behind. and this is barbie, but it isn't her dream house she's in. jeanne moos, cnn. >> do you have a magazine? >> not in me. i mean, on me. >> reporter: new york. >> that's it for me. thanks for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." the news continues next on cnn. >> thanks, wolf. i'm candy crowley. john king is off today. a story developing from coast to coast. supporters of the occupy wall street movement called today for, in their words a mass day of action. they got it. right now, looking live at new york city, where small groups of demonstrators are running up some of the streets. throughout the day, police and demonstrators confronted each other near wall street. phone camera pictures showed police dragging some people away, one woman by her hair. the latest count from the police commissioner is 177 demonstrators arrested, and 5 officers injured. but new york mayor michael

bloomberg says that isn't the real story. >> so far the real story is there have been, i think it's fair to say, minimal disruptions to people and most protesters have, in all fairness, acted responsibly. >> as we said, it is coast to coast. in los angeles, about 300 protesters marched a half mile from city hall to the wells fargo center. crowds gathered in the streets of portland, oregon, threatening to occupy banks. here in washington, police escorted several hundred protesters through georgetown, and across the francis scott key bridge to virginia. but the action right now is new york city. cnn's amber lyon is there. what happens happening right now on the bridge? >> reporter: well, things are getting a little tense behind me. i apologize, candy. we have protesters in the middle of the road right now. that's why they're trying to get past me. a couple dozen of them sat down

in the middle of the street, right in front of the brooklyn bridge, and they continue to sit there right now. we've seen several police officers go in and, as i speak, they're arresting protesters. a big goal and worry tonight was whether or not the protesters would go and cross the street and police even set up barricades to try to keep them out on the sidewalks and kind of organize this march. but as you can see right now, they didn't follow the barricade whatsoever. you see guys in white shirts walking through the street. they completely came out here and they blocked out traffic and are continuing to walk across the bridge. what it seems like right now with the amount of people in the street, it seems like police have semi lost control of the big crowd, because we are seeing so many people in the middle of the road, and we're not seeing any cars go through here right now. canny? >> i think i heard you say there have been some arrests. i know this seems like a somewhat strange question, are he they peaceful arrests, or are you seeing -- is that tension

becoming physical as well that you talked about? >> reporter: well, from what we can see from here, we can't really tell if it is becoming physical. we're just -- we've been ordered to stay kind of back from that area. we're not allowed to walk in the street or we could be arrested as well. but from what we've seen from the protesters standing on the side, they are peaceful. they're just yelling "we are the 99%," telling people to occupy wall street. as far as what's happening in the middle of the crowd, a bit of a scuffle and movement. but, candy, we don't know if things have gotten violent or not in there. >> understand. those are difficult situations. you wouldn't be the first reporter to be arrested during a demonstration, but i wouldn't recommend it. thanks so much. let's go across the country to los angeles, where there also were demonstrations and arrests. cnn's casey wian is there. casey, it's been so orderly in los angeles, at least so far as i've seen throughout this day. why do you think that is?

>> yeah, it's a amazing, candy. hundred of people here throughout the day. there was an intersection here near downtown los angeles shut down briefly. but throughout the day, despite protesters marching back and forth throughout downtown los angeles there have been a total of 28 arrests so far, mostly peaceful, no injuries, all misdemeanors, according to the lapd. now in answer directly to your question, it's remarkable to think back to just about four years ago, during the immigration protests in los angeles where police and protesters clashed, people were injured, officers were suspended for misconduct. the lapd paid out millions of dollars in settlements. what's been happening during this protest has been much better communication between the organizers of the protests and the lapd. they've been negotiating, they've been talking, they've been telling each other what's going to happen so there have been arrests, among those who decide to step out of the line, but for the most part, everyone has really behaved well here and that's why you haven't seen the

trouble you've seen in new york and in los angeles in previous years, candy. >> casey wian for us, thanks. back to new york now, and city councilman rodriguez, he was arrested tuesday when police cleared the occupy wall street protesters camped in a park near wall street. thank you so much for joining us. i think, councilman, one of the things i wanted to ask you, we've had seven people -- seven police officers have been injured, 176 arrests. we've heard both correspondence say in large part, we heard the mayor say in large part, this has been peaceful. do these sorts of things get in the way of the message? >> well, first of all, this is a peaceful movement. this is occupy movement, a movement for affordable housing, quality education, affordable jobs, and we believe that the number of arrests that have been taking place in new york city today and hundreds more that we'll say before the end of the

day are organized in a peaceful way, is a member of the labor movement, religious leader, elected official, sending a message loud and clear, that the occupy movement is a movement of the working class and the middle class who is fighting for more resources. and we believe the working sector of this society can increase the contribution to the finance of our society. >> but do you think that, given there's been some disruption of people trying to get to work this morning, perhaps going home tonight, at least using the bridge where we saw amber lyon, did you think that gets in the way of the message that you're talking about, because most working people, most middle class people today, those lucky enough to have jobs, are trying to get to those jobs? >> i believe most of the people know that this is a price that we can pay.

i believe it shows more than 60% of new yorkers support the occupy movement. i hope that mayor bloomberg, he should be connected to the need of the working class and the middle class and understand we are not against wall street. we are not against the upper middle class. what we believe is that we have to redefine how we get revenue to the city, the state, a federal level. it's a historic day. i'm proud to tell my daughter, who is 5 years old, she was born and growing at a point of history where working class and the middle class came together, demanding more resources to our community. but i believe that this movement is a peaceful movement, it's a movement that has a message, it's a movement that has leadership and the occupy movement stay here -- came here to stay. >> let me ask you how you take

this kind of passion on the streets and move it into political power at voting booth. >> i have been supporting the movement from the beginning. most of the participants of this movement, they voted in last presidential election and voting in the local, voting at the local election in different cities, including new york city, and i know they will be voting in the next mayor election of new york city, as they also are going to be voting for the presidential election. i have no doubt that this movement will send a message loud and clear to everyone, republican and democrat, that we are to redefine how we get revenue and i believe this movement is so important, not only for the participants, but also for the labor movement, for the elected official to be more connected to the democratic process of this nation and

understand using public square having a centerpiece in the democratic process of this nation, he has been use the in the american revolution and other parts of the history. >> thank you so much, councilman roll re rodriguez. more calls for syrian president bashar allah sad to tip down and end the deadly violence. is there an end in sight? ♪ feel the power my young friend. mmm! [ male announcer ] for unsurpassed fruit and veggie nutrition... v8 v-fusion. could've had a v8. tltltltle v8 v-fusion. emotional here? aren't you getting a little industrial? okay, there's enough energy right here in america. yeah, over 100 years worth. okay, so you mean you just ignore the environment. actually, it's cleaner. and, it provides jobs. and it helps our economy. okay, i'm listening. [announcer] at conoco phillips we're helping power america's economy with cleaner affordable natural gas... more jobs, less emissions, a good answer for everyone.

so, by reducing the impact of production... and protecting our land and water... i might get a job once we graduate.

[ male announcer ] we're not employers or employees. not white collar or blue collar or no collars. we are business in america. and every day we awake to the same challenges. but at prudential we're helping companies everywhere find new solutions to manage risk, capital and employee benefits,

so american business can get on with business. ♪ tonight, we are counting down to a crucial deadline in the middle east. and the number is three. today is the first of three days the arab league gave syria to stop the violence against civilians and admit international observers. it's been a day of at least 13 deaths and mass arrests across the country. you can see the flash points. we're also seeing reports that groups within the syrian army are defecting and then clashing with government security forces. with us now the former u.s. ambassador to syria and cnn foreign affairs correspondent jill dougherty. thank you both. i'm going to let you carry this conversation. my first question, i guess, the arab league, the united states said the arab countries need to get involved, so now they're involved. what do you think the chances

are that we're going to see any change in behavior of the current government if syria, ambassador? >> first, it's very big that the arab league did get involved. it wasn't expected. i talked to colleagues at state department today who expressed they had been surprised. but i think the arabs were getting tired of seeing turkey and iran and outsiders playing these important roles and the arab league, as usual, had been ineffectual. this is a big deal. but bashar al assad will not change course. he'll do window dressing, he'll welcome observers, but in the end he won't let them go and see anything. >> it will look -- that is pretty much what you're getting -- it will look like he's doing something but he won't be changing anything? >> me may just say he's going to do something. but we've seen this before. and i don't think -- i think ted is actually expressing precisely what the mood is, which is it's not going to change anything, we might get promises, a few shifts

around, but ultimately he continues to carry out this epression of the people in the opposition. >> so is he syria's gadhafi? is the only way he's going to go is by a death? what moves him out of power? it just seems now unsustainable to keep him there. >> i don't -- i can't compare him to gadhafi because he's a rather smart and rather sane individual and doesn't have a military background. he's trained as an eye doctor. so i'm not going to stan here and say he won't get on a plane with his family at some point and go into exile. >> what would prompt that, though, do you think? >> feeling that they were going down. >> you know, candy, i think one very interesting thing that is happening right now are these disaffected military people who have been taking action, you referred to it, that's a disturbing trend. people at the state department are very worried about it.

not because they don't believe in a sense that it can be explained, the state department says, look, the repression has been so terrible that probably you, too would rise up if something like that happened. but right now you have element of the opposition taking up arms and when that happens, they are doing it basically out of frustration that the political leadership of the opposition really doesn't have a cohesive plan. it hasn't really put out a very cohesive plan of what it wants to do should the end come. so they're taking things into their own hands and that can be very unstabilizing. >> i want to show our audience something that the turkish prime minister said today. i want you to know that the people losing their lives in syria are just as human as those who lost their lives in libya. that those who had the appetite for libya remained silent and without reaction in the face of the slaughters in syria opens wounds hard to repair in human

conscience. let's say turkey has quite an interest of what happens in sooe syria, but who is he talking to? >> he may be talking to nato and the u.s. there's a certain amount of hypocrisy there. turkey was one of the last countries to call for gadhafi's ouster. turkey had important economic interest and it has important economic interests in syria. but now they feel that bashar has thrown down the gaunt let, insulted them, the turks are very proud, this leadership is very proud and they're harboring elements of the syrian opposition army, and you know they keep ratcheting things up in terms of economic sanctions. can't be ruled out some point, not soon, down the road, turkey might get militarily involved. >> when you look at turkey, look at the general thrust of the comments which i -- you ought to know it's aimed at the u.s. and

nato, but there's no chance that nato and the u.s. is military going to get involved. >> at this point it would appear not. certainly, there's no appetite. it's a much more -- i would say a much more dangerous and complex situation than libya because it is ain't influential geopolitically, it's very important in that region. it was part of just look at the relationship with israel and the potential for some type of peace agreement with syria playing an important role. it has -- it can play a role with iran, with afghanistan, with every single -- >> the lebanese. >> they'll be insulted if you don't mention them. >> absolutely. everywhere you look, they are an important player, much more, i would say, than libya. >> one thing i would say about this, there's a psychological struggle going on here, because each side has its strong supporters but there are a lot of people sitting on the fence who haven't chosen sides who don't want to get hurt who don't want to get involved. they're waiting to see who might

come out on top. so each side wants to give a sense of an inevitably of their rick victory. ten days ago bashar was giving that impression. in the last few days the momentum has shifted to the opposition the russians also want to both ways it appears. on one hand they argue that this is really, the foreign minister said, this is almost a civil war. and so if it's a civil war, they would say, look, we told you, these people are ultimately terrorists they have guns, this is bad, and it plays into the hands of the government, the syrian government. >> former ambassador, jill dougherty, thank you so much. what is the middle east always so complex? it's nev what are it seems. thank you so much for shedding light for us. ahead -- new details in the penn state sex scandal emerging and why the mother of one of jerry sandusky's alleged victim is saying her sons a afraid the

former penn state coach might go free.g, o yeah, i could really use this silverado. i'm a big hunter. oh, what do you hunt? deer. fish. fantastic. ♪ [ male announcer ] this holiday, chevy's giving more. now qualified buyers can get 0% apr for 72 months on a 2011 chevy silverado. or 0% apr financing for 60 months plus no monthly payments until spring. ♪ delivering mail, medicine and packages. yet they're closing thousands of offices, slashing service, and want to lay off over 100,000 workers. the postal service is recording financial losses, but not for reasons you might think. the problem ? a burden no other agency or company bears. a 2006 law that drains 5 billion a year from post-office revenue while the postal service is forced to overpay billions more into federal accounts. congress created this problem, and congress can fix it.

this just in from the campaign trail. three sources tell cnn that presidential candidate herman cain is about to receive secret service protection. he will be the first republican of the 2012 election psych toll be placed under guard. usually the secret service begins protecting major

candidates four months before the general election. there are disturbing, new developments in the penn state abuse story. tonight, more victims appear ready to come forward with allegations of sexual abuse by former penn state assistant coach jerry sandusky. cnn contributor sarah gannim a reporter for the patriot news of harrisburg talked to an attorney for one of them. what have you learned? >> reporter: again, today we're hearing from attorneys who are saying that more victims are coming forward after that monday night interview on television with jerry sandusky, but very upset he is asserting that he didn't do anything sexual over the last 15 years. and the attorney that talked to me today say he particularly wanted to talk about this kind of dual role that jerry sandusky had with the victim that he represents. he was a good guy, he was a father, he did a lot of good things, but then there was this other side of him. and that's what made it so hard

for his client to come forward and talk about this. he was really torn between the good and the image that a lot of people knew about jerry sandusky, for many, many years and then what we now know about jerry sandusky. >> so tell me just the sense you're getting because every day it seems that we're hearing about more people who at least allege that they have been abused, some of whom saying they're willing to come forward and testify at a trial. this must hang so heavy, not just over the houstuniversity b over the state really. >> reporter: think, you know, the mood has been in swing mode. it went from anger and shock to -- it went from shock to anger and now more solemn and people are starting to calm down a little bit. really trying to heal at penn state. and trying to move forward. it's only been two weeks. but it feels like a lot longer on campus. students really want to project

that this is not who they are. they want to have pride for their university again. they want to move past this. they want to show the world that they are bigger than just the scandal. >> sara, thank you for your great work. we really appreciate it. today's "new york times" reports penn state may haven gauged in a major coverup of coach sandusky's behavior over the years. any way you look at it, a legal firestorm is about to hit. trial lawyer mark geragos is no stranger to high-profile legal cases. he joins us along with florida assistant state attorney who supervises broward county sex crimes unit. i'm not sure where to go in this, because it seem likes there are so many moving parts. what do you think, mark, is the next big moment in this case as we move forward? >> i think the next big moment is when they do a hearing and whether -- i don't think that's going to be sandusky first. i think it's going to be for the ex-president or thorstwhile

president. i think the attorney general filed something saying they wanted to postpone that. i think once you have a hearing, you're going to see some of the fashions come out as opposed to right now appears to be rumors back and forth. part of the problem with a case like this is that everything starts to get reported, and the sourcing becomes a little bit suspect so you don't know how to separate out what is just rampant rumor with no foundation, you know, this idea there's just a lineup of victims or this idea that somehow he's pumping out kids to donors, second mile. you hear virtually anything come out. once you get a hearing and once you have cross-examination, then eel be able to tell was there a major coverup? what did people know? when did people know it? until then, this is really an overheated media story. and i do kind of feel for the penn state community because obviously, to flatten this out

and to taint the whole community based on what has so far been kind of an overheated rumor milk i think is a little unfair. >> stacey, let me talk to you about one of the alleged victims. his lawyer has said, yes, he's willing to testify and he'll be ready, and i wondered how in the world do you prepare an alleged abuse victim to sit on that stand and talk, and i know it makes a difference, i mean, between how young they are, some of these abuses are alleged to have gone back, talking about grown men now, how do you go about preparing them? what do you look for? >> well, it's very interesting candy, because i've prosecutored a lot of cases with men who were boys when the abuse took place and it's interesting, though they're old somewhere more able to know their way around a courtroom, they still have the same feelings as those little kids. they break down. you have to prepare them that

the testimony will be very difficult. and what is so private and so secretive has to come out into a court of law and strangers have to listen and make a decision. so you have to get them past the shame and the embarrassment that they're already feeling because now the world is going to know what's going to happen. but you'd be very surprised. a lot of these men who have come forward now, and i know from previous cases that i have prosecuted want their day in court because they've been living with this secret and the shame for so long without the ability to come forward, that this is going to be closure for them. it will be difficult, they will have to withstand cross-examination, they're going to have to talk about very uncomfortable things that took place with their bodies and with his, if the allegations go forward in a court of law. but you'd be very surprised that afterwards they will say that finally they got to expose what was go on in their life. and so what seems to be very difficult in a courtroom sometimes works out to be the best thing in the end, because

many of the men that i've dealt with have lived a very difficult life. they've been in and out of mental facilities, they've had difficulties in forming relationships because pedophilia knows no boundaries and it has an affect on someone's life. sometimes it's a real good thing for them to come into court and have their day. >> mark, mike mcqueary, assistant coach but at the time was a grad student who is in the grand jury report says witnessed the coach sandusky with someone believed to have been a 10-year-old, now is kind of changed his story, at least in e-mails to friends who leaked e-mails or somebody leaked e-mails saying i did call the police and actually i did stop or i stayed in the room until it stopped, the act by the alleged act by coach sandusky. can you use -- it seems to me now you've got a grand jury report that says one thing and a witness in that grand jury who is now saying something slightly

din or at least adding to it. does that help the defense of sandusky or hurt it? >> well, so people understand, what you have so far is you've got this 20-odd some page document which they call a grand jury presentment in pennsylvania, that is not the transcript. that's the prosecutor summarizing what happened in the grand jury proceedings, and it has not been tested. what i mean by that is, it is not subject to cross-examination, it's the prosecutor kind of picking and choosing things. you have that presentment. now you have one of the witnesses who testified in front of that grand jury saying other things that isn't in the document, so you're going to have to go back to, if you're the defense lawyer, go back and take a look at transcript, see whether they asked him questions, whether they pinned him down as to whether he said i went to the police, i didn't go to the police. if he changes his story, absolutely, it's a prior inconsistent statement, that's what we call it in the law, he's

going to be impeached on that. if he was never really asked that question or if it wasn't asked in a precise fashion, then it's going to be explainable. this is, however, one of the reasons if you're a prosecutor, that the last thing you want is your witnesses out there in a case like this talking or yapping or doing anything or sending e-mails because at some point that's going to become fodder for both sides. >> stacey, last question to you, and i need a quick answer, but in your experience do most of these cases, when you have a young person or even an older person who is abused as young, do most of them go to court, or once those witnesses signal their willingness to testify, are there deals? how do they mostly end? >> lots of times there are deals. when you have strength in numbers, if you have a number of victims that come forward, lots of times that will result in a plea deal. if you have one or two, lots of times it will go to trial. in high-profile cases, cases of

pedophilia, there's strength in numbers. if one victim comes out more will come out and that might result in a plea deal. you don't want to go to court with all of that testimony against you, eight separate victims telling you they were sexually abused. >> thank you for joining us tonight. next, a very serious turn in the story of those shots fired at the white house. 're trsfori . it's the second career you always wanted. today's the day! and i've been looking forward to this for a long time. it's gonna be a big change. you ready? wow! just what i hoped for! just what you planned for. thanks! [ male announcer ] we're making people the tomorrows they always dreamed of. what can we make with you? transamerica. transform tomorrow.

welcome back. here's the latest news you need to know right now. you will soon be -- you are looking at right now demonstrators from the occupy movement moving across the brooklyn bridge. they're moving from manhattan into brooklyn. very little traffic although it look like some going across that bridge during, of course, what is rush hour. there were earlier in the day more arrests, reported as occupy wall street demonstrations in new york stretch into this night. there are also arrest and demonstrations in a number of other cities across the country. in court today, the man accused of firing shots at the white house last friday was charged with attempting to assassinate president obama. court papers quote a witness who says oscar ortega-hernandez believes the president is, quote, the devil and, quote, needed to be taken care of. congress is working late to make sure the government does not run out of money tomorrow night. a stopgap spending bill passed in the house and is expected to

clear the senate in the next couple of hours. wall street suffered through another down day, as jittery investors are dumped risky assets that may be affected by the euro zone debt crisis. up next -- a congressman furious about the huge bonuses to going to top executives of major players in the nation's financial crisis. is this a chevy volt? [ stu ] yeah. it's electric. i don't think so. it's got a gas tank right here. electric tank, right over here. an electric tank? really, stu? is that what you pour the electricity in? it's actually both, guys. i can plug in and go 35 miles gas free, or i can fill up and go a whole lot farther. is that my burger? oh. i just got bun. i didn't even bite any burger.

here you go. driver's license. past five years' tax returns. high school report cards. and i'm gonna need to see a receipt for that watch you're wearing. you know, you really should provide us with a checklist of documents we're gonna need up front. who do you think i am? quicken loans? at quicken loans, we provide a checklist of the mortgage documents you'll need up front. it helps keep you in the know every step of the way. one more way quicken loans is engineered to amaze. it helps keep you in the know every step of the way. what are these guys doing? [ horn honks ] could you please not honk while this guy's telling me about his chevy volt? is that that new... is that the electric car? yeah. but it takes gas too. ask him how much he spends on gas. how much does he spend on gas?

how much do you spend on gas? how much do i spend on gas? if i charge regularly, i fill up like once a month. he only has to fill up about once a month. [ woman ] wow. that's amazing. will be giving away passafree copies of the alcoholism & addiction cure. to get yours, go to ssagesmalibubook.com.

"erin burnett outfront" is coming up at the top of the hour. erin, i have done it privately

and on e-mail, but it's my first on-air chance to say welcome. i know you're an old hand, but bk. >> thank you, you're so nice. >> i know you've got a ceo who told you he thinks there's something important missing from the super committee? >> he does. bis acumen is what's missing. he's going to be our guest, you know him from paul mitchell petrone, started out homeless, living in a car and became a billionaire, pledging to give half of his money away. but he feels strongly about things the super committee could do right now to still get a deal done, candy. so he's going to be our exclusive guest tonight. billionaires with ponytails, who have been homeless, not easy to come by. as we cover the occupy wall street demonstrations on the brooklyn bridge in new york, joined by the former nypd police commissioner, he'll be our special guest. i started taking a vitamin today, i'll bad about na, never

take them. omega 3, 6, 9. the reason, dr. andrew weil told me. he'll tell you why. back to you. >> goodness. i take three but i'll have to figure out about 6 and 9. >> watch and see if you want that one. >> thanks so much, "erin burnett outfront" coming up at the top of the hour. the government-backed mortgage agencies known as fannie mae and fredd mac receivd the biggest bailouts, $169 billion over the past two years agency executives took home $35 million in bonuses. it's the kind of news that sparks outrage on capitol hill even among the richest members of congress. >> i exactly year the year i made over 1 million. i'm sure you do. what year did you first have compensation, including bonus that put you over $1 million. >> i'm not sure what year that was. >> money's not important to you? >> no, money is important to all

of us who are here today, sir. >> now, congressman michael williams, we'll tell our audience is, of course, the head of fannie mae, correct? >> correct. he's been there over 20 years, coming up through the ranks during all of the mistakes that agency made. >> right. let me talk to you a little bit, i mean he seemed to have gotten under your skin in some way, shape or form. is it because he was there during the disaster that you think he shouldn't be getting any bonuses, just a part of his bonuses? he's meeting a -- some kind of standard in order to get those bones us ins. >> candy, that's exactly the problem. we read the so-called standard. it would not pass the sniff test at an ordinary corporation's committee. pricewaterhousecoopers or the other organizations that oversea them would say they didn't have a standard you could be held to. two pages of feel-good what they

would accomplish rather than measurable results that would justify anything close to the nearly $5 million a year he received. and remember, this is somebody who does not have some special skill other than the skill of coming up through the ranks of an organization that, for the most part, has been failing us for most of the 20 years. >> but getting someone with special skills, and i don't want to accept your premise he has no special skills, the argument is, if you want to get someone from the private sector to do this job, they are now making so much more money than even the fannie mae and freddie mac execs, you can't get them. this is a deal you're getting. >> the ceos of comparable, large financial institutions, including bonuses, they were relatively similar but, again mr. williams was paid $115,000 when he signed up. there was no reason to have an expectation he'd make $5 million. and at a time in which they're taking $13 billion just this

quarter in new, not borrowed, but given money by the taxpayers to make up for permanent defaults. this is an organization that over the last decade on a net basis made no money. this is an organization that all the way back with franklin raines had serious accounting practices that caused large bonuses to be paid when they weren't making money. more importantly, candy, this is -- sort of says it really well, when we looked at studies of chief counsels, in southern california you would make $400,000s a alawyer, $400,000, was acceptable for public and private companies. they paid theirs approximately $2 million. so it wasn't just the ceo. it basically, using other people's money, tens and hundreds of billions of dollars you can afford to be very loose with bonuses, far greater than were justified on performance. >> let me ask you, while on the

subject of fannie mae and freddie mac, it's been revealed that newt gingrich, of course, former speaker of the house, made between $1.6 million and $1.8 million from freddie mac, advising them, there's some question what he actually did. anything you heard so far make you think that is a disqualifier for newt gingrich running for president? >> certainly when you look at organizations that spent $170 million in lobbying during that period, and regularly would do these technically nonlobbying expenditures in order to curry favor, you've got organizations that i question what they were trying to get for it. in the case of speaker gingrich, he left office, he had no specific npower, it appears to e high compensation for very little work. but we have to get back to the point, this is an organization that showered huge amounts of money on people often with less connection and less experience than speaker gingrich. >> let me ask you about fast and

furious, which was a federal attempt to try to figure out about gun running between the u.s. and mexico. it turns out that some of the guns that were allowed by the feds to cross the border in the investigation turned up in the death of u.s. enforcement officer and other places. it has become bad enough that more than 35 members of congress have called for the resignation of eric holder, the attorney general. i wonder why you haven't because you have been very critical, both of the attorney general and of this particular program. >> well, i'm not the president. the president has full confidence in eric holder, that's his decision. eric holder has said -- attorney general holder has said that those responsible be held accountable but lanny brew somewhere other direct reports who had direct knowledge in large amounts have not yet been held accountable. candy, my job is to connect the dots as chief investigator of

the house on behalf of the american people. my job is to get all of the facts, i'm going to do that. i believe that there is a systemic problem at justice that allows this kind of activity from the bottom to the top to go on. there were too many places and too many people who should have said stop about. i believe eric holder is one of those people. we're going to line up all places in which the system failed to protect the american people and brian terry, and present that. that's our job. >> congressman daryl issa, thank you for your time. appreciate it. >> you're very welcome. which presidential candidate called a rival privileged? it wasn't a compliment. congratulations. congratulations. today, the city of charlotte can use verizon technology to inspire businesses to conserve energy and monitor costs. making communities greener... congratulations. ... and buildings as valuable to the bottom line... whoa ! ... as the people inside them. congratulations.

because when you add verizon to your company, you don't just add, you multiply. ♪ discover something new... verizon. with scottrader streaming quotes, any way you want. fully customize it for your trading process --

from thought to trade, on every screen. and all in real time. which makes it just like having your own trading floor, right at your fingertips. [ rodger ] at scottrade, seven dollar trades are just the start. try our easy-to-use scottrader streaming quotes. it's another reason more investors are saying... [ all ] i'm with scottrade. but don't just listen to me. listen to these happy progressive customers. i plugged in snapshot, and 30 days later, i was saving big on car insurance. i was worried it would be hard to install. but it's really easy. the better i drive, the more i save. i wish our company had something this cool. yeah. you're not... filming this, are you? aw! camera shy. snapshot from progressive. plug into the savings you deserve with snapshot from progressive. .

our latest polling confirms more and more voters say things in this country are going badly. is that good news for some of the presidential candidates? we want to dig into the numbers with republican strategist ed rollins. cornell belcher, and cnn political analyst gloria borger. i want to put up, in fact, let me just briefly say here that something like 44% of the country, only 44% of the country at this moment, think that things will be going well a year from now. this is not the kind of numbers you want to see. >> actually, that number's been moving up -- >> no, it actually hasn't, because a year ago, it was 55%. >> go back a couple months ago. it's been moving up and down.

americans want to be optimistic about the future but they see what's going on in washington right now and they have a lot of doubts about what washington can get done. and we're going to see this come to fruition very shortly when the supercommittee comes up with its loggerhead. >> i want to put up a couple of other numbers and ask ed a question. this is a fox news poll head to head. your choice for president 2012, president obama, 42%. romney, 44%. now, i want to show you gingrich in this same head to head. president obama, 46%. gingrich, 41%. in the end, ed, isn't this going to be about republicans choosing the guy they think can beat president obama and hasn't that pretty consistently been romney? >> been romney. romney's kept his base for about six years of 25% to 30% of the vote, and most people assume -- >> but he's kept it. >> -- that he'll survive this process. republicans this time who

normally are ideological voters, sometimes single issue voters, guns and abortion, what have you, this time the goal is to beat obama. they see a vulnerable president and they're going to do every single thing they can to make sure romney, assuming it's romney, is going to beat them. once we get through these idiotic processes we go through in the next 6, 8 weeks, and all the debates, at the end of the day, when it comes down to one on one, whoever that one is on our side, everybody will support. >> i was talking to a romney adviser. i said, why aren't you out there talking about how you're the only plausible president up there, how you can beat obama, the polls show you beating barack obama, and they say not in the republican primary so far, because when a conservative candidate, or someone who says he's conservative, says, i can beat barack obama, it's a clear sign to conservatives that you're really a moderate. so they don't want to say that yet, right? >> and the truth is -- >> i'm sorry, go ahead.

>> i'm sorry, ed. and the truth is, if it was that clear cut that they thought romney could beat the candidate and they wanted to go with the winner, they would all move to romney but he's stuck at 22%. they're searching for someone who is a conservative alternate to romney. >> that would be who? >> bachmann, mccain, perry. >> you're bringing pollster can make a better analysis than that, but the bottom line is independents are going to decide this president, just as they did in '08, just as they made the republicans the majority in 2010. so gloria's point is valid. if you're out talking about how i can attract independent voters when you're dealing with conservatives, very conservative voters who participate in caucuses and primaries, you're basically saying just exactly that. i'm a moderate and that's not a good place to be. >> big red light. i want to move on to something that the president said recently, when he was in honolulu, that has now become a part of the campaign

conversation. but i also put it -- we put it together with something that president obama said at the end of last month. first from honolulu, here's what he had to say. >> you know, we've been lazy ov decades. we aren't out there hungry, selling america. we used to have the best stuff. anybody been to beijing airport lately? or driven on high-speed rail in asia or europe? what's changed? we've lost our ambition. our imagination. and our willingness to do the things that built the golden gate bridge and hoover dam and unleashed all the potential in this country. >> now, mitt romney and rick perry among others are all over this, saying the president called americans lazy. which isn't what he said.

he said we've been lazy about a certain things. this idea we've lost our ambition, our willingness, every time i've seen that quote, i've been looking at it for a while, i think jimmy carter malaise. >> but no, no, because here's the thing, every news outlet in this country has called that wildly inaccurate. and rick perry's put up a commercial ad about that, that is basically a lie. the president didn't call the american people lazy. there's no president -- >> he did say we've lost our ambition, our imagination -- >> he was talking about a certain business sector bringing in -- going out and bringing in foreign business here. the problem -- here's the thing. there hasn't been a leader over the last decade who's talked more about american exceptionalism than obama. this guy talked about sort of the productivity of the american worker consistently. now the american worker isn't benefiting from productivity of its work because corporate america keeps getting better. to say this president has not talked consistently about

exceptalism of the american people is just not true. >> i would love to get the two of you on this but there's something i really want to get to, because i think this was -- we hermman cain i want to play. he was up in new hampshire when he had this to say. >> -- reached the point where this campaign became damaging to my family, my wife and my family, i'm not a quitter but i'm -- but there is a point beyond which you will not go. >> what does that sound like to you, ed? >> it sounds like a guy who's having real reflections on how tough it is to run for president. he had a month or two, which was great fun. now he's had a month or two which is miserable. as anybody who's been around presidential politics knows it is miserable. it's going to take more than the secret service protection than he's getting assigned here to turn this thing around. if there's more signs of women coming forth or what have you

and that's affecting his marriage, there's nothing -- he's got to play it out. he's not going to be our nominee at the end of the day. and at the end of the day, he's got to be a happy warrior or he's not going to do well. >> sounds like reaching the skids a little bit. >> he has had a couple miserable months. he may know more than we know that he's going to have another miserable month. not only the sexual harassment allegations but also been say things like i don't have to know about foreign policy and not knowing what the president's policy is on libya. an so he's made a lot of rookie mistakes. and those things build up. at a certain point, they reach a critical mass. and we may be getting there. and i think this is the most reflective that i've really heard herman cain be about this. >> don't run for president if you're not prepared. plain and simple. it's a tough game. he may be a businessman. it's a lot tougher than selling pizza and hamburgers. i've seen some of the best of