Fiscal Cliff Forever; Saucy Scalia; and Double Pope

President Barack Obama took to the airwaves to decry the lack of a deal on the so-called sequester budget cuts. Has Capitol Hill devolved into a state of perpetual dysfunction, or is this disagreement finally proof that there's something worth fighting for? Also, Supreme Court conservatives take a hard-line on the Voting Rights Act while the White House and a coalition of Republicans as the court to overturn California's ban on gay marriage. Bob Scheer decries the government's role in squashing whistle-blower rights in its prosecution of Bradley Manning, and Jonathan Last (our guest on the Right) looks at what it means to have a new Pope before the Pope Emeritus has shaken his mortal coil. (We're also joined by special guest Robert Reich.)

Banner image: Swiss guards close the Vatican doors after Benedict XVI leaves the Vatican for his last time as Pope. Photo courtesy of the Vatican