>> production assistance for "inside washington" was provided by allbritton communications and "politico," reporting on the legislative, executive, and political arena. >> newt gingrich is a candidate without a campaign staff after his inner circle since it's a mass resignation. , andhaven't told the truth i've done things i regret. >> anthony weiner begins the week with a public confession which triggers calls for his resignation. >> i think he should resign. >> it has been a tough fight to get past the crippling

recession. >> the president faces a discouraging economic recovery that could threaten a second the white house term. new report openly questions what the united states is getting for the blood and treasure spent in afghanistan. captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- thanks for joining us. i'm mark shields. gordon peterson has the week off. republican presidential contender nuking which may have been feeling the line -- newt gingrich mae and filling the line by the singer johnny paycheck when is the staffers said thhe could take their jobs and shove them. >> it is devastating to have the

entire senior political leadership resigned en masse this way. the reason is that they had disagreements over the strategy and tactics of the campaign. >> that is the director of the governance studies at the brookings institution. i estimate on his facebook page, the former speaker -- i estimate on his facebook page, the former speaker said he would start the campaign and new in los angeles. is this curtains for newt gingrich, colby king? >> i don't know if it is curtains for him. he has a lot of explaining to do. he has got to respond to the charge that there was a difference in strategy and they think he does not have his heart in this thing. he does not want to talk about the kind of thing. he is going to go to los angeles and give a speech on the middle east, knocking obama. but he has got to deal with the question of whether his heart is in it, and what will his wife,

play.ta, is going to >> charles, are we talking curtains? >> s, but he will still be on stage in front of the curtain. his campaign is over. his idea was to run the campaign out of the tv studio. he is a man of ideas and all he has to do is communicate through the new media in debates and television. he did not want to go out and shake hands. everybody on the staff knew that if you do at shake hands in iowa and new hampshire and elsewhere, you not going to win. >> evan thomas, running for president is a demanding, physically challenging. it means that a degree of being with people, answering questions, being available. >> newt went on, i think, a two- week greek cruise.

his wife has some pretty expensive tastes so i suspect she had something to do with that. he is like a greek philosopher, he lives in the clouds. he is not a normal politician, not out there doing the nitty gritty stuff. he can be pretty persuasive, he is a smart guy, but he is not a normal politician. >> did he visit olympus? [laughter] >> it wouldn't surprise me. >> olympus visited newt. >> he went on this greek cruise despite the pleas of his staff, and it is emblematic of his "discipline problem" from the very beginning. i don't think a series people took him to be -- serious people took him to be a serious candidate for president. i always viewed him as someone who wanted to use the campaign as a springboard for his ideas.

he wouldn't even go to new hampshire. he wanted to go to a screening of his documentary on of the pope. this is kind of crazy was somebody who is allegedly running for president. >> or crushing. there is a one in a -- or refreshingly. there is the one in a million chance people will be attracted to it. >> i am with the charles. he will be there, be at the debates, people like talking, but people will pay less and less attention to ramp. -- to him. >> his campaign manager and principal adviser were key figures in the successful campaign for rick perry, the longest serving governor of texas, who might be thinking about running. >> the word is that he is going to go. i don't know if this is directly connected. i am not sure if the gingrich people left because they wanted

to do the rick perry campaign, but now they're gone, he is looking at the field, he thinks, weak, there are openings, a southern governor, texas is doing ok. i think he is in. >> are we ready for another texas governor in the white house? >> i don't think we will see this texas governor in the white house, not the governor who has talked about secession. >> but he would be a man who stop it as president. [laughter] >> if you run a successful, wild card campaign, it will not be sarah palin, it will be perry. 37% of all jobs created since the recession in texas -- an economic miracle. there may be reasons for that, but still, he can run on the record of having a lot of jobs when other people do not. very much a small government

guy, which can be popular, good hair -- >> i think it is hard to do a populist campaign when you are completely allied with the oil and gas industry. i am not familiar with all of gov. harry's record, but i have heard him several times when he was promoting his book, and it was not usual impressive -- not hugely impressive. >> gray hair and -- great hair and teeth -- are you going to enter him in the belmont? [laughter] . >> besides cosmetic considerations -- >> check his hooves. [laughter] >> rick santorum of barely competing with the religious and cultural -- apparently competing with the religious and cultural conservatives with of sarah

palin and michele bachmann. >> iowa give us huckabee in 2008, who came out of the second-tier and became the first decanted. that could happen this time around. michele bachmann, nearby state, a social conservative. santorum, of course. i think we will see a replay of 20008. ramadi out of iowa, -- with romney out of iowa and pawlenty in, you could get a second tier candidate. >> romney is not going to compete in the siowa -- he fount you could spend a lot of money on the straw poll and not win the iowa caucus. >> it is more important for the second-tier to win the straw poll than the first-tier. >> it is a tough state for

romney to win. it is a natural for michele bachmann to win. the voters in the caucuses are hard-core social voters, by and large, and i think charles is right. >> it doesn't get you much. ok, you've got the social conservatives there, you are from the region. harkin in, what was it, 1988 -- >> 1992. >> didn't do him any good. >> i agree in tom harkin's case, but mike huckabee was projected to the point where he was a serious candidate 3 south carolina all the way to the end. he was one of the finalists with john mccain of for the nomination, he survived beyond mitt romney. is more than cultural and religious. it is a showcase for is somebody to show that he has an appealing quality -- >> a person who showed up are

pretty well in early polls in iowa is a novelty candidate in this race, armond kaine. i don't know if he has -- herman cain. i don't know if he has staying power, but he is getting a second look out of people in iowa. >> jimmy carter was made in iowa. he made iowa. >> george bush had a big ball in 1980 and it collapsed in new hampshire and ronald reagan -- >> turned out he was slow-mo. >> and then no mo in 1988 because he lost about all -- lost to bob dole. >> we say that polls are only a snapshot at the moment. at the moment, romney seems to

have coalesced as the leader. i don't know if he can hold on to that, because god knows we in the press have beat him up well . but the fact he is leading the field and a pronounced way at this point is interesting. >> mitt romney this week acknowledged and admitted that the vast majority of americans believe, that climate change has been contributed to significantly by human activity, and he has been castigated by rush limbaugh and others. >> i don't know whether he will hang in with that position. this will be at test. will he hang or try to switch? rush limbaugh said immediately, "and there goes the nomination." >> anthony weiner draws fire from both sides of the aisle. >> as a woman, a colleague, i

would call for his resignation. >> that is a pennsylvania democrat who was calling for an to for anthony weiner resign. some say that the sexting scandal is a matter between in and is considered to inspect it is hard to find somebody -- him and his constituents but it is hard to find somebody was in support. >> you are out there, the party is embarrassed, the opposition is quiet. we have had only one call for a resignation on the republican side, cantor. it goes all the way back to richard nixon. at the end, what happened with nixon? a delegation of senior republican senators, barry goldwater, but to the oval office and say, times up, you are done, and he resigned. the pressure behind the scenes from his party, also behind the

scenes ultimately -- i think he would have to go, although it looks as though he is so determined he will be out of like an isolated island. >> his constituents seem to be with him, not overwhelmingly. >> two polls show at least opposition to his resigning. >> if he were to stay, he would probably be it redistricted out. there is a sociological point to be made. david vitter -- >> republican senator from louisiana. >> caught frequenting a brothel, not a beloved a member of the senate, and he managed to survive. but there were no pictures of it. in this day and age, the evidence is all lined up for everybody to see, and it is so icky --

>> like chris lee. >> like chris lee. and there is almost never just one instance of it. >> this not the end of the story for weiner. he is probably weighing his options and deciding whether to stay in office. he asked about the alternative, what to see if he leaves office? -- he has to think about the alternative, what does he do if he leaves office? he can take comfort in at the example of another new yorker who did even worse, eliot spitzer. never spent a day in jail, never got charge, and now he is hosting a primetime cable show. anthony weiner likes to talk, like stevie, as show business ahead of them -- likes tv, as show business ahead of him. >> he is probably a goner in the

sea, but the internet culture is taken for granted -- there may be more public tolerance than we realize. >> he will dependen -- he will do penance, he will seek help, come out of it a better person -- [laughter] >> of the politics of this, new york state is going to lose two seats as a result of redistricting. there is no question that his seat is going to disappear. >> it wasn't going to before, though. >> but it will now. ,> if his name weren't weiner would we be talking about this? >> i think we would, because of the actor you raised, -- the factor you raised, the ickiness.

>> but his name and makes him a subject of public ridicule and bad jokes every single day. >> the anger towards weiner among democrats is probable. the democrats have had one piece of good news since november, the win in new york of kathy hochul, an appealing candidate who want the case on medicare -- won a case on medicare. >> and he stepped all over it. >> kathy hochul has not appeared on television because of anthony weiner, squandered in the narcissism of this member of congress. >> the democrats found an issue, succeeded with that, rose to the tide against -- reversed the tide against them, and all of a sudden, out of nowhere, this happens. that is why the pressure is so strong in to get out of the way. >> to resign to spend more time

with his family. >> how closely is the president's political survival connected to the help of the economy? >> i don't think the answer is to turn back. i think the answer is to stand up for what this country is capable of achieving and to place our best entrepreneurs and workers in debt had a great work that is being done at inova -- and get behind the great work that is being done at nova and other schools are run the country. >> that is it the president at a community college in northern virginia. the economy made jimmy carter and george h.w. bush into one- term president. are we giving up for a repeat, nina? >> it is impossible to know that at this point -- >> never admit that on television. [laughter] >> it all depends on how much the opposition is and how much of a santa claus.

on economics decanted it is pushing. -- said the cause. on economics at the cannes -- santa claus theory on economics that the person is pushing. you need more money coming in polley for revenue increases, partly from a better economy. i think everybody is pretty scared right now -- >> the basic strategy, as best he has let it out, is to win by default, to hope that the republicans screw up and have the economy improved enough so that he gets elected and not have to actually do anything harder significant -- hard or significant. this economic problem we are having calls into question -- he might have to come out and do something before the election. >> when you state republican its crop, do you mean choosing someone who is unelectable?

>> somebody who is too far to the right. >> i don't think it is a matter of the president would for the pr -- waiting for the republicans to screw up. i think it is not having a record to run on. the numbers he will face, the unemployment -- that is the real kicker here. i think he still has the capacity to make a great case for his administration in the second term, and a case against the republicans for what they have not done in the last -- >> i think that is utterly impossible. and by 1% unemployment, rising. said -- 9.1% unemployment, rising. 17% on underemployment. the average time it takes for an unemployed to become employed again is 39.7 weeks.

in 2007, the average was 5 weeks. 40 weeks you have to wait to get a job is the highest ever recorded. you can't run on that and hope to win. the only thing he can hope for is that there will be a weak republican opponent. >> the scary thing is that 2007, of course, is when the crash occurred. i don't think anybody on either side of the aisle has any real idea of how to approve those numbers. >> obama ran by saying he would. >> the traditional solution to bad employment is stimulus. they use that card and it is no longer available. >> you can make the case that the stimulus kept us from

getting worse -- >> you cannot win an election on not. >> may i just continue? the fact is that we're not going to get back to where we were -- there is a massive ad just been taking place in the world economy -- adjustment taking place in the world economy. we don't have the manufacturing base we once had and we are not going to return to the. -- to that. that is going to get nothing but big trouble, but the reality is that we are not going to go back to the good old days. >> i do think that is one argument, the structural change in the world economy, but i am not sure that america cannot be dominant again economically. >> one more thing on the to-do list, the promised afghanistan withdrawal. >> we have made good progress in turning the forces there in afghanistan -- training the

forces in afghanistan, but the civilian and military force. the area where it greater progress need to be made is on the government side. so that ultimately, they can take responsibility for that country. >> that is leon panetta, president obama's picked to replace robert gates as secretary of defense, doing his best not to answer the question of how quickly the u.s. should get out of afghanistan. the confirmation hearing followed the release of a pessimistic report prepared for the senate foreign relations committee paid millions of dollars have been wasted on investment and nation-building in afghanistan. support seems to be growing on both sides of the aisle for a speedy removal of u.s. forces. what does the president have to consider here, and a promise? >> gene robinson had a column in "the washington post" on friday

that said to just declare victory and go home. that is politically appealing. democrats cannot look weak, so he has a political problem right there. geostrategically, he has another problem. the only solution in afghanistan people seem to be talking about is a negotiated that went with it taliban agrees not to harbor al qaeda and agrees to some kind of easy peace. if you just pull out, you can probably not get that. much as i am tempted to agree with gene robinson, let's just get out of there, is probably too that we need to keep some kind of pressure on the todd heap and for it -- auger print it that todd heap and for a longer period of time to get for aof -- othe taliban longer period of time to get

some sort of peace. >> we are going after al qaeda and more of their leadership. nation-building has not succeeded in afghanistan, and we need to pull back on that. we are putting money into a sinkhole. you see no capacity building taking place of any real doubt. the other thing about pulling out of afghanistan -- we cannot abandon the region with pakistan, india. we still have interests in that part of the world. the question is, how do we maintain our own is just without getting drawn further down into afghanistan. the thing that bothers me about this whole strategy is while we are working our way through this, we are losing lives. that bothers me more than anything else. while we are muddling through, we're losing young men and women. that is the part that keeps everybody up at night. >> nina?

>> there was an interesting called this week suggesting that so many countries and the area haven't interest in what is happening in afghanistan, -- have an interest in what is happening and afghanistan, at that if there is a grant strategy that includes them and a negotiated cease-fire, preserving some sort of d. ivvying of territory, without work? we know what the administration is interested in. but the spring offensive in afghanistan at the moment, we are going to lose a lot of lives at the moment. that is awful. >> are the lives with it, charles? >> -- worth it, charles? >> we lost 36,000 americans in korea. was it worth it?

if you had to go to that child of a father who went through that? hard to answer. in the kissinger article, what i understood is that we are going to have a result that is either vietnam or korea. you could have a partition or collision in afghanistan, a success, the question is how we get there. >> that is in for this week. tune in again next time for "inside washington." >> for a transcript of this broadcast, log on to insidewashington.tv.