down." he actually sent a cease and desist letter. more recently newt gingrich had to stop using the song "eye of the tiger" after being threateneded with a lawsuit. wolf? >> i like all those songs. they're all excellent songs. thanks very much, lisa. our coverage of the main presidential caucuses begins tomorrow night 6:00 p.m. eastern with a special edition to the situation room. that's followed by a complete live coverage of the caucus results at 7:00 p.m. eastern. until then, thanks very much for joining us. i'm wolf blitzer in the situation room. the news continues next on cnn. good evening. i'm john king. tonight president obama retreats on a healthcare bill over contraception that infuriated the catholic church, conservatives and some democrats in tough races this year. also she is always seen but rarely heard. but today calista gingrich tried to help her husband restart his presidential bid. plus former penn state coach jerry sandusky speaks out as he asks the judge to loosen his house arrest on an array of house arrest on an array of sexual abuse charges.

-- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com we begin with the white house riri treat on a major healthcare policy battle with huge political implications. no longer will religious schools and charities be required to provide free birth control to their employees. if they don't the insurance company will have to provide that coverage. the president says it's a win/win. >> this is an issue where people of goodwill on both sides of the debate have been sorting through some very complicated questions to find a solution that works for everybody. with today ease announcement we've done that. religious liberty will be protected, and a law that requires free preventative care will not discriminate against women. >> cnn chief white house correspondent jessica yellin and senior congressional correspondent dana bash.

they're trying to to say they didn't but they botched this one at the white house, the handling of it. do they think with this compromise now they could calm the storm? >> they think they have calmed the storm. they actually were pleased that the catholic church came out with a response that was more positive than they expected. they think that the women's and progressive groups that are aligned with the catholic church and on the left are happy. and they think that this is now going to quiet down. at least they're crossing their fingers and hoping thought does from here on out. >> take us inside the deliberations. just a couple weeks ago they said we're right we're holding firm. >> right. then they saw that this was a firestorm that was growing and the heat was increasing and it wasn't going to quiet down. that conservatives were accusing them of a war on religion. then that was going to be a battle that they weren't going to win unless they changed their position a little bit. and so, yeah. as of wednesday they started saying we were reporting on wednesday that they were already looking at a compromise. they started looking at hawaii. 28 states have a different version of this. but they're really looking at

the hawaii version and how they could make that work legally. this is sort of a legal tweak to make it a federal version of the hawaii plan. >> stay with us. we'll continue the conversation. newt gingrich earlier today was at this gathering of conservatives here in washington. he says this is part of a much bigger battle with the obama white house. listen. >> i frankly don't care what deal he tries to cut. this is a man who is deeply committed -- if he wins re-election he will wage war on the catholic church the morning after he's re-elected. we cannot trust him. we know who he really is. and we should make sure the country knows who he really is. >> dana, let's go through some of the temperature if you will of the reaction. jess mentioned the catholic church. let me read a statement from the u.s. conference of bishops "while there may be an openness to respond to some of our concerns we reserve judgment on the details until we have them." sounds like they're saying thanks but we're not so sure and maybe we want more. >> exactly. look. this is far from over when it comes to the policy and the politics. you just mentioned the policy. i think jessica was saying at

the white house they were certainly happy or at least that was maybe the expectations game they were happy that the catholic bishops didn't come up blasting it but they also didn't embrace it, either. you just heard newt gingrich on the politics of this. that is one aspect of it, that republicans feel that they have a winning argument here in terms of a war on religion. but that's not it. i think the bigger reason why republicans feel that they have a winning issue is because they have been really hoping to add ways to illustrate the whole idea that president obama is infringing too much on your rights. it's the big hand of government. they think that this particular issue brought it into focus for them big time. and rick santorum in particular, i was out with him on the campaign trail this week. he used it in a way that they think really helped him. >> so we'll hear the political rhetoric and that will continue without a doubt. speaker gingrich i think at the front of it, senator santorum and others will follow. speaker boehner said this rule will not stand. does this move by the president put that aside or do we not

know? >> it doesn't. in the fact house of representatives they are going forward with hearings the beginning of next month to look into this, try to enact legislation to repeal this rule. we know the way things go on capitol hill it is likely to pass the house then go nowhere. but at least gives them a political instrument to really try to poke at the president on this issue. >> and i assume their goal was not to please everyone but to please those on the left, the oped columnists and lawmakers on the left, senator casey, candidate kaine in virginia, candidate larson in connecticut, they've satisfied this their only internal revolt. >> they really think this is sort of a d.c. media hysteria and if they can just quiet all of us down it will sort of just pass. and they see some help. this has actually energized young people and women who really care about these issues and that it really energizes the base on both sides. >> that's what's interesting. we've been seeing this as republicans thinking that they have found political gold here with this issue.

but there is a question of whether or not it is helping the president for that particular reason. i've talked to senior democrats who say it looks bad. certainly we messed up the messaging on it. >> not that they wanted this issue. >> right. >> we'll learn more about how it plays out closer to november. thanks for coming in tonight. the health and human services secretary kathleen sibelius was a major player in this debate. she insisted this was not a major retreat and she took us inside some of the heated administration deliberations. >> do men and women have a different perspective on this issue? >> i don't think there's any question that women's health issues have been long ignored in the marketplace. i'm not talking inside the white house. >> talking about conversations in the oval office. >> i think that people express their views. and there were men and women, i would say, on various sides of this whole issue. >> more from secretary sibelius a bit later in the program including more of what some are calling a battle of the sexes inside the obama white house. moving on to other important news tonight, jerry sandusky

wants to see his grandchildren. that's why the former penn state assistant football coach says he showed up in court today. he's facing 50 charges of sexual misconduct with boys. there are allegations now he's been learing at neighborhood children. but sandusky is focusing on how hard it is, he says, when his wife goes to visit the grandchildren alone. >> when she comes home from visiting with grandchildren and tells me that one of them said that the only thing i want for my birthday is to be able to see pop. i'm sensitive to that. >> our reporter live in pennsylvania. jason, one more statement from jerry sandusky today. >> i've associated with thousands of young people over years. and now all of a sudden, okay, because of allegations and perceptions that have tried to have been created of me, now i can't take our dog on my deck

and throw out biscuits to him. >> jason, if you listen to both of those slices of sound there it sounds like jerry sandusky wants us to think of him as the victim, right? >> well, he does. and the reason for that, john, is because he says he's an innocent man. and now he feels like he's being victimized even more. that sound bite you heard him refer to the fact he says he can't go out on his back porch and feed his dog. i want you to take a look at some video that was introduced into evidence today during the hearing. that video is shot by one of sandusky's neighbors. he saw sandusky as you see there out on his back porch. that was introduced into the evidence. defense doesn't have a problem with that video being introduced into evidence because they say under the conditions of his house arrest, john, he's allowed to be out on his back porch. they say he was not learing at children. just to set the scene there, his back porch is right next to a playground from an elementary school. even so, defense says he wasn't learing at children, he was

simply feeding his dog. the bottom line in all this, john, the defense basically wants the conditions of sandusky's bail lifted in some ways if you will. they say he should be able to visit his grandchildren. should be able to have some visitors come and see him under the right conditions. the prosecution is saying no way. they say a man who's facing such serious allegations in no way, shape or form should be able to have his bail lifted or the conditions of his house arrest lifted in any way, shape or form. john? >> keep tracking this case, jason carroll, important reporting live for us tonight from pennsylvania. later this hour the former congresswoman gabrielle giffords is honored with a new combat ship. but up next as the bloodshed in syria continues, fareed zakaria on how russia is now the brutal regime's chief protector. >> it's going to be tough. because the instruments that the international community has are basically the u.n. security council, and that is blocked. .

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activists report close though 50 more deaths in the country. in homs at least 60. in a new move today designed to pressure the assad regime, the state department released some u.s. spy satellite images from above syria. in this one you see artillery deployed toward a town about two hours south of homs. when we talk about that besieged city look here. more artillery pointing at homs. in this image rocket launchers also pointed the u.s. government says towards the besieged city of homs. today on the internet another powerful appeal from an anti-assad activist in homs known as danny. >> they're hitting civilians. we're asking for humanity to help us. we're ask the for the u.n. to help us, arab league to help us. anyone. any kind of humanity in their heart, do something about this. >> wilt international community do more to help? a good place to begin a conversation with wicnn's faree

zakaria. >> reporter: the instruments that the international community has are basically the u.n. security council and that is blocked because russia and china have vetoed any condemnation or particularly any action going forward. and the trouble is that in syria you don't have a place where the opposition has been able to create a kind of base of support or zone of support. >> the united states has been more aggressive in recent days. the turkish government now asking for help. king abdullah of saudi arabia asking for help. we talk about iran being his number one ally. >> reporter: russia is their most important ally. it's not clear why the russians are doing this in the sense they don't have a big economic relationship. my own speculation is it's partly this is the one cold war relationship that has survived in the middle east. and the other part is, of

course, if the principle is established that when you have protests in the street the u.n. secures council can go in and intervene while there are protests on the streets in moscow, there are protests on the street in st. peters burg. >> turn you attention to the presidential campaign and foreign policy issues. i had a conversation with rick santorum yesterday after he said in a speech in indiana that the united states is throwing israel under the bus because he has a long-term plan to make friends with iran. i pressed him on that. i want you to listen. >> the president who fought tooth and nail against putting sanctions on iran and only ca pit lated at the end. this is a president who is not standing by our allies, is trying to appease, trying to find a way to allow -- clearly to allow iran to get a nuclear weapon. he's doing absolutely nothing in a consequential way to make sure they do not get this weapon. >> does that match up with the

facts? >> reporter: no. it's unfortunate campaign rhetoric. but here's why it's very dangerous. because we have to try to approach the strategy toward iran with a great deal of pressure. but we also have to try to find some negotiated outcome that is going to work. that is to say if we're trying to avoid a war, if we are trying to get a non-nuclear iran that is iran without nuclear weapons without having the united states launch its third war in the middle east in 15 years, woe need some negotiating track which everyone understands. this is something that everyone from henry kissinger to james baker to republican secretaries of state have endorsed for years now. so to not accept the idea that we're going to have to play a fairly sophisticated game here, and if every time there were any talk of trying to have this kind of sophisticated approach it becomes -- it degenerates into charges of treason and allowing the iranians to have a nuclear

weapon, it worries me. it worries me in particular because the charge of santorum is almost manufactured out of whole cloth. obama right now is only pressuring iran. all he has done is put more and more pressure on iran. you can see the success of that strategy by looking at the iranian economy. look at the value of iran's currencies which has dropped by 65% since obama came into office. but at some point you are going to have to search for some kind of -- some way of getting to a place where you get inspectors back in, you turn the cameras on, and you can -- you have a situation. the best outcome surely is no war, no nuclear weapons. and santorum's rhetoric makes it much much more difficult to do that. so it's actually quite dangerous. >> fareed zakaria as always thank you. >> pleasure. rick santorum catching heat over something he said right here on this program last night. now he's trying to clarify his position on women in the military. but he might just be making it worse. and look at this image. no, that's not the arctic

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welcome back. here's mary snow with the latest news you need to know right now. >> reporter: in the future the uss gabrielle giffords will shale the high seas. giffords was on hand for the announcement with her husband mark kelly.

she resigned from congress last month to focus on her recovery after an assassin's bullet nearly claimed her life. a striking image from eastern europe. the black sea frozen to the horizon. a brutal cold snap is gripping the area causing hundreds of deaths. shipping is slowing to a crawl with dozens of boats trapped by ice. arctic air is blowing deep into europe, and forecasters don't expect it to let up anytime soon. and this must be nature's equivalent of a punk rocker. a pennsylvania couple found this in their backyard, a purple squirrel. there's no explanation but as you can imagine plenty of theories. one expect said the squirrel must have gotten into contact with some kind of dye. the couple released it back into the wild on tuesday. it may be back in the wild but it does have a facebook page. >> purple and this is pennsylvania? >> how did you guess? >> on our magic wall that's rick santorum's color. when we assign the states on election night, maybe it's a

santorum vote. >> aha! >> theories, mary. we'll see you in a few minutes. critics have said it time and time again. mitt romney they say not conservative enough to be the republican nominee. today he tried to prove the naysayers wrong at c pac. and over birth control. did it even divide men and women in the obama administration. >> i don't think there's any question that women's health issues have been long ignored in the marketplace. i'm not talking about inside the white house. >> secretary of health and human services kathleen sibelius on whether the white house had a battle of the sexes on its hands.

8 the health and human services secretary kathleen sibelius. a divided c pac. conservatives are searching their souls as the candidates battle for their affections. two big teenage stars are reunited, not on the movie screen but in hospital beds. rick santorum had some explaining to do over how he feels about women on the front lines after talking to me here last night. >> do i have concerns about women in frontline combat. i think that could be a very compromising situation where people naturally may do things that may not be in the interests of the mission because of other types of emotions that are involved.

>> now santorum says he was talking about the emotions of men. here's what he told wolf blitzer today. >> just simply the emotions of men and dealing with women in combat and not focused as potentially on the mission instead of in protecting a natural instinct to protect someone who's a female. >> he also said women aren't as physically capable as men in some situations. let's get to our live at the pentagon barbara before we talk let's listen to navy secretary ray mavis talking about this issue today. >> i've been to afghanistan now seven times. and i can tell you from first-hand experience there are no front lines there. and women have been serving in areas of great danger for a decade now. regardless of what the policy is. because there are no front lines. now, and they've been serving with great distinction. they've been serving at great

risk. >> barbara, what do top military officials make of senator santorum's comments? >> i think ray mabus is sending the ultimate signal there. talk about raised eyebrows. they are commanding women on the front lines. women are not serving in infantry units, in small sniper platoons, in special operations forces. but the reality is over 800 women have been wounded in the last ten years in battle. more than 140 have lost their lives. i talked to one female iraq veteran today, a sergeant we've known for many years now. she said she considered santorum's remarks an insult to the troops. but let me give you the other side of it. i spoke to an army colonel, a man i have been under fire with in afghanistan. he said he was raised in texas and he would -- was raised to protect women. i said would you put the mission at jeopardy to protect some woman? he said absolutely not. troops understand when they are in the war zone this is not a gender issue.

>> and senator santorum was speaking, barbara, because of the pentagon has eased some rules to have women along the front lines as medics and communication roles and such. where is this debate heading? >> we see it playing out in the political sphere, where is it playing out in the policy sphere? >> reporter: in the pentagon it is playing out to the ultimate that women would be able to serve in any one of those really hard combat specialties that even men are very challenged to be in. special operations forces, sniper teams, scout teams. there's plenty of men that can't qualify for those jobs, either. they are based on your physical, mental qualification toss do those jobs. and the pentagon is now headed down the road of looking at whether it can really accommodate women in terms of privacy issues berthing where they sleep how they live in these very close combat situations. there are a lot of military forces around the world that have a lot of women serving. it's an idea whose time has come. >> barbara starr, fascinating

report live at the pentagon tonight. newt gingrich is attaching the gop establishment. rick santorum is attack mitt romney. mitt romney is on a mission to show conservatives he's one of them. each one at the annual influential c pac summit here in washington. let's start with speaker gingrich. >> for the republican establishment, managing the decay is preferable to changing the trajectory. because changing the trajectory requires real fights and real willingness to roll up the sleeves and take on the left. >> who has supported in fact the stepchild of obama care. the person in massachusetts who built the largest government-run healthcare system in the united states. someone who would simply give that issue away in the fall. >> i know that this president will never get it. but we conservatives aren't just proud to cling to our guns and

to our religion. we are also proud to cling to our tution. >> national political correspondent jim acosta is live with us tonight. jim let's start with governor romney and the reservations many conservative activists have about him. you were in the room when he spoke today. how was the sales pitch? did he do the job? >> reporter: john, mitt romney is finding out he did not have conservatives at hello in this gop campaign. but he tried to address those skeptics in the conservative wing at the republican party today in those remarks. at one point mitt romney referred to himself as a severely conservative governor during his days in massachusetts. those were not in his prepared remarks. he improvised that. so it's going to be interesting to see how conservatives take this speech. the speech was well received. i can tell you that. it was not as well received as rick santorum's speech. it was a much more fiery speech from the former pennsylvania senator. but we'll find out tomorrow night. if mitt romney could somehow pull off a win in that c pac straw poll we know it's non-binding.

doesn't mean a lot perhaps the day after the convention is over. but that could go a long way perhaps to give him a good housekeeping seal of approval from conservatives. >> he could use that boost right now. the questions about governor romney is one major plot line. the other one is his sort of competition to be the first leading conservative alternative. if that's a gingrich-santorum contest how did that play out today? >> reporter: you know, john, i think we saw two different strategies today. from rick santorum, he was trying to show his pugnacious side. he has been under fire all week from the romney forces. they've been going after his record supporting earmarks when he was in congress. he went after mitt romney today, talking about how romney care was the stepchild of obama care. i went up to rick santorum, asked him about that. i said do you stand by that remark? was that over the top? he said no it wasn't. newt gingrich was trying to do something different today, john. we know that women voters have had a very tough time supporting the former speaker. the exit polls and entrance polls from all these caucuses and primaries tell us that. it was interesting to see calista gingrich give the opening remarks. we don't see much of her out on

the campaign trail, not as much as ann romney often introducing her husband. calista gingrich gave that warmup speech. talked about how newt gingrich isn't a very good golfer. i spoke to the campaign head. he said you'll be seeing more because she brings out the softer side of her husband. >> jim, thanks so much. as jim just noted, calista gingrich usually seen but not heard on the campaign trail. but she did introduce the former speaker today. it's a possible signal she's about to take perhaps a bigger role in her husband's campaign. >> when we decided to run, we knew there would be tough stories from the media as well as hurtful attacks from some of our opponents. what we didn't know was how kind so many americans would be to us. >> politics aside, calista gingrich also talked about how her husband spends his down time. hear that a bit later coming up

in tonight's moment you may have missed. first let's turn to president obama backing up a controversial birth control rule, one that waded into the overlap between women's healthcare and religious liberty. >> every woman should be in control of the decisions that affect her own health. period. this basic principle is already the law in 28 states across the country. now, as we move to implement this rule, however, we've been mindful that there is another principle at stake here, and that's the principle of religious liberty. >> after intense pressure from conservatives, churches, even some democrats, the president says church affiliated schools and hospitals will not be forced to offer free birth control to their employees. but if they say no on religious or moral grounds the insurance companies will have to pick up the slack. i asked the secretary of health and human services kathleen sibelius. >> the president said he had to speed up this process because

some were playing political football in his terms. a lot of republicans have raised this, a lot of conservatives have raised this. but senator bob casey a democrat of pennsylvania, tim kaine the president's former hand-picked chairman of the democratic party, congressman john larson a democrat and member of the house democratic leadership. they were among the sharpest critics here, madam secretary. were they playing political football? >> well, i think that they were voicing their religious objections and their hope that we could find a way to both respect religious liberty and deliver these incredibly important preventative services so women could make their own determination about their health and their family's health. and we've done just that. >> some of those long-time allies and friends who objected pretty forecefully here say you had to have known this would happen. you had to have known you wouldn't get a year to work this through. and they wonder how does a president especially a president heading into a re-election campaign seem so tone deaf? >> well, john, again i don't think it's a question of not being aware that this

controversy was out there. but i just want to remind you what was called for was a vast expansion of a total exemption, making millions of women, their spouses of employees, daughters of employees, millions of people who work in universities, work in hospitals, work all over this country, bear the financial burden of an employer's objection to contraception coverage. we know that this is a critical health benefit. and the women who may or may not share that faith tenet, nurses and teachers and janitors, would have had that financial burden imposed on them and their families. so it wasn't being unmindful of the objection. but what we pledged to do and what we have done is find a solution that both satisfies the health needs of the women, follows the institute of medicine's important recommendation on a range of services including contraception, and respects the

religious liberties of these employers. >> if you call into the white house and ask about the policy deliberations, you get an account that at times sounds like a battle of the sexes. vice-president biden, the former white house chief of staff bill daily on one side. you madam secretary, valerie janet, one of the president's top aides. nancy depaul from the health office on the other side. was that what played out here, the men and women fighting over this policy? >> i wasn't at least part of any battles. i was a part of many discussions about how the best path was to move forward. there were certainly some who argued for a broader exemption. >> did it brake down that way? do men and women have a different perspective on this issue? >> i don't think there's any question that women's health issues have been long ignored in the marketplace. >> i'm now talking about conversations in the oval office. >> well, i think that people expressed their views. and there were men and women, i would say, on various sides of this whole issue. but the president was very firm from the outset.

women should have access to preventative healthcare wherever she worked, whether she was a nurse or a teacher or a janitor. her employer should not determine her access to important preventative health. and her income shouldn't determine that. that's the promise of the affordable care act. and that should be available to women across the country. on the other hand, he insisted that we needed to respect religious liberty and find a way to have a workable alternative. we knew that those situations were in place around the country. we've been reaching out to various states, various insurer stakeholders. and i think we managed to find a solution where women will have access to these preventative healthcare and religious liberty of employers is respected. and that is exactly where we need to be. >> madam secretary, thanks for your time. >> sure. good to talk to you, john. three presidential hopefuls all of them speaking on the same day at the same conservative conference.

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c pac is an annual ritual and in some ways an annual irony. the biggest conservative pep rally of the year held always in the city those very conservatives complain has become all too powerful and all

too important. four years ago mitt romney ended his presidential campaign at c pac. this year today to be precise he tried to revive his presidential campaign at c pac. >> i fought against long odds in a deep blue state. but i was a severely conservative republican governor. [ cheers and applause ] >> i understand that the battles we as conservatives must fight, because i have been on the front lines. >> here's a little more irony. one of the most controversial voices of the right urging a gathering known for promoting ideological purity to think, well, less ideologically. >> keep your eye on the prize, right wingers. the only question you should keep asking yourself is who will have the most appeal to independents, to undecided, to my gender. >> read that as a bit of help for governor romney. but governor romney's biggest threat of the moment beg to divider, saying aiming for the middle was what did in past gop

nominees like bob dole and john mccain. >> well, i think we have learned our lesson. and the lesson we've learned its that we will no longer abandon and apologize for the policies and principles that made this country great for a hollow victory in november. [ cheers and applause ] >> well, here's tonight's truth. the conservative movement has a serious case of the jitters, not sure it can trust romney, not sure if santorum can win, not sure of gingrich period. just not sure. it's an odd place for a movement that had so much vigor and energy coming out of the huge wins of the 2010 election cycle. that sure seems like a long time ago these days. a look at gop turnout in recent weeks suggestion a profound lack of enthusiasm. conversations with c pac meetings means profound lack of consensus. as speak after speaker noted, president obama is a unifying force across the conservative spectrum. but watching the movement soul searching is fascinating.

there's a lot of excitement about the next generation. a lot of questions about the current crop. it's not unusual for a party out of power. but it sure is interesting to watch it play out. let's talk truth now with three conservative voices. rich galen a veteran gop strategist at one time gingrich ally. erick erickson a joe miller. welcome all the way from washington, d.c. i want to listen to a little bit more of governor romney. big test for him today. three big setbacks in the last week. a conservative movement unsure if not opposed. he says pick me. >> this election really is about a battle for the soul of america. and it's going to come down to a choice. a choice between whether we want a nation to be of and by washington or a nation of and by a free people. and we conservatives believe in freedom and free people and free enterprises. [ cheers and applause ] >> now when you ran against lisa

murkowski in alaska you were criticizing her, too much time in washington, all the habits of washington. governor romney there was trying to say speaker gingrich, senator santorum you're going to get more washington. i'm not sure what a severe conservative is. but how did that go? >> i don't think it went over well. if we're looking for a severely conservative governor and we look at that record, it's obviously not what conservatives are looking for. frankly in 2012 in november in order to win that race it's going to require that core base. that core base of conservatives that already are reflecting a lack of enthusiasm. i think it's in part because of what they aren't hearing, particularly from governor romney. and that is that look, this country is in severe financial crisis. we've got to get the fiscal house in order. we've got to get d.c. out of these areas it shouldn't be in, get back to the constitution. with that in that core base people are going to stay home and we aren't going to win the white house in november. so i encourage all of the three candidates who are standing against romney, i think that they offer fine ideas. they all offer fine fiscal packages. but what we see or what we heard

today at c pac is rhetoric, it's not reflective i think of a real true conservative voice. and i think what this nation needs at this point in time is somebody that has a radical idea about d.c. going to get back to its foundations. >> eric, coming into that room governor romney could win the room. don't think anybody at the table agrees he did today. he also could hurt himself more. if he broke even maybe not so bad. what's your calculation? >> i would be charitable and say he broke even, but i think the sound bite that it's the one ad libbed remark he made during the day that i'm a severely conservative republican governor. rush limbaugh has already come out and severe conservatives is what liberals say. if that plays out without him trying to walk that back he may have trouble when talk radio tunes in to the conservative base. >> is it a big problem to ad lib a line like that or people who are already predispose today not like him will thump him with it? >> i think that's a big part of it. what santorum said about a

hollow victory in november, winning the presidency is -- i'll take a hollow victory if we can win the presidency. i think most of us would take that no matter how big the hole might be. but i do think that i'd agree with eric. i think playing to a draw today for governor almost any was fine. that's really all he needed. and if rush wants to jump on the severe line, that's fine. that keeps everybody happy. >> senator santorum walks in with a lot of energy. i wasn't to show you first a tweet from his communications director. he says breaking at rick santorum campaign. three states, three wins, three days, 3 million. today is third conservative million dollar day. c pac game on momentum. >> he comes into this room of conservatives, activists from all around the country, states that have yet to vote and he's very aggressive saying look at mitt romney and this is what you got. >> who has a record of supporting health savings accounts and tort reform and bottom up consumer-driven

healthcare for 20 years? and who has -- and who has supported in fact the stepchild of obama care? the person in massachusetts who built the largest government-run healthcare system in the united states. someone who would simply give that issue away in the fall. >> eric we talked about it sometime ago. the health care issue disappeared. newt gingrich, santorum, people went after governor romney. how successful is he using that argument. >> he's using it very successfully. they have been hitting on that core issue. go back to the cnn debate in jacksonville he threw that line out against romney on felons voting. everyone scratched their head why are you doing this. it threw romney off his game. he came back and threw romney

off with this health care issue. it has worked. >> if you go tea party activists who have the energy in the party in 2010 the obama health care plan was part of the energy. a lot of the anger was at the republicans not all about obama. when they look at rick santorum do they think he can win? >> where has he been in the past? part of the problem is he's dodged that. i talked to senator santorum today. his fiscal plan, $5 trillion in four years. that's real cuts. that's what that tea party base is looking for. >> let me say this. if that clip counts as people falling down in the aisles thrilled with what that he herd, he's a better candidate than what that clip showed. >> talking to a lot of people at cpac they are not enthused about any of the three candidates.

their is that right with santorum but they don't know he can win. they don't trust mitt romney or newt gingrich. >> it's hard. >> i think part of the reason why is because of the way the campaign has been conducted to this point. we got one candidate with all the money. who is burning down the house if he done win. that isn't the way to approach this. i think at the core people have got to get back to the base. if they don't they will lose it in november. >> i think that's entirely wrong. >> we'll continue the conversation another day. maine caucus is tomorrow night. >> it's been going on for a week. >> president obama will release his budget on monday. do you have some advance information about the numbers? >> that's right, we do. the numbers are out for his budget for 2013 and we have the numbers. pretty interesting what you see in there and also what you don't see, john. we'll get to the bottom line much that. also pretty amazing and pretty

sad depressing number it's been in this country that we've not had a budget which is part of reason we keep downgrading. breaking news on syria. >> erin we'll see you in a few minutes. >> still ahead, sill vef -- sylvester stallion and arnold schwarzenegger, side-by-side in hospital beds. we'll tell you what they were doing. you don't want to miss this. imagine if you could always see life [music] in the best light. every time of day.

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. welcome back. here's the latest news you need to know. >> americans incomes are getting a little bit better. median income, the middle of what american households make went up. it's more than $51,000. the biggest jump in income since 2007. the cia's website has been hacked. hacking group anonymous claims credit for taking it down. anonymous said they've taken down all kind of websites from the department of justice the fbi website. encouraging news for expectant moms going through chemo. it won't hurt the baby. doctors didn't find any evidence that the kids were hurt by the chemo. madonna stalker nabbed by police. the material girl has been dealing with him for years. he escaped from a mental hospital a week ago.

the lapd say he's highly psychotic and has violent tendencies. he finished his sentence for stalking madonna back in the '90s. police are deciding whether he'll face more charges. $325 million could be yours. yep. you heard that right. tomorrow's big powerball jackpot drawing will award that if there's a winner. you can still buy tickets. set you back two bucks. those ticket prices doubled upsetting a lot of people. remember this? your odds of winning less than one in 175 million. and there was once a time when a photo. arnold schwarzenegger and sylvester stallone short list would have had women swooning. the two actors snapped this photo after having shoulder surgery. it wasn't planned. schwarzenegger wrote on his blog look who was waiting in line behind me for his shoulder

surgery. take a look at those tatoos. >> you're dealing me you're not swooning? >> not exactly. they are still in pretty good shape. >> the moment you may have missed today, calista gingrich speaking. she doesn't say much. on the edge of our seats today when she took the mic at the conservative cpac summit. >> newt is an enthusiastic and committed golfer. it's true. he gets in and out of more sand traps than anyone i have ever seen. newt golfs the way he does everything. with enthusiasm and determination. he's willing to learn and never gives up.