john pistol say it is administration's test run of them screening travelers will expand through 30 more airports around the country among them, washington dulles, liberty, boston's logan. the three airports where the 9/11 hijackers departed in 2001. passengers enrolled in the program won't have to take off their shoes and belts adds often as they do now. federal officials in texas saying housewives who bought assault rifles from gun dealers there are among two dozen charged in an alleged plot to smuggle arms into mexico. the squlus tis department says more than 200 weapons have been seized including ak-47s and sniper rifles. it's believed the guns were headed for mexican drug car tells. josh marshal of the internet

news website, our guest this sunday on q&a here on c-span radio -- surrounding the year 2000. he talked about efforts to build the website from one person to the current 28 full-time staff he has today. he tells some specific stories like the stories surrounding the resignation of republican senator trent lott of mississippi as senate majority leader in the year 2002 following comments senator lot made at a birthday party for senator strom thurmond. josh marshal, founder, editor, publisher of talkingpointsmemo.com, our guest this sunday, 8:00 p.m. eastern on q&a here on c-span radio. welcome back. this is "washington today" on c-span radio streamed on the web

at c-spanradio.org. we have an iphone app available on your blackberry. on to two states later this month, arizona and michigan, with primaries and super tuesday. a lot of attention on what happened last night especially in colorado and minnesota. rick santorum according to "the washington times" clobbering mitt romney in head-to-head match-ups also in missouri's nonbinding primary, rick santorum winning the caucuses, snagging a close victory in colorado. none of the three contests leads immediately to any delegates. the results clearly suggest a strong pool of support for the former pennsylvania senator, rick santorum, highlighting dangers going forward for mitt romney who had by far his worst showing of the campaign. this morning chuck todd pointed out one tweet that was sent last night that mitt romney has won

every state that hillary clinton won in 2008 and lost every state hillary clinton lost in 2008 up until this point. so some interesting analysis back and forth on what we saw last night, what it means moving ahead. clearly a victory for rick santorum. he spoke to reporters and supporters in st. charles, missouri. >> tonight the voters of america, the voters here in missouri, the voters in minnesota and i'm hopeful the voters in colorado, right? [ cheers and applause [ cheers and applause ] i hope you have been listening

to our message. you found out that on those issues, health care, the environment, cap and trade and the wall street bailouts, mitt romney has the same positions as barack obama. and in fact, would not be the best person to come up and fight for your choices for freedom in america. [ cheers and applause ] ladies and gentlemen, i don't stand here to claim to be the conservative alternative to mitt romney. i stand here to be the conservative alternative to barack obama. [ cheers and applause ]

>> tonight we had an opportunity to see what a campaign looks like when one candidate isn't outspent five or ten-to-one, with negative ads imputing their integrity and distorting their record. this is a more accurate representation, frankly, of what the fall race will like like. governor romney's greatest attribute is, well, i've got the most money and the best organization. well, he's not going to have the most money and the best organization in the fall, is he? we'll have to have someone who has other attributes to commend himself to the people of america, someone who can get up and make sharp contrasts with president obama, someone who can point to the failed record of this administration and say that barack obama needs to be replaced in the oval office. >> from last night in missouri,

a very good night for rick santorum. he went three or three and reaction from mitt romney who spoke to reporters early in the day. here is what he had to say about lessons learned from his defeat last night in moving ahead in this 2012 republican primary. >> after florida you spoke quite candidly about the lessons you learned after south carolina. after last night and the past couple days, can you speak about lessons you learned there in terms of we didn't really see you going after your opponents by name. we saw a lot of surrogates and members of your campaign doing it but not you. is that something going for ward into the next couple weeks before super tuesday? is that something you regret not doing? >> i think as with south carolina we took a lot of incoming in south carolina and didn't really respond. obviously senator sanitorium was able in minnesota to level a lot of charges, some of them not accurate. and i wasn't there to respond. that was just because i happen

to be fighting hard in nevada. but i will clearly make the differences between myself and my opponents very clear and where i think they have misrepresented my record and my views, i'll make that very clear. this is an interesting opportunity for the american people. i think a lot of us feel that the republican party lost its way in the past. we spent too much, borrowed too much, earmarked too much. i'm talking about we in the general sense because these were folks in washington. frankly rick santorum and newt gingrich were a big part of the we that spent too much, borrowed too much and earmarked too much. under gingrich, earmarks doubled. under rick santorum, he voted to raise the debt ceiling i believe five different times to a tune of an additional $3.5 trillion. i believe while senator santorum

was serving in congress and the senate, government spending increased by some 80%. republicans spent too much money, borrowed too much money, earmarked too much. rick santorum and newt gingrich have to be held accountable. this is one of the reasons the tea party grew up is because people were unhappy about incumbents, people who spent their time in washington borrowing, spending and earmarking too much. we want to bring in new faces. i'm the only guy that hasn't spent time in washington. and senator santorum and speaker gingrich, they are the very republicans who acted like democrats. when republicans act like democrats, they lose. and newt gingrich's case he had to resign. in rick santorum's case, he lost by the biggest margin of anyone senate incumbent since 1980. again, borrowing, spending and earmarking is not a good combination if you're republican and not a good qom nation for

america. >> georgia's primary is march 6. we had word that newt gingrich will spend time next week in georgia. steve die nan writes for "the washington times" and is in capitol hill. thanks for being was. >> my pleasure. >> this campaign began with mitt romney going on the offensive against barack obama. but this back and forth and now his line of attack not only aimed at newt gingrich but a new line against rick santorum. >> that's exactly right. we've seen this play out every time another guy seems to be rising, romney durns his fire which has pretty steadily been on obama and goes after whoever that person is popping up against him. he did it to newt gingrich after south carolina and started doing a little bit to sanitorium after

iowa and is back to it. the clip you just played did a pretty good job of summing up exactly what that attack will be which is he's the outsider and now the rest of us -- without governor perry in the race and governor huntsman in the race and some of those other folks, he's correct, they'll have a race full of people whose experience came in congress, and in the case of president obama in congress and then in the white house, all washington characters. that's absolutely his line of attack there. it's worth noting that sanitorium's reply is that he likes to point to the number of earmarks that governor romney and the state of mass chew sets requested when governor romney was the governor there. the earmarks are something that definitely just about everybody played that game. there are a few people who id didn't, speaker john boehner, senator john mccain, folks like that who didn't play it. that's something that hits everybody. the broader issue romney is

raising there about spending in washington, that will be really interesting to see how that plays. it's clear that's exactly the attack romney will go down. any problems you dislike -- you republican voters dislike about washington, he's one of the guys there when you disliked them. make sure to include them in your dislike. >> i have to follow up. i wonder if that will resonate with voters, if company will connect rick santorum with record deficits and government spending. he was in the u.s. house for two terms, two terms in the senate. he did lose in 2006. do voters connect the dots? >> that's a really good question. i guess we'll see how well it goes. it's tougher to connect the dots to a guy who is a rank-and-file senator than it was to connect those doubts to newt gingrich who as speaker of the house led the '94 republican revolution and led those troops for two

full terms in congress. just as gingrich likes to claim credit for having balanced the budget and says i balanced the budget. if you're able to make that claim as speaker, you have to take the hit for the fact that earmarking did go up while you were speaker. for sanitorium it's tougher. he can't necessarily claim credit for i balanced the budget but also can't take the blame for earmarks exploded. romney is going to have to fine tune that message a little bit. i think he'll have to fine opportunity for it to less nate. there's plenty of wiggle room for santorum to get out of a broad attack like that, unless people really are fed up with anything that smacks of washington which we saw a little bit in 2010 and may be true again. i guess the real question is republicans, they don't use the word george bush. but what they are talking about, what romney is talking about is george bush, what republicans did while george bush was in the

white house. so santorum's challenge will be to make the argument and convince voters that he was fighting george bush on a number of these things, not voting with him. with two key things that will come up, and he's dealt with them to some extent are the no child left behind which sanitorium now says was a mistake or a bad vote, one he regrets. i haven't heard him specifically on a medicare prescription drugs which was $400 billion new entitlement program tacked on without any offsetting tax increases or spending cuts. those are two big symbols of where conservatives think that the bush administration went wrong on domestic issues. those are the sorts of things are where santorum will have to explain himself. >> we're talking with stephen dine nan of "the washington times." the cpac conference getting

under way tomorrow. stephen dinan, who is the republican front-runner? >> i guess it's still romney. this race has always been -- has been one story line, mitt romney and then everything but romney. who constitutes that group? is there one person rising in that group? how is that group as a whole or individuals in that group attacking romney and how is he dealing with that group? we remained exactly there. mitt romney is still the story of this election, and the question is, can one, two or three of the other candidates still left in the race win enough delegates essentially to -- either a single person doing it or the three of them together, win enough delegates

to prevent mitt romney from being the nominee on the first ballot in tampa? if that's the case, all bets are off about what happens then. >> that's wishful thinking for political reporters who would love to see this happen not in our lifetime have we seen this go beyond one ballot. let me conclude with one point. with rick santorum's win last night, you point out in your story santorum clobbered romney. my question is what's happening in the romney campaign tonight? >> i think they're going over lessons learned. two of those are states that romney won in 2008. in all three instances he saw his vote support, he had a certain level of voters turn out in caucuses or turn out to vote for him in all three of those states in 2008 and got fewer votes this time around. that means the people who actually have pulled the lever from mitt romney in the past, not all of them could do it this time around. that's a very worrisome sort of thing. i imagine they're trying to figure out what they can do to remind the voters who pulled the lever last time around, this is the same guy you voted for and try to win over new voters who

they're going to need to counter just population growth and whatnot. they've got to be trying to figure out -- twofold. they have to figure out what they can do to stem the bleeding on their end and also if that doesn't work, make the other guy look even worse. >> i counted seven stephen dinan pieces online at washingtontimes.com today. you're a busy guy. >> it's been a busy day. ron paul last night who is claiming that he's got a lead in delegates, he was in golden valley, minnesota last night. here is what he had to say. >> of course, tonight i've heard nothing but good stories about all of you staying around and going through the process, understanding the process and voting and getting delegates. so when the dust settles, i think there's a very good chance we'll have the maximum number of delegates coming out of minnesota. [ cheers and applause ]

there's other good news, too. an ongoing caucus over on the east coast. i think it's the state called maine. we're doing very well there and we're going to hear some results on that on saturday. i think those results are going to be very good as well. but i want to really thank you for the effort and one thing i'm convinced of, those who joined the campaign for liberty and promote this cause really

believe in something. i keep thinking it must be a lot more fun believing in something than just campaigning for nothi nothing. republican congressman and gop candidate ron paul in minnesota last night. newt gingrich on the campaign trail not in the states that held caucuses yesterday, but with an eye on super tuesday, crisscrossing ohio with stops in cincinnati, dayton, columbus and cleveland. he joined other republicans in vowing to reverse the president's policy on birth control, just one of a number of issues that newt gingrich spoke about in ohio yesterday. >> there's been a lot of talk about the obama administration's attack on the catholic church. their religious belief when he was governor. you have a very similar pattern again. over and over you get the same patterns. i think a massachusetts moderate finds it very hard to draw in sharp contrast with somebody who is an illinois radical. the fact is in america, we believe power comes from god to each one of you personally. you are personally sovereign. [ applause ] because you are sovereign, you are a citizen. and as a citizen, you lone power to the government, the government never loans power to

you. that's why the constitution begins "we the people." not we the politics, not we the bureaucrats, not we the judges. we the people. >> the comments of newt gingrich using the birth control issue in the catholic church as one issue he wants to continue to use as a line of attack against the preside president. the day began with house speaker john boehner saying the president's policy as outlined by hhs will not say. the white house saying the president is sensitive to the objections and looking for ways to address them. the core issue is if you work for a catholic institution, under the health care provision you will have birth control care. and many catholics are saying that should not be the case. the debate moved to the u.s. house and senate. here are the views are aconfere

>> the catholic church said basically, they're one of the first that came out strongly against this and said, these are our affiliated institutions. they're extensions of the church. what do you say to them? and is there any ground for compromise here? >> a two-part answer. there are 335,000 churches exempt because they are churches. we're talking about schools, universities, hospitals, that employ many, many women of all different kinds of faith. and they have to rely on their employer to decide whether or not they're going to have access to contraceptive is something that we're saying can't happen. that they have the right to have access to that. as senator boxer just said, the president in his policy that he put forward, gave those institutions a year to figure out how to do that. and that's what they are in the

process of doing today. >> and let me just add one more point and then i'll turn it over. remember, this isn't anything new. more than half of the population in this country already have these laws in their states. 28 states but it covers well more than half the population. so this is isn't anything new and the fact is, these universities and these hospitals are working with this in many of the states. and so, really, this fuss is not about that. i would have to say, listen to what senator murray said. and you're buying into it by your question. it's not about that. it's about -- no. questions are based on what you see the issues are. what i think patty murray stated so strongly is that this isn't about this exemption. they deal it with all over the country. it's the fact that they don't want women to have access to

birth control and that's certainly true of the republicans who stood before you earlier today. >> senators barbara boxer of california, patty murray of washington, as they spoke to reporters on capitol hill again this morning as we said, ohio republican, house speaker john boehner, who is catholic and one of 12 children, called the contraceptives rule an unambiguous attack on religious freedom no our country and accused the president of violating the first amendment's freedom of religion and then joined by his republican colleagues on both epds of the u.s. capital. senator kelly ayott is a republican from new hampshire and she spoke at the ohio clock on capitol hill. >> we've seen with the president's health care bill and the regulations issued by health & human services and an unprecedented front to rid religious liberty. if we put religious institutions and faith-based organizations in

the position where they have to comply with government mandates that violate the principles of their faith it violates our first amendment to the constitution and, really, it's an affront to what we stand for as americans. i'll say this. this is not a women's rights issue. this is a religious liberty issue. and it can apply to all faiths. and i've heard from my constituents who are deeply, deeply concerned about this. we need to respect the rights of conscience for all religions and when you look at what this administration has done, it's awakened a whole group of people that are deeply concerned about an unprecedented extension of government into issues that we have always left in the quiet of people's homes. in their churches and in faith-based institutions. and i'll say this, also. what the administration has done is really an unprecedented in terms of both parties have

respected religious liberty. if you look at was signed into law in 1993, the religious freedom restoration act. what this administration has done, also violates not only the spirit of the law, but also, the letter of the law which was signed into law by a democratic president. so, again, i would say, this is unprecedented and this is not a women's right issue. this is a right that fwgoes to e fundamental of the first amendment in the constitution. i would call on the president to overturn these health & human services regulations. to stop infringing on religious freedom and change the direction of what we've seen with the unprecedented expansion that we've seen from obama care. thank you. >> the comments of senator kelly ayotte, a republican, freshman from new hampshire as she spoke on capitol hill. two related stories from the

hill.com with headlines, the white house trying to struggle to contain the uproar over the birth control mandate and white house press secretary jay carney announcing the administration will work to deal with concerns on the contraceptive rule. and the associated press, ben feller, getting the first question and the first topic was this one. >> on the contraception issue, speaker boehner is promising to repeal the rule through legislation and senator connell has talked about the same. i'm curious about your reaction to that and if that were to happen, is that the kind of measure that the president would veto? >> i think that's a lot of speculation embedded in that question and i'm not going to go there. i think on this issue, from the very beginning, we've said we'll listen and work with individuals who have concerns as we work to implement the law. as i said yesterday, on january 20th, when this decision was announced, secretary sebelius

said, quote, we'll continue to work closely with religious gripes during this transitional period to discuss their concerns and i would note that 28 states have similar contraception coverage requirements. and aided states, as i mentioned before, do not even have exemption that this church requires for houses of worship. we want to work with all organizations to implement the policy in a way that's as sensitive to their concerns as possible. but let's be clear, we are committed, the president is committed to ensuring that women have access to contraception without paying any extra cost wherever they are. >> while you're planning to work with the groups that have concerns, the congress or at least the house, is pledging to undo the rule. what's your reaction to that? >> right now we're focused on implementation of this rule and

doing what we said back on january 20th, when secretary sebelius announced it which was, work with those that have concerns osi if there's a way to implement this policy to ensure that women everywhere have the same level of health care coverage and the same access to preventative services. but to do it in a way that might allay some of the concerns that have been expressed. this president has -- as you know, in his past, he's worked with when his first job in chicago, with churches and organizations that do a lot of good work. he's very sensitive to concerns like these and he wants to find a way to implement this important rule because he is committed to making sure women have access to these coverages. he wants to find a way to implement it. and it can allay some of the concerns that have been expressed and that's why the transition period was announced

at the same time the rule was announced. >> the comments of white house press secretary jay carney as he took reporters questions including ap's ben feller on the issue becoming a political firestorm in washington and around the country. you can read more on a number of stories related on politico, "the washington post" and "the new york times." this is "washington today" and this week marking the 60th anniversary of queen elizabeth and her ascension to the thro throene. all will k-- all will culminate into members of parliaments and the prime minister questions and david kameron, along with member of parliament, andy slaughter, paying tribute to queen elizabeth. >> thank you, mr. speaker. before listing my engagements i'm sure the whole house will wish to join me in paying tribute to her majesty, the

queen, during this -- in what is an absolutely historic week marking the 60th anniversary or her asession to the thrown. her majesty's 60 years of remarkable leadership and dedicated public service are an inspiration to us all and something the whole country and commonwealth can be immensely proud of. members will obviously have the opportunity to pay individual tributes during the humble address debate on the 7th of march. this morning, i had meetings with ministerial colleaguetion and others and in addition to my duties here i'll have further meetings later today. >> mr. speaker, i'm sure the whole house, not least myself, wish to join the prime minister in his warm tribute to her majesty. >> the british prime minister david kameron, along with a member of parliament, andy slaughter, and this was an issue that labor and conservative could agree on as members of the house of commons pay tribute to queen