CountIfs and OR

I have 8 coloums of data, Coloum 1,3,5,7 are dates, the others have letters. example

01/01/11 ght
02/01/11 gpts


the fomula I am trying to use is
=COUNTIFS(C1:C6,TODAY(),D1:D6,OR("*p*","*a*"))

basically - look in the first coloum, then check the next one for either P or A in the cell and then count it.

I have tried using sumproduct - but did not work and using the search function - any help in the right direction appreciated.
Also tried
=COUNTIFS(C1:C6,TODAY(),D1:D6,{"*p*","*a*"})
but get nothing

Secondly -
will this work on multiule coloums at once - example
=sum(if(C1:C6,E1:E6,G1:G6=TODAY(),if(D1:D6,F1:F6,H1:H6="*a" OR "*P",1,0)
Note the above is example of what it needs to do, but clearly wont.