kidman is like Jessie becoming a stripper." (Berkley starred in the erotic 1995 film Showgirls.) Sadly Dustin Diamond (Screech) didn't participate – unsurpising really, given that the actor, who starred in a self-directed, self-released sex tape and was recently arrested for possession of a switchblade knife, was less than complimentary about his fellow cast members in his autobiography.

7am – C         After ISIS execution, angry King Abdullah quotes Clint Eastwood to U.S. lawmakers. (Washington Examiner/Byron York) — Members of the House Armed Services Committee met with Jordan's King Abdullah Tuesday not long after news broke that ISIS had burned to death a Jordanian pilot captured in the fight against the terrorist group. In a private session with lawmakers, the king showed an extraordinary measure of anger — anger which he expressed by citing American movie icon Clint Eastwood. "He said there is going to be retribution like ISIS hasn't seen," said Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter Jr., a Marine Corps veteran of two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, who was in the meeting with the king. "He mentioned 'Unforgiven' and he mentioned Clint Eastwood, and he actually quoted a part of the movie." Hunter would not say which part of "Unforgiven" the king quoted, but noted it was where Eastwood's character describes how he is going to deliver his retribution. There is a scene in the picture in which Eastwood's character, William Munny, says, "Any man I see out there, I'm gonna kill him. Any son of a bitch takes a shot at me, I'm not only going to kill him, I'm going to kill his wife and all his friends and burn his damn house down."

7am – D         INTERVIEW — ED HENRY — Chief White House correspondent for Fox News Channel

• Fox's Henry Grills Earnest: Exactly How Does WH Plan to Support Jordan?
• Does Ashton Carter realize who his boss will be?
• 2 top aides leaving Obama's White House: Obama aide Pfeiffer to leave White House. Jennifer Palmieri, Obama's communications director, will step down in the spring.
• Fox News breaks from pack and shows ISIS video.

7am – E         Sports news:

• IRS to Steal Tom Brady's Superbowl MVP Truck. (ATR) — The world champion New England Patriots will celebrate with the city of Boston today in the now customary duck boat parade downtown.  It would be fitting if an IRS agent was waiting for quarterback Tom Brady at the end of the route. Specifically, he might want to talk about Brady’s new truck.  You know, the 2015 Chevy Colorado he won as Super Bowl MVP. The same truck Brady wants to hand over to Patriots rookie cornerback Malcolm Butler, who won the Super Bowl on a last second interception. The truck is considered a taxable prize under the Internal Revenue Code, section 74.  It’s taxed at Tom Brady’s marginal income tax rate of 39.6 percent (plus state income tax, but I’ll leave the focus on federal here).  According to TrueCar.com, the fair market value of a 2015 Chevy Colorado is in the neighborhood of $34,000.  This is likely an understatement, since it includes none of the options that Chevy no doubt added to the vehicle. So Tom Brady will pay ($34,000 x 39.6 percent) in taxes, or $13,500 in income tax on this prize. But the pain won’t stop there for the greatest quarterback in NFL history. According to ESPN, Brady has decided to gift the truck to Patriots rookie cornerback Malcolm Butler, who made the game-clinching interception on Sunday night.  This is not a taxable event at all for Butler–gifts are never taxed to the recipient.  Brady is not so lucky.  He’s going to have to pay gift tax on this transaction.  The tax code only allows you to give $14,000 tax free from any one person to any one person before assessing a donor level tax on the gift. Assuming this will be Brady’s only gift to Butler this year, the transaction sets up a taxable gift for Brady of $20,000 (the $34,000 value of the truck minus the $14,000 gift tax exclusion).  Assuming Brady has made at least $1 million of taxable gifts up to this point in his life (a safe bet), he will owe a 40 percent gift tax on this $20,000 taxable gift.
• Nationals, Astros take another step toward West Palm Beach spring training site.  The Nationals and Astros made incremental progress toward a joint spring training home Monday night when the West Palm Beach City Commission approved a non-binding agreement with West Palm Beach County to swap the land to be used for the site. Progress continued Tuesday morning when the Palm Beach County Commission voted 6 to 1 to approve the term sheet, according to the Joe Capozzi of the Palm Beach Post. “It’s a huge step,” said former Congressman Mark Foley, who has lobbied on the Nationals behalf throughout their search for a new spring training home. “It’s a culmination of a year’s worth of work. It took a lot of effort to get all the parties to agree. What it says is Palm Beach County is critically interested in preserving the legacy of baseball here in South Florida.”
• Sports Illustrated Will Feature Plus-Sized Bikini Model for First Time. This month, Sports Illustrated will release their annual swimsuit issue, delighting dads across the world and reminding all of us that it's cold as hell outside. This year, the magazine's making a historical change, however. It's featuring plus-size model Ashley Graham in a string bikini on pages usually reserved for women with much smaller bodies. The photo, which is an ad for the "Swimsuits for All" campaign, is only the beginning — maybe next year the magazine will feature a plus-size model in an official layout — but it's a reminder that all bodies are beautiful and that yes, all bodies can go out to the beach in the swimwear of their choosing, regardless of whether it's a classy string bikini or a one-sided thong that needs to be surgically installed via an intestinal tethering system. And if you want to just wear a flight suit with a croissant in each pocket, that's okay, too! Do you! The ad campaign also includes a video of Ashley Graham teasing a group of men who are enchanted by her sexy shape, according to a press release. According to the release, the ad is not only meant to celebrate the fact that no one should have to hide their bodies when going to the beach, but also meant to usher in The Curvy Girl era, which is apparently nigh.

8am – A         INTERVIEW — PETER BROOKES – Senior Fellow, National Security Affairs at the Heritage Foundation and a former deputy assistant secretary of defense. Brookes was a navy pilot and served in President George W. Bush’s administration as deputy assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific affairs. In this post, he was responsible for U.S. defense policy for 38 countries and five bilateral defense alliances in Asia.

• Recap Ashton Carter confirmation hearing:
• Obama Pentagon pick Carter says he won't bend to White House pressure to release Gitmo prisoners
• U.S. Defense Nominee Leans Toward Arms for Ukraine in Fight
• McCain: ISIS Strategy ‘Doesn’t Sound Like a Strategy’

8am – B         Congress news:

• This Dem says being in the Senate minority 'is actually fun.' Chuck Schumer's Enjoying The Freedom Of Life In The Minority. WASHINGTON — It’s 4:30 p.m. on a Tuesday and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is jazzed. Well, as jazzed as one could be at 4:30 p.m. on a Tuesday in the United States Senate. A matter of hours have passed since Democrats successfully blocked Senate Republicans from passing a bill that would have stripped the president's executive actions on immigration reform as a condition for funding the Department of Homeland Security. The Democrats managed this victory without a single defection. That came on the heels of a fight over whether to authorize the Keystone XL pipeline, a fight the party ultimately lost — but not before scoring a few messaging points and keeping the margin narrow enough to sustain a presidential veto. Perhaps it's backward-looking and wrong to say, but there are political perks to being in the minority, Schumer acknowledges. Reclining on his couch, a bottle of water in his hand, his tie loosened and his shoes off, he waxes about his newfound liberties. "It is actually fun. It is really fun to be in the minority," he tells The Huffington Post. "You have a little more freedom in the minority. It is easier to take a theme, stick to it and constantly go after it."
• Congressman Aaron Schock On His Alleged 'Downton Abbey' Office: 'Haters Are Gonna Hate.' (ABC News) — He insists he’s not trying to be Lord Grantham, but Rep. Aaron Schock’s office bears a striking resemblance to the decor featured in the popular PBS British drama series, "Downton Abbey," complete with dark red walls, gold-trimmed photographs and black candles mounted on the walls. "My office last year, or four years ago was a dark navy. And so obviously it wasn't of interest four years ago. So I think the fact that it's red makes people go, 'wow, that's different,'" Schock, R-Illinois, told ABC News on Wednesday in an exclusive interview. "I'm not upset about the red walls." Schock, who at 33 years old is one the youngest members of Congress, explained that he’s "never been an old crusty white guy" so he employed the services of a local interior designer, Annie Brahler, who he entrusted with an office make-over.  Schock told ABC News that he will pay Brahler for her professional services personally once he receives an invoice. (Accepting the services as a gift would potentially be a violation of House rules.) "She's working on the office, so once it's done, I'm sure I will get an invoice as I did before and we'll pay,” Schock said.

8am – C         Study conducted for Pentagon says Putin has Asperger's Syndrome, recommends ways to handle him. WASHINGTON — A study from a Pentagon think tank theorizes that Russian President Vladimir Putin has Asperger's syndrome, "an autistic disorder which affects all of his decisions," according to the 2008 report obtained by USA TODAY. Putin's "neurological development was significantly interrupted in infancy," wrote Brenda Connors, an expert in movement pattern analysis at the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, R.I. Studies of his movement, Connors wrote, reveal "that the Russian President carries a neurological abnormality." The 2008 study was one of many by Connors and her colleagues, who are contractors for the Office of Net Assessment (ONA), an internal Pentagon think tank that helps devise long-term military strategy. The 2008 report and a 2011 study were provided to USA TODAY as part of a Freedom of Information Act request. Researchers can't prove their theory about Putin and Asperger's, the report said, because they were not able to perform a brain scan on the Russian president. The report cites work by autism specialists as backing their findings. It is not known whether the research has been acted on by Pentagon or administration officials. The 2008 report cites Dr. Stephen Porges, who is now a University of North Carolina psychiatry professor, as concluding that "Putin carries a form of autism." However, Porges said Wednesday he had never seen the finished report and "would back off saying he has Asperger's."

8am – D         NBC’s Brian Williams recants Iraq story after soldiers protest. 'I spent much of the weekend thinking I'd gone crazy. I feel terrible about making this mistake.' WASHINGTON — NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams admitted Wednesday he was not aboard a helicopter hit and forced down by RPG fire during the invasion of Iraq in 2003, a false claim that has been repeated by the network for years. Williams repeated the claim Friday during NBC’s coverage of a public tribute at a New York Rangers hockey game for a retired soldier that had provided ground security for the grounded helicopters, a game to which Williams accompanied him. In an interview with Stars and Stripes, he said he had misremembered the events and was sorry.

TOMORROW:          James Rosen and Washington Times reporter Jeffrey Shapiro