What is happening in the GOP? John Ensign and Mark Sanford are the latest casualties of controversy in the Republican Party, admitting to having extramarital affairs. Both were thought to be 2012 presidential hopefuls, but now what's in store for the Republican party?

Joining The Takeaway are two prominent advisers and strategists in the Republican Party. Grover Norquist is the President of Americans for Tax Reform and the author of “Leave Us Alone – Getting the Government’s Hands off our Money, Our Guns, Our Lives.” And Ron Kaufman is a former White House Political Director under George H.W. Bush and also a close friend and adviser to Mitt Romney.

President Barack Obama marked his first 100 days in office last night with a prime-time news conference. It was the third of Obama's presidency, and the first not dominated by the recession. Jay Newton-Small, Washington reporter for Time Magazine, joins The Takeaway to analyze the press conference.

Cap and trade, it’s not a breakfast cereal or an off-season NFL strategy. Yes even though the NFL draft starts tomorrow, but no, it is not some new football strategy or rule. So what exactly is cap and trade, and why are some Republicans predicting that it’s going to cost each household in the United States over $3,000 if this Democrat-sponsored global warming proposal gets approved?

To answer these questions, The Takeaway is joined by John Reilly, an MIT Environmental Economist. He is the man behind the curtain who actually calculated the cost of the proposed cap and trade. And he says that the GOP has misrepresented his data.

Congressional Republicans agree that President Obama's budget "spends too much, taxes too much and borrows too much." So, what's the Republican argument for fiscal discipline in these times with this President and Congress? How is the GOP planning to participate in budget negotiations? We had a lot of questions and decided to go straight to the source: The Takeaway talks with Eric Cantor, the Republican representative of Virginia's 7th congressional district, who serves as the House Minority Whip about the Republican view of the President's economic recovery plan.

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Related:
• Education secretary Arne Duncan on how stimulus dollars could help schools
• Senator Charles Grassley takes on the stimulus bill
• Gov. Jon Corzine on buying into Geithner's toxic asset plan
• The Takeaway is investigating the Recovery Act with you at ShovelWatch.org

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Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill have been a united party over the past few weeks, as they refused to help pass President Obama’s plan to stimulate the economy. Now that the stimulus bill has become law, despite the lack of Republican support, how are Republicans on the state level handling the stimulus money heading to their states? Joining us to talk about where he comes down on the plan is Minnesota's Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty. He joins us this morning from Saint Paul, Minnesota.

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The Obama administration is finding few Republican allies in Washington these days, despite having high hopes of reaching across the aisle to enlist Republican support for some early initiatives. Only three Republicans in the Senate voted for the passage of the economic stimulus bill last Friday and not one Republican in the House supported the bill. To make matters worse, Republican Senator Judd Gregg withdrew his nomination as Commerce Secretary because of disagreements with the new administration. Is this the end of the effort at bipartisanship? Julie Mason, White House correspondent for the Washington Examiner joins the Takeaway for a rundown of the issues.

The Republican National Committee begins its winter meeting today and by the end of the week they will have elected a new chairman. The race for the chairmanship has just started to heat up and there are no shortage of contenders for the job. Politico reporter Alex Burns joins us from Washington, D.C. for a look at the horse race. Or is that an elephant race?

The President will meet with Republican House and Senate members today in the hopes of selling them on his stimulus package. GOP party leaders have so far been unswayed. One of the lawmakers meeting with President Obama today is Jason Chaffetz, the Republican Representative for the 3rd Congressional district in Utah. He joins us to explain his take on the president's proposal.