handle it when it's not happening? then you can have a logical discussion. >> thank you very much. nice to meet you. >> my pleasure. >> this conversation continues online. find me on facebook, on twitter. our handle is cnnbottomline. find me as christine romans. have a great weekend, everyone. good saturday morning to you all. we're at the top of the hour here on the cnn saturday morning. we want to start with a live event that's taking place right now. governor mitt romney has taken the stage at the value voter summit in washington, d.c. this is a collection of conservative activists. it's pretty much all the presidential candidates on the republican side have been addressing the people there over the past couple of days. you may have heard of the controversy that was sparked yesterday at this same value voters summit when the person who got up, pastor robert

jeffers, got up on stage to introduce an opponent. he got up to introduce governor perry of texas. and he actually had some words to say about mitt romney. and his religion. some controversial remarks. he went on later to tell reporters that, in fact, he believes that mormonism is a cult and that mitt romney is not a true christian. so i tell you all that to set up what we're seeing today. mitt romney taking the stage. a lot of people wondering if he would address the controversy. he just took the stage moments before we hit the air here. we're going to start this from the very top and let you hear all of mitt romney's comments and he started by going after the president. let's listen to him now. ♪ >> thank you. thank you.

thank you so much. thank you. wow, a lot of old friends here. good to be so enthusiastically welcomed. and thank you to jay seculow. aren't we lucky to have a treasurerer like that arguing our causes before the supreme court. and speaking of hitting it out of the park, how about that bill bennet? isn't he something else? now, i've been coming to this event for six years. and this is the biggest crowd yet. for that, i suppose we should acknowledge president obama. he is, after all, the conservative movement's top recruiter. you know, it turns out he really is a good community organizer.

although i don't think this is the community he had in mind. in almost every other way, president obama has been a failure. he faced a recession and he made it worse. he announced a recovery summer. a year and a half later, we're still waiting. 25 million americans are out of work or out of hope. chronic unemployment is higher than it's ever been in recorded history. home values and retirement funds have been devastated. and all this didn't come cheap. in one term, he has amassed or will have amassed more debt than all of our prior presidents combined. we need stability and solvency. we got solyndra. president obama likes to remind us of what he inherited with one glaring exception. he forgets to mention that he also inherited a aaa bond

rating. but now the american people are starting to do some downgrading of their own. last november and in special elections across the country since then, americans have rejected the president's agenda. and maybe you can think back, just after an inauguration, he was on the "today" show. and he told the interviewer -- not the innovator, the interviewer, he said if he couldn't turn the economy around in three years, why he would be looking at a one-term proposition. we're here to collect. we're here to collect. the president has just unveiled his latest jobs stimulus. and he's furious that we're not enthusiastic about it. but, mr. president, we remember your last stimulus, the one you

promised would hold unemployment below 8%. it ended up costing over a quarter of a million dollars for every job you said it created or saved. a quarter of a million dollars a job. and we also remember your cash for clunkers program. that ended up costing $24,000 for every vehicle traded in. at the rates your handing out government money, every american will have to pay your millionaire's tax. president obama has proved that old maxim from ronald reagan. it's not that liberals are ignorant. it's just that what they know is wrong. you see, i think to help create jobs, it helps to have a job.

i spent my clear in the private sector. i made a airline. i signed the front as well as the back of a payroll check. i've actually saved jobs and created jobs. i know what it takes to get america back to work. let me tell you some of the highlights of what i'll do. beginning on day one of my presidency, i'll take bold action to help grow our economy and create jobs. i'll issue an executive order that directs the secretary of health and human services to grant a waiver from obama care to all 50 states. obama care is a wolf in wolf's clothing. it's expensive, it's intrusive, and it's unconstitutional. and that's why i'm going to fight to repeal it.

i'll put an end to every one of the job killing regulations imposed by this obama administration. i will open production of energy across the country. i'll remove the barriers to developing our coal and oil and gas, natural gas resources. and by the way, i welcome renewable energy. but as an old venture capitalist myself, i can tell you this. no more solyndras. i'm going to promote free trade and open markets. and for stealing our designs and our patents and our know-how, and for manipulating their currency to unfairly attack our industries and our jobs, i will finally clamp down to china.

i'll protect the right of american workers to vote by secret ballot. and i'll fight -- and i'll fight to stop union bosses from using the dues of their union members to support those bosses' favorite campaigns. that has to end. now, those are just a few steps. i'm just getting started. but the full plan i proposed, you can take a look at it. you can download it for free on your amazon kindle or at my website. it has 59 distinct action steps. and these actions will do something that's critically needed. they'll make america once again the most attractive place in the world for business and for investment and for jobs. did you read last week the ceo of coca-cola said that the

business environment in china is better than that here in the united states? china? if that isn't an indictment of this administration and of washington, what is? it's time to let a conservative businessman take the reigns of government to make sure that america, not china, is the economic powerhouse of the world. you know, there's a growing chorus of people in the country who believe that america's day has passed. they believe that we need to accommodate ourselves to a world of multiple balanced powers. but god didn't create this country to be a nation of followers. america must lead the world or someone else will. i'm guided by one overwhelming conviction and passion. this century must be an american century.

in an american century, america has the strongest economy and the strongest military in the world. in an american century, america leads the free world and the free world leads the entire world. let me make this perfectly clear. as president of the united states, i will devote myself to an american century and i will never, ever apologize for america. american strength rises from a strong economy, from a strong defense, and from the enduring strength of our values. unfortunately, under this president, all three of those things have been weakened. now, i've already spoken about the actions i'll take to strengthen our economy. to strengthen our military, i'll reverse the president's cuts to

the defense budget. time and again, we've seen that attempts to balance the budget by weakening our military only lead to a far higher price not only in treasure, but in blood. i'm going to modernize our navy and our air force, add active duty soldiers, restore a robust missile defense system and gi give -- and i want to make sure we give our veterans the care they deserve. i also want to repair our alliances, our friends should never fear that we will not stand by them in an hour of need. i'll reaffirm our vital national interest in israel's existence as a jewish state.

i will count as dear our special relationship with the united kingdom and i'll begin talks -- i'll begin talks with mexico to strengthen our cooperation on our shared problems of drugs and of security. this is america's moment. i will not surrender america's role in the world. it's very simple. if you do not want america to be the strongest nation on earth, i'm not your president. you have that president today. now, the foundation needed for a strong economy and a strong military is the people of strong values. the values i learned in my home have enriched my life

immeasurably. i had a mom and a dad. what a blessing that was. my parents' example led me to marry, to have children, and now to bask in the joy of 16 grandchildren. for the last 42 years, anna has been my partner and joy and she's done those things which have brought more happiness to our lives than anything i've done. for she took the lead in raising our five boys. did you see that steve jobs was asked whether he was glad that he had children? he said it's 10,000 times better than anything i have ever done. but we know that marriage is more than a personally rewarding social custom. it's critical for the well being of a civilization. that's why it's so important to

preserve traditional marriage, the joining together of one man and one woman. and that's why i will appoint an attorney general who will defend the bipartisan law passed by congress and signed by bill clinton, the defense of marriage act. unfortunately, when it comes to marriage, our government's policies are often out of step with our values. if a couple have a baby, the government will actually give them more support in the form of food stamps, welfare, other benefits, than if they do not marry than if they do. our safety net programs penalize the decision to marry instead of rewarding it. that's just wrong. and that's why i'll eliminate these marriage penalties and i will hold fathers financially responsible for their child whether or not they've married the mother. they have to take responsibility.

our values must also encompass the life of an individual child. there are strong convictions on both sides of this issue, yet it speaks wul of our country that almost all americans recognize that abortion is a problem. the law may call it a right, but no one ever called it a good. and in a quiet of conscious, people of both political parties know that more than a million abortions a year can't be squared with the good heart of america. i support the hite amendment, which broadly bars the use of federal funds for abortions. as president -- i'll let federal funding for abortion advocates

like planned parent hood. i'll protect the health care workers' right to follow their conscious in their work and i will nominate judges who know the difference between personal opinion and law. it is long past time it is long past time for the supreme court to overturn roe v. wade. because the good heart of america knows no boundaries, a commitment to protecting life shouldn't stop at the water's edge. taking innocent life is always wrong and always tragic wherever

it happens. the compassionat instincts of this country should not be silent in the face of injustices like china's one child policy. and if i'm president, you will never hear me or my vice president tell the chinese government that we understand or won't second-guess compulsory sterilization and forced abortion. almost all americans live for a purpose greater than ourselves. our heritage of religious faith and tolerance has importantly shaped who we become as a people. we must continue to welcome faith into the public square and allow it to flourish. our government -- our government must respect religious values, not silence them.

we will always pledge our allegiance to a nation that is under god. now, one more thing. our values are noble as a citizen and they strengthen the nation. we should remember the decency and civilities are values, too. one of the speakers who will follow me today is across that line, i think. poisonous language doesn't advance our cause. it's never softened a single heart or changed a single mind. the blessings of faith carries the responsibility of civil and respectful debate. the task before us is to focus on the conservative beliefs and the values that unite us. let no agenda narrow our vision or drive us apart. we have important work to accomplish. my friends, the 21st century

must be an american century. it began with terror, war, and economic calamity. it's our duty to steer it under the path of freedom, peace and prosperity. my hope is that our grandchildren will remember us in the same way that we remember the last generation of americans who overcame adversity, that fought in world wars, that came to the great depression and to gain victory in the cold wars. let future generations look back on us and say they rose to the occasion, they embraced our duty and they led our nation to safety and strength. the greatest generation is passing, but as their light fades, we must seize that torch they carried so gal landly at such great sacrifice. it's an eternal torch of decency, freedom and hope. it's not america's torch alone, but it is america's duty and

honor to hold it high enough that all the world can see its light. i believe in that america. we believe in that america. thank you, and god bless the united states of america. thank you. >> well, there you have it, listening to governor mitt romney and take a little hop off the stage there. he's speaking at the values voter summit, talked about, what, about 20 minutes there addressing conservative voters. he hit on some of the things you would expect to hear as one of the presidential candidates who will be talking to a roomful of conservatives, but also important about what he did not say and not necessarily expected him to see. but there was controversy surrounding the value voters summit after a rick perry supporter got on stage yesterday right before introducing rick perry and said some inflammatory remarks, but then later said to reporters that he thought that governor romney belonged to a

cult and that mormanism is a cult. he made those comments to reporters yesterday and then he stood by those comments when he was asked about it repeatedly by a number of reportsers includin our jim across ya. >> is southern baptist convention has officially labeled mormanism as a cult. i think mitt romney is a good, moral man. but i think those of us who are born as followers of christ should prefer a competent christian to an competent non-christian like mitt romney. >> there you have it. jim, that was the controversy. i don't know if we expected him to address it, but he did not in his speech today. but i want to ask you about something he did say. i'm trying to go through the list of speakers who will follow him.

but he said at one point in there that some of this inflammatory language has no place in this dialogue. he said one of the speakers coming up later has engaged in that. do we know who he was talking about? >> yes. romney was talking about the man who say on stage right now, brian fisher. he is with the american family association, that is a prominent social conservative organization. it's also the organization that was involved with rick perry for that prayer event that was held in august called the response. you'll remember that, t.j. and brian fisher, i just heard a few moments of his speech just a little bit ago where he said that -- he basically said that the country needs a true christian in the white house again, taking a dig at mitt romney, saying mitt romney is not a true christian. i want to say mitt romney did sort of address this controversy in his speech. i don't know if you saw that or heard that at the beginning of

the speech, t.j. mitt romney said bill bennet, the speaker before romney, bill bennet went after that pastor in that speech, strongly condemning those remarks and reminded the voters here at this summit that george washington believed in religious freedom. so bill bennet went right after this contcontroversy. and when romney got up to give his speech, he said, quote, i think bill bennet hit it out of the park. it's no accident that he used those words because rick perry, yedz, when he was giving his speech said that pastor jeffres hit it out of the park when he gave his remarks introducing the texas governor. so there's a little bit of a back and forth here. it's subtle, it's coded. but make no mistake, these two campaigns, as you've seen in all of these dblts are going right at each other and the perry campaign said yesterday, well,

we had no idea that pastor jeffress was going to say this. this was the event that pt put pastor jefferss here. i tried to get the governor to comment to this issue. he walked right past us. the romney campaign, you better believe they are dealing with this issue and when governor romney made those comments at the beginning of his speech, that's what he was talking about. >> well, it was subtle and you had to be listening closely and we know you were. just quickly here, we have been talking about this controversy. it was big news last night. but there, with those conservative voters, do you get the sense that they want to talk about mitt romney's religion? is this an issue for them? >> for a sliver, and it may be a chunk. it's hard to quantify of ee van dwell kal christian voters, christian conservatives inside the republican party, yes, this is an issue.

if it weren't an issue, this prominent pastor from dallas, robert jefferss would not have said this yesterday. he said to me in his interview, there are pollsters that will say this is not an issue, but when they go inside the voting booth, it may be an issue. mitt romney dealt with this in 2008. he gave that big speech at texas a&m, dealing with this issue, reminding the american people what john kennedy went through in the 1960 campaign. his catholicism was held against him, but john kennedy got to the white house and overcame that that as a political issue. that is the challenge for mitt romney in this campaign, to get to those republican primaries, he's going to have to overcome this issue once again. >> jim acro costa, thank you, a always. all this talk about mitt romney's religion, people say a lot of people don't know a lot about mormonism.

let me give you some background. it was founded by a farmer named joseph smith in the early 1800s. he said an angel guided him to a hill in new york state and there on that hill he found golden tablets talking about how christ visited an ancient in the united states. he claims he saw god and flesh on the hill in palmyra, new york. president of the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints are considered prophets and apostles of god. mormons believe in christ and god and consider themselves christians. pastor jefferss says basically he doesn't want to see romney nominated because of his mormon faith.

also still to come as we get closer to the bottom of the hour, a 10-month-old girl is missing. police say the parents are becoming less cooperative in the investigation. the very latest as we go live to kansas city. stay with me.

as we get close to the bottom of the hour, we turn to a developing story in kansas city. fbi investigators searching a landfill as they look for a missing 10-month-old girl. our ed lavendera is on the ground for us. what is the latest? it seems there are different twist and turns that keep coming with this story. >> it haas has been an interesting and tense situation here in this neighborhood in kansas city over the last few days as the search continues for a missing 10-month-old lisa irwin. she is in that house there, you see the sun shining on it this

morning and it was that window there on the right edge of the house, t.j., that the family says they found kind of pried open. police had talked about that, as well. but quite frankly, the family is saying that they're not getting the sense that the police at this point are believing their story. in particular, it was the father of the 10-month-old baby that came home after working the overnight shift, came in the house, had noticed that the lights were on, things weren't quite right in the house and they looked in the crib and found that the baby was missing. the family has been saying that authorities here have been grilling them especially hard, especially the mother of the 10-month-old baby. she has told several other news organizations that police told her she had failed a polygraph test. it's been extremely stressful despite all that. we talked to one family member, a cousin of the mother who said they still have full faith in

deborah despite what many people here in the public in the kansas city area believe at this point. >> absolutely. there's zero doubt in deborah. you know, i don't want to go into it too much, but the police are doing their jobs, you know? if you don't have any other suspects, you go to the one person that's there that night, the last person to see her, you know? who else do you pout point your finger at? >> t.j., the disheartening thing here is police will frankly tell you they have no leads in this situation. about five days after baby lisa has gone missing. so that is the disheartening news. fbi investigators searched a nearby landfill. that didn't turn anything up. they returned here to this neighborhood yesterday going door to door. they had gone with metal detectors into a creek area behind the home looking for anything that might provide any kind of clues. but frankly, police here say they have no leads and that is disheartening, to say the least.

>> ed lavendera, thank you so much. coming up next, folks, stay with us. joining me in studio, the dean of the civil rights movement. i'm right back. with new extra-sh bayer advanced aspirin. it has microparticles, enters the bloodstream faster and rushes relief to the site of pain. it's clinically proven to relieve pain twice as fast. new bayer advanced aspirin. where together, we're transforming tomorrow. your husband put this all together when emma was born. he was an amazing man. this is for you. it's all paid off. ♪ and this is for emma. so where do you think she'll go? anywhere she wants. [ male announcer ] we're making people a more secure tomorrow. what can we make with you? transamerica. transform tomorrow.

it's about 34 minutes past the hour now. the referee joseph lawry has been there for some of the most iconic movements. he was also right there on the west front of the capital for the inauguration of this country's first black president. >> we ask you to help us run for this day when black will not be asked to give back, when brown can stick around.

when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get a head man and when white will embrace what is right. >> referee lowery is here with me. but you starteded to chuckle yourself when you heard that play. why? >> i was listening to mitt romney. i wasn't listening to -- i wasn't chuckling about that. >> you were chuckling about mitt romney. you were telling me about the republican lineup. who do you like over there? >> well, i think it's the best thing obama has going for him is the republican lineup and is candidates. the best thing he has going. the man i think is probably one of the more expensive fellows in that line yumm is huntsman. but they don't pay any attention to him. they're interested in herman cain, bless his heart. >> what do you mean, bless his heart? >> he's having the time of his life. he's giving ten years of his life for what's happening in and

out and i'm happy for him. i don't think he realizes that they're using him. >> what do you mean, using him? >> i think they're using herman to send their resistance against romney and perry and the other fellows who are up top in the money raising. if you'll notice, i don't think herman's money is anywhere near reaches his votes in the popularity contest. >> you're right. >> and that's how you can measure how much support he has, by how much money he raises. >> now, what would you think? a few years back, people didn't think we would have a black president. what would you say about the day people go to the voting booth .their options are to vote for the democrat, a black man and a republican, a black man? what would you think of that? >> incredible. i didn't think in 1965 when we skied in getting the voting rights passed, martin and others

of us talked about the fact that we would never live to see an african-american president. we that would there would be one, but none of us would live to see it. unfortunately martin didn't, but thank god, he did let me live long enough to see it, and not only see it, but participate. but i didn't think we would. so i take the same position, a black democratic candidate and a black republican candidate. i don't think i'll live to see that and i don't think you will, either. >> well, you're here, you're 90 years old this week. you've got a big birthday celebration happening this weekend. but i don't know what 90 is supposed to feel like. what does 95 feel like? >> it feels just like 89. 89 feels good for 89 and 90 feels good for 90. >> now, here we are, just days ago, fred shuttlesworth, someone who you knew very well was right there with you all to help found the ftlc, march on the streets

with you, he died. what is the significance of the elder statesmen, the civil rights era guys like you getting older? what's the significance of us losing those guys over time, those men and women over time? >> well, time moves on and as much as we might regret it, we are all going to answer the bell when it tolls for us. but god has rams in the bush. and i think you'll see from time to time leaders will come forward and the leadership is liberating. back in those days, we depended on civil rights people for almost all the leadership. but thou, leadership comes from all corners. we have leaders in business, leaders in science, leaders in education, and we are experiencing and widespread

proliferation of leadership that i think is healthy for the country. >> something you said to me that really stuck with me the last time i saw you, you looked at me and you pointed to me and said it's your fault that there's no civil rights movement today. folks like you opened up the doors for folks like me to work at good companies and we're not out there in the streets any wore. what about this occupy wall street thing going on, would you consider that a type of civil rights movement? >> i'm excited about it. i don't have the details, but i'm excited about it. i think they have the right spirit. they're raising questions. one of the things we've not grappled with in this country and the republican candidates are all embrace it is the fact that we favor the rich. less than 10% of the people control more than 90% of the wealth. that's wrong. and they're not even willing to share anywhere near an equitable

portion of this nation's resources and that's unfair. we've got to find leadership. and i keep waiting for someone in the republican party to come forward with a shining armor and raising the flag on behalf of the poor. the poor don't -- they don't have a chance with these republicans. as a matter of fact, the republican party, i don't know who they are, they're more like the old dixocrats. the old republican party of eisenhower and brooke, i don't know when it is. >> i didn't plan on talking so much politics with you, but we went that direction. we wanted to say happy birthday to you. always a pleasure to get a chance and talk to you. don't party too hard this weekends. >> i hope you'll come out sunday for our birthday party. >> good to see you. quick break here, folks. we're thinking about them.

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he see, after all, the conservative movement's top recruiter. it turns out he really is a good community organizer. although i don't think this was the community he had in mind. >> at the same time, mitt romney was getting criticism himself, specifically about his faith. the dallas pastor talked about mormonism saying romney belonged to a cult. let me bring in cnn contributor maria cordonez and lenny mccall sister. we're going to get right into it today. let me start, was this clearly politics, in your opinion, maria? that this was no accident, that faith came up at this conference? >> oh, absolutely. i think it is politics. and we saw this come up somewhat

in 2008, but it is clearly now rearing its ugly head in a way that i don't know that we expected it to. at least this early on this time around. and to me, obviously, what the reverend said and what the pastor said, pastor jefferss is absolutely atrocious. it's the reason why we have the first amendment. to me, perry's silence on this one is deafening. i know he put out a statement, his campaign put out a statement but we have not heard from governor perry himself and he's going to have to address this. i think it is becoming a big, big issue. >> on that point, does this have a potential to do some harm? >> no, because it's the october 2011. the good thing about this for governor romney is the fact that it's so early in the campaign, he's increasing a lead in front of governor perry. this is something that will be

talked about for the next couple of weeks and won't go away. if anything, this is a mill stone around governor perry because of the ranch situation, pause of the hpv vaccination, because of the dream act down in texas and now this. he is starting to get weighed down. that's the reason why everybody wanted christie to jump in. if he doesn't do well in these next couple of debate webs he's going to be an after thought. >> lenny, let me stay with you. the first question was from an ap reporter who said, hey, mr. president, would you be better off staying here trying to get a deal worked out with the republicans versus calling them out by name around the country? did that reporter have a point? >> he did have a point. furthermore, he was asked, hey, are people tuning you out? and the president avoided the question because the answer is yes, the american people are tuning out president obama at this point in time. this bill was a bill that should have came along in 2009. it's hard to sell all these bad pieces of legislation to the

american people and come around with a sense of urgency going into re-election season. the bottom line is this, he needs to make sure he gets something done that's tangible that makes both sides like this legislation and, therefore, at least look to moderates and independents as somebody who can get through divided government and get something done. he hasn't been able to look that way yet. >> you tell me, as well, maria. is he any better served? if you want to get something done, stay in washington, d.c. and work with the republicans. >> t.j., he has bent backwards so many times trying to get things done with the republicans. and where has that gotten him? it has not worked. he also love nothing more than to get things done for the republicans for the american people and he will continue to try to do that. but the best way to do that right now is to make sure that the american people understand what he's trying to do, which is to create jobs for them. and to create jobs through

bipartisan proposaproposals. why would you put out something that has been supported by republicans in the past and go to the american people and talk about that unless you know it is something that republicans are going to hear from because americans understand that right now the republican's number one agenda is not to create jobs, it is to see this president fail. and he is going to do everything that he can to get this jobs act passed because we have seen from independent analysts and from other economists that have nothing to do with the white house that this jobs act will actually create 1.9 million or more jobs. and so i think that that is the bottom line. he wants to get something done for the american people. the republicans have absolutely no interest in negotiating with him to do that. >> well, guys, i know you don't want to leave it there. >> the stimulus package is going to keep the unemployment at 8.2% in 2009. this legislation is not going to do that -- >> the recovery act created and

saved more than 4 million jobs. >> i've got to go this time. we had romney today and got some other breaking news.you know we'll have you both back. quick break, folks. we've got other breaking news to tell you about right after a break. stay with us. [ sigh ] too bad you're not buying car insurance. like that's easy. oh, it is. progressive direct showed me their rates and the rates of their competitors. i saved hundreds when switching. we could use hundreds. yeah. wake up and smell the savings. out there with a better way. now, that's progressive.

all right. we have sad news out of the nfl. the legendary owner of the oakland raiders, we can now confirm has passed away. al davis, you know that name,

you know his story, you know his background, you know his history. you know his triumphs and some of his defeats with it is raiders out there. but the iconic owner of the oakland raiders has now died at the age of 82. the team has now confirm. we're expecting to see more of a statement a little later today. but this is what they have posted on their website right now, a dedication to him. but al davis, who -- it's hard to imagine the raiders without al davis. al davis, a lot of people will give credit for making the franchise what it was in some of those historic years of legendary years in raider football and in that raider nation that essentially he developed. but still, the team fell on hard times over the past several years, kind of been at the bottom of the nfl barrel, if you will, but the team experiencing a resurgence this year, a rebuilding and a pretty good start. al davis will not be around to enjoy it and to see what his team is able to do this year. but the team under his guidance

has run several championships. raider nation that so many have been familiar with, he was the one credited with putting raider football back on the map. he was a team owner when he first joined at the time, but al davis, he's been in some questionable health. we don't see him in the public that much over the past several years, but people think raider football and more so than anything else, they think al davis. >> synonymous with raider football. some say he's the steinbrenner, so to speak, of the oakland raiders. he has had some incredible victories and some times that weren't so great. but yeah, he was the franchise. he was the man. so very, very interesting to see what's going to happen there. >> sad news, again, he's been in some tough health over the past several years. but says something fiery and everybody knows just win, baby, win, is what he coined.

we'll have more on his life coming up here in the "cnn newsroom." also, reynolds. >> we're dog to hop over here and show you what's happening weather wise. big story in parts of texas where we are an issue with the parts of flooding. this is an area that has been dealing with historic droughts. today, 2206 inches of rain. it may not sound like in parts of the world where you are used to heavy rainfall. but here in texas, with the dry, hard soil, you can expect some runoff and with that some flooding. t.j., we're going to talk more about that throughout the rest of the morning and into the afternoon. >> quick break and we are right back, folks. stay with us. [ male announcer ] you are a business pro. your core competency is...competency. and you...rent from national. because only national

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as we get close to the top of the hour, hotel fees confined to the mini bar. allison takes a look at hidden costs you need to be aware of while you're on the go. the hotel industry is expected to make a record $1.8 billion this year in extra fees. >> there are a number of services that historically were complicately in hotels and is now some hotel properties are charging for them. this could mean everything from shuttle service, fitness club fees, parking fees, fees for hotels to hold your bags to smaller fees that you might not notice. >> but law, hotel res required to disclose all charges on an itemized bill if you request one. >> a lot of travelers tend to use the quick checkout service. i remember getting an itemized bill. many times hotels will add on

20% gratuity, they'll add on a delivery service charge. >> being a member of a hotel loyalty program can help. >> some of them will offer you free wi-fi or free parking just for being a member of their loyalty program. and sometimes your hotel points can be redeemed as airline miles when you're on the go. my doctor told me calcium

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we are at the top of the hour on this cnn saturday morning. good morning to you all. i'm t.j. holmes. a major controversy at a conservative summit in washington. a pastor backing rick perry calls mitt romney's religion a cult. a live report from the summit in a mo