does indeed work at politico. that is his mother. >> and tonight, all eyes on the debate to see who he'll blame next. >> blame yourself! >> we begin with the candidates rehearsing their one liners, polishing their policy points for tonight's cnbc republican debate in the battleground state of michigan. and while tonight's debate will focus on the economy, the viewers are eagerly waiting to see how the candidates deal with the elephant in the room in a room full of elephants. debate number nine is the first since the sexual harassment situation broke. and despite cain's denials and defiance, the hits just keep coming. a second of his accusers has now gone public. karen, one of two women who settled harassment claims at the national restaurant association. more troubling for cain, she set

in motion plans to appear alongside herman cain's other accusers. that could include sharon bialek who told msnbc's thomas roberts earlier today, that despite attacks on her character, she's up for it. >> if he just made one person come forward. if the women would like to get together, gloria and i have yet to discuss this. i'm all for it. >> as for mr. cain claiming he didn't even know miss bialek and calling her a lawyer, he blamed the democratic machine for her accusations. >> the democrat machine of america has brought forth a troubled woman to make false accusations. statements. many of which exceed common sense. >> but it was cain's chain smoking campaign manager mark block who took the latest conspiracy theory a step

further, alleging that karen's son works at politico. the source of the first harassment report. >> just at the press conference, it was brought up that the, that karen kraushaar has come out as one of the women. we came to find out that her son works at politico. confirmed that he does indeed work there and that's his mother. >> confirmed it with dozens who work at politico? we're going to ask politico's chief political reporter in just a moment. first, let's allow fox's resident democrat bob beckel to air his view of the cain camp's charge of a democratic plot. >> herman, let me explain something to you. it is not us. it is republicans. >> oh, bull [ bleep ]. >> are you suggesting it was democrats? do you have the proof? >> let's bring in our man on the scene in michigan.

nbc news political director and host of the daily rundown. chuck todd who joins us now from the debate site in rochester, michigan. a far more sabre individual. chuck, tonight is supposed to focus on the economy. we all know about flat tax plans. we know about 9-9-9. how much do you expect them to focus on mr. cain's 4-4-4-4? as in the four women who have accused him of sexual harassment? >> i think it is a delicate balance that the not mitt romney group candidates. you have romney and everybody trying to be the not mitt romney of the campaign. i think it is a delicate line that they've got to walk here. because cain is showing so far, his supporters are sticking with him. if you look like you're pouncing, you may alienate the very voters you need in your corner if you want to become the not mitt romney. remember, cain's support base is among more conservative part of the party. the tea party. those who are very supportive of

the tea party that is not with romney. that is where the opening is if you want to get romney one-on-one. so i think you're, i would be surprised if you saw anybody take direct shots, romney has probably been the toughest amount against cain more than anybody when he called hill disturbing yesterday. what you see with romney. what i'm hearing with the other republicans is concern that the longer this cain store drags out, the more of a potential drain it is on the republican party. >> but chuck, before we go to that, are you being serious? are you absolutely telling me that not a single one of these is going to throw a punch given the litany of accusations? >> reporter: like i said, i think they're going to walk a delicate line. you have those that are sticking by cain who believe this is the elite media and elite republicans. the establishment, trying to knock them down. and if you're even a rick santorum. anybody out there, a santorum or

a bachmann who really wants to do something to jump start. maybe they will see it as they have nothing to lose. if you're perry who had really, an uneasy introduction with the conservative wing of the party, who you're trying to be their representative in this mitt romney playoff here, i think it is a lot trickier to walk. you could, it could be a suicide mission. you may take cain down but you may go down with him. >> what about jon huntsman? would he use china to excoriate the issue? >> well, i do think that that is the, watching the economic debate tonight when you're going to have a bunch of cnbc 'ers who thing very, very well. is italy going to collapse, getting their take. these eight candidates. what is their breadth of knowledge in a way they can't do a talking point saying we don't

want to be greece. the debt is too big. that won't be an acceptable answer to a guy like jim cramer or those folks. so you'll see them have to play in a sandbox that they haven't done before at debate. that i think would be as much of a test. never mind if you're herman cain where you know you will have to deal with the other question in the room. and at the same time, answer some questions you haven't had to answer before. >> absolutely. chuck todd, thanks so much. we'll be watching all of your analysis tomorrow on the daily rundown. now let's get more with our political panel here with me in new york. political an list karen finney and politico chief investigative reporter ken vogel joins me from washington. karen, mr. cain has fired at almost everyone. the democratic party, rick perry, he's blamed the accusers, accusing them of fabrication. what was your reaction when his campaign chief mark block made up a story about her son?

>> number one he know that mr. block is completely not ready for prime time mr. smoky, right? we've shown that that for some time. the whole blaming the victim. we're the victim. we're being victimized mentality that i think has gotten them into trouble. when politico first came to them with the story, they had ten days to come up with a credible answer. and instead know what did we see when the stories came snout all this obje the changing of answers. >> who is the young man? >> he has no connection to karen kraushaar. he is not related to her. he said she was his mother. he did work at politico. he covered house races. he went on to the national journal where he is an editor for the hotline covering house

races and congressional races. he tweeted that he was not reached out to by the cain campaign. he subsequently said that he asked for an apology from mark block and apparently they guy one to the cain campaign. sort of issued a generic apology saying then acting on bad information. and dgsly fox news has been asked to and greed direct record tonight on sean hannity's show. so i kind of agree with karen. this is yet another in a series of missteps that taken together really present a textbook case of how not to handle crisis communications in a presidential campaign. can your team of journalists have been blamed for stirring up trouble? how do you respond to mr. cain when he says reporters were, in his words, breaching their code of ethics and fabric it aing stories? that's what mark block was doing. >> there is some irony there. >> we take this very seriously.

we don't like to view ourselves as part of the story. we did break the story. we did it very carefully. we weighed all the concerns about using anonymous sources, leaning on them. we weighed their credibility against the value of getting this information out there and getting the story out there. so far this story has totally borne itself out. every single allegation made against us that we had reported something in error has been proven to be false. so we would rather focus on the information itself that we've presented, which again has proven to be 100% accurate. >> at his press conference yesterday, mr. cain started referring to himself in the third person. >> yes. he said herman cain getting out of race? that ain't going to happen. just listen to this. >> a businessman by the name herman cain stepped forward. because that's the person herman cain is. one thing about herman cain that i think a lot of american people know, just because it's tough is no reason for me not to do what

i feel like i have to do. some people don't want to see herman cain get the republican nomination. some people don't want herman cain to become president of the united states of america. i can't tell you what that motivation is, other than it's to stop herman cain. >> first of all, i have never heard a woman politician refer to herself in the third person the way men do. this is crazy! >> what's going on? has he lost some sort of disdense in his own mind? >> i think it is part of the strategy of herman cain as the victim. all these big mean people are beating up on me. the big democratic don't sxors they don't want good old herman cain in the white house. neeg responsibility. let's even say if he's innocent. he could take responsibility for having completely mishandled the situation. from the beginning he could have handled the situation better and put himself in a far better place at this point. now he is lacking credibility. it's been such an abomination. >> and yet, here's my kind of

assessment of this. don't you think that some republican voters who hate and loathe the media may be apart from the odd psychotic talk show host, who hate and loathe the media, don't you think this will help mr. cain? >> absolutely. i think he is trying to may into that. he knows right now, that is his base. here's the other thing. he also knows, if i'm a republican donor, one of the big donors, if i'll looking at electability. i'm looking at his campaign and saying this is not the guy who will go up against that big obama machine in the big election. all he has is that base of support here's are saying the big old mean liberal media is coming after him. the big old mean democrats. he has to continue to play that victim card so that they'll continue to support him. >> thank you, karen. very quickly. final question, is there any other accuser that you have that you're investigating? is there something else you're going to share with us in the days to come? >> well, in fact in our first story we identified though not by name, both miss kraushaar and

another woman, we understand miss kraushaar's lawyer is reaching out to to get her to participate in this joint news conference with. karen kraushaar, sharon bialek and this other woman who has been identified as working in new jersey who work for the national restaurant association and alleged per our previous reporting that herman cain harassed her during her time there. i think if there are additional shoes to drop pertaining to his service at the nra, it will be from this woman and possibly a fourth woman the associated press has identified, though not by name, who apparently is being reached out to to participate in this joint news conference. >> thank you both for joining us. we'll be watching tonight's debate. live from rochester, michigan. starting at 8:00 p.m. eastern cnbc. coming up next, a win for the working man on election day. my, how the tables have turned! what's better than gold ? free gold !

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it was a big night for democrats in mississippi, ohio and around the country tuesday night. 55% of voters in mississippi rejected the so call person hood initiative that declares life begins at fertilization. and in ohio, site of a huge crowd. voters overwhelmingly rejected issue two, striking down a law passed by republican governor john kasich limiting collective bargaining themselves voted down a measure to have ohio opt out of president obama's health care law. is this an early sign that voters will not support republicans over reaching on important issues? congressman kucinich join us now

from cleveland. good afternoon, sir. you've called this bill a direct assault on workers' rights. now it seem those workers have agreed in almost overwhelming terms. >> it's a significant moment in ohio nationally. we've seen over the last year, there is been an attack on collective bargaining on the right of people to organize, people to have decent wages and benefits. the vote in ohio, while it was the legislation was aimed at public workers for their rights and are trying to appeal to management for a decent break. in ohio, this has huge implications for not just labor but for working people across america. >> is it your view, mr. kucinich, that republicans may be misinterpreted the 2010 victories and this kind of overreach when it come to issues like collective bargaining?

is this a sign of thing to come, do you think, for democrats in 2012? >> well, the republicans overreach? of course they did. that's why you saw such a powerful repudiation of senate bill five in yesterday's bill in ohio. but that republicans overreached doesn't solve the problem for democrats. keep in mind the democrats had control of the united states congress at a time when workers were looking for an after playing of their rights for collective bargaining. we did not see the employee free choice act come through in a way that actually should have been predicted would happen. so what workers proved everywhere, both union and nonunion, if you threaten their rights, you're going to pay for it. and the back lash that occurred in ohio should be a warning to those across the nation who think they're going to crush workers' aoperations, they're going to deny workers the right to collective bargaining, the right to decent wages and benefits.

workers rights and human rights. i think that the powerful response in ohio yesterday underscores that. and it should be a warning to all those public officials who are not, who feel that they can try to take out the popular discontent with the worker they have. >> i want to ask you about the so-called super committee. they are calling on gop members. any tax increases in a potential deal. now it's been signed by i think 63 members and was written by congressman patrick mchenry of north carolina. do you have any confidence at all that this super committee will make a dent in the debt by november 23rd, which is the deadline? >> this whole process is flawed. the people of the united states elected 435 members to the house. 100 members to the senate. those members are supposed to be involved in making these decisions. congress in a sense, kicked the

can up the road to a super committee which won't be able to come to a conclusion. one thing for sure, they won't mess with social security and they'd better not make it easier for people to escape their responsibility to pay a fair share of the taxes. we're in the trouble we're in because of wars that were unnecessary, because of the bush tax cuts, because. our trade deficit. the super committee is not touching any of that and frankly, i don't know where they think they will start in the economy again if their whole lodge sic to contract the economy. worst idea yet. we should be expanding the economy. we should be creating jobs, we should be getting america back to work so people can pay taxes again. with 14 million americans out of boring, unemployment still at 9%. the super committee's work is not even close to addressing the real issues. >> congressman dennis kucinich of ohio, thank you for joining us this afternoon. coming up, why would president obama want to work with a congress that behaves

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and my pharmacist told me it's the only otc pain patch approved for sale using the same rigorous clinical testing that's required for prescription pain medications. proven. powerful. safe. salonpas. president obama today signed executive orders for steep spending cuts that will rowe for truly for employees and strict issues on government computers, even government swag t-shirts, coffee mug and tote bags. >> we haven't seen as much action out of congress as we would like. that's why we launched on our own initiative the campaign to cut waste. not just to cut spending but to make government work better for the american people. >> is this a move more about savings or is it really symbolic way for the president to make

the point that if congress won't work with him and do anything, then he'll push ahead with these executive actions and executive orders? >> reporter: it's really a bit of both. on the one hand you have the white house saying the latest executive action will save about $4 billion. that money will be reinvested back into the government. it won't go toward deficit reduction. but there is no doubt, martin, that the president is using this we can't wait campaign. basically as a platform to hammer congressional republicans for not passing his american jobs act. we've been saying all along that if republicans didn't work with him on his american jobs act, that he would use that as a platform in 2012. that's what we're starting to see happen. the president really trying to make the case against what he is trying to paint as a do nothing congress. here's the thing. it is opened him up to criticism from republicans who are basically pointing out that these we can't wait initiatives, a pretty small board.

all he is doing is campaigning with these initiatives. the white house pushing back against that. the big question is accident is this really working? that really depends on what poll you're looking at. according to one latest poll interesting president's approval raigtss have increased a little bit. according to our latest "wall street journal" poll, his approval rating are holding steady at 44%. but regardless of the polls, the white house thinks that this we can't wait initiative is working so we will be seeing a lot more of it in the coming days and weeks. >> thank you. we can't wait for your next appearance this broadcast. coming up next, today's top lines. >> a businessman by the name of herman cain stepped forward. ♪

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night in michigan. to get us pumped up, let's go right to today's top lines. >> i am writing a personal check to herman cain right now. all right? herman is the man. how bad could these new charges be? >> he put his hand on my leg, under my skirt, and reached for my genitals. >> the democrat machine of america has brought forth a troubled woman to make false accusations. there will probably be others. >> at the press conference, it was brought up that karen has come out agency one of the women. we came to find out her son works at politico. >> these are serious allegations and they'll have to be addressed seriously. >> a businessman by the name of herman cain stepped forward. that's the kind of person herman cain is. one thing people don't want to see people don't want herman cain. >> you believe the poes, it

could be a good night for workers. >> i certainly support the effort of the governor. >> it's clear the people have spoken. >> would you have supported the constitutional amendment that would have established the definition of life at conception? >> absolutely. >> in mississippi, a controversial anti-abortion amendment was also defeated. >> let's get right to it now. with us from washington, michelle from the daily beast and "newsweek" magazine, as well as nbc news's national investigaty correspondent michael isikoff. good afternoon to both of you. if could i start with you, we're looking forward to tonight's ninth gop debate. but it's coming off some big wins on women's choice and the labor movement. do you think republicans may soften their tone tonight because of what happened yesterday? >> well know we're talking a lot about the economy. and i think on the issues that we've been looking at, the social issue in mississippi

isn't going to kind of play into the economic issues as much. and it is always tricky when you're looking at union workers. because you have to walk the line between being anti-union if you're appealing to certain segments of the republican base but also, you know, that's a lot. a huge chunk of detroit's work force there. >> absolutely. this race has been all about who can be the anti-romney candidate. and herman cain, he is still top contender to be just that. how long has he held this role for now? i think about a month according to our polls? these accusations keep coming. can he manage to keep going? >> in a word, no. look, the cumulative weight of these allegations is going to bring those poll numbers down. it's hard to see how they wouldn't at this point. certainly there's a base that is anti-media in the republican electorate.

the primary, it will resist accepting these. but you know, you had all the reporting last week about the financial payoffs in the restaurant association. now you have a woman stepping forward. if we have the press conference that was promised this morning by the lawyer for the former national restaurant association employee, if that comes together and we get more firsthand public accuser coming forward, it's just really hard to see how cain survives it. and you can already see the anxiety among the republican contenders about this dragging down and distracting from the debate they want to have about obama's policies. romney's statement was really serious. ? then you had even gingrich

hinting at herman cain has more explaining to do. the cumulative toll will be to bring down herman cain's ratings. >> i would like to get your take. eblamed everybody. eblamed the accusers. he's blamed the democratic party. how do you think he's doing in these circumstances? >> i have talked to several kind of expert image consultants and crisis communications consultants. they're pretty impressed at how he has screwed this up every step of the way. i think it is a perfect case of how not to handle a problem. you've got the drip, drip, drip with extra women coming forward. and he emakes strange statements like you can expect more to come forward. which you know what he means. >> everyone is talking about the media handling of the problem. isn't the reality that there is some substance to these

allegations? that's why it is difficult to handle. because there's some truth to them. >> everybody is calling on him will you have bill bennett and others saying he needs to address these allegations. but to address these allegations, it sounds like he will to have get into some fairly nitty gritty details that are make him look worse. so i'm not sure that there is a good way out for him at this point. you have not just one. he's talking about a distraught woman being trotted out by the democrats. we're talking about several women and a couple settlementes with the organization handling all this. >> gingrich has had his own fair share of financial and sex scandals. there he is out there. playing the stalwart. the party elder, almost professorial and he seem to be moving forward in the polls. does this move actually that these kinds of scandals, they las for a while but you can come back from them.

>> he is sort of the last man standing. at each stage there has been an alternative to romney. everybody thought it would be rick perry and then he had those disastrous performances in the debates. and then herman cain shot up and he seem to be self-destructing on his own here. so gingrich is kind of left as the one guy who can pose as the nonromney candidate here. by laying low for a while and being off the media radar screen, i think he's benefited from that. but attention will come back to him if he does take on that role. >> thank you both so much. tonight be sure to catch all the sling and arrows firsthand on

the republican debate live from rochester, michigan. starting at 8:00 p.m. eastern on cnbc. as we go to break, an eye on the markets as the closing bell approaches and the worries in europe are now hitting wall street hard. veterans are real-life heroes. but when they come home, they don't want a parade; they want a job. the postal service employs more veterans than any other civilian employer. but congress is debating a bill that would force the postal service to fire tens of thousands of vets, close post offices, shut mail processing plants, and disrupt mail delivery. drastic cuts won't fix the postal service and aren't needed. tell your representative to vote "no" on house resolution 2309. it's time to deliver for our veterans -- and america.

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good afternoon. >> good to see you again. >> president obama has repeatedly pledged to prevent iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. does this latest report suggest that iran is actually getting dangerously close to that objective? >> there can be no other reading. particularly not only in the report but in the all important annex to the report which represents a statistical and factual compilation of all the hard intelligence information that the nuclear inspectors of the iaea were able to compile to justify the report. the question, of course, is when the bored of governors of the iaea meet, will they in effect give or accord iran more opportunity to explain the factual findings in the report or refer the report to the united nations security council for, quote, further action, unquote. >> terms of a time line, by when

exactly do you think iran may possess a functional nuclear weapon? when do you think that will be? is it near to where we are now? >> i suspect and i can't really say that i know where they are in so far as component construction. you have different aspects. not only the actual nuclear material, the enriched uranium. you have the bomb making capacity of the detonation and the question is, can they test? where would they test to prove that they have a bomb? or are they going to basically just creep up to the point where they have the capability but don't test. i would say all of my readings of all the reports in a dispassionate manner, i think that all of us including the intelligence communities are being caught off gashed on how quickly the iranians have been able to accelerate the engineering to get to the point

where they can actually put a device on a missile. >> it is absolutely disturbing. the russians have made it clear today that they do not support any fresh sanctions against iran. i'm assuming that means president obama's options accident they're pretty limited at this point. >> no doubt that the international community is not united in imposing the most severe economic unified sanctions. but the obama administration has done a truly remarkably terrific job on the economic sanctions, which the iranians themselves acknowledge have been extraordinarily painful. the question is, where does the administration go and what do the israelis do and what do like-minded drois with this report. you either go and continue to try to turn the screws dmurth clearly the iranians don't believe will desist them from getting to where they need to, or believe they'll get. then of course that then leads us to the $64,000 very painful

question. is the only option left a military option? or is there anything between further economic sanctions and a military strike? and who would in effect conduct that? and all the agitation by the israelis and other parties in the region to iran in effect reaching that point? >> a worrying analysis. thanks to you, ambassador marc ginsberg. a look at the markets as we approach the end of a rather grim wednesday. mary joins us with the cnbc market wrap. >> a grim wednesday here on wall street. wall street hit by concerns about the soaring costs in italy, raising fears that country will need a bailout and could lead to other debt crises in other euro zone countries such as spain and portugal. right now the dow jones industrial average is down 394 points. the nasdaq composite is town 106. as it stands, financials and material stocks are the leading losers on wall street.

a very difficult day with company like general motors downgrading its forecast for sales in europe because of that region's problems. that's it from cnbc. first in business worldwide. back to you. today, investors want retirement planning on their terms. i want to work with people who are objective. how about a plan with my name on it? can we start with realistic goals, please? show me how to keep more retirement money in my pocket. now and down the road. those are my terms. then this is your place. td ameritrade, where millions of investors plan for retirement on their terms. [ male announcer ] trade commission-free for 60 days. plus get up to $600 when you open an account. how do we get people to chew another piece? i got this one. oh hey. [ male announcer ] spit it out. or yeti will find you. [ grunts ] i like him. thanks ryan. [ male announcer ] new stride whitemint. the ridiculously long lasting gum.

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republican congressman joe walsh, a friend of our show, is in the news today for a heated exchange we had some constituents over the weekend. the congressman fired back loudly and passionately when asked about the u.s. financial meltdown. here's what happened. >> don't blame banks and don't blame the marketplace for the mess we're in right now. i am tired of hearing that crap. i am tired of hearing that crap. >> the situation -- from people they know they couldn't afford it? >> you know what?

this pisses me off. >> one patron suggested everything for the decaf. patients is at a premium these days on capitol hill with the super committee's deadline two weeks away. democrats and republicans are at lowering heads, as you know, getting further away from a deal. luke russert joins us from capitol hill. i understand there have been some new developments on the super committee. what has happened? what can you tell us? >> reporter: well, democrats on the super committee came out of their meeting and they told the media that both sides were very far apart. that republican not made an offer that they view as fair and balanced. the reason being that there is not enough revenue to make a real impact in the national debt going forward. last night republicans introduced a plan spearheaded by republican senator from pennsylvania, pat toomey. it would bring the tax rate to 28%. through getting rid of itemized

deductions, as well as trying to bring more people into the tax code, the idea was to bring $300 billion words of revenue. democrats have been quick to hit that by hit that saying it would not do that, it would hurt middle class families by putting them in a higher tax bracket -- >> but look, isn't this consistent with their position? they don't want to raise revenues, now they're cutting taxes. they're actually cutting them. >> reporter: well, their position is in this case -- well, they would raise fees, they would move people around and try to get $300 billion worth of revenue. but martin, big picture here. >> always. >> reporter: for two weeks out, this was supposed to be the committee to do what nothing has been done here on capitol hill has been done in years. figure out this issue of taxes versus entitlement. this committee has the power of an up or down vote in both chambers. it's an extraordinary power. and two weeks out right now that power has been wasted to the same things that kill everything in washington, partisan

bickering and special interests. that's what's happening right now. so i talked to one gop coming over here who has been very involved in the negotiations saying possibly this could be the sort of black storm cloud, then it's going to rain this week and maybe the sunshine will come out and maybe three or four days from the deadline. but right now, it looks like the super committee is falling victim to what has killed washington for years, especially this congress, partisan bickering, special interest, and the desire for nobody to drink their tough medicine, martin. >> luke russert, thank you for joining us. >> take care. we're following breaking news from wall street, the dow sinking 400 points this afternoon due to uncertainty over europe's debt crisis. down now, well at 400. brian sullivan joins us live. brian, is this all predicated on what's happening in italy with regard to prime minister silvio berlusconi? >> apparently italy is the new greece, martin. with all due respect to any of your listeners and viewers out there, the reality is italy's a

real economy. greece is the 35th biggest economy in the world, italy is seven times larger. if they have funding problems and their bond yields spike, in other words just like your viewers, they've got to pay more on their credit card. rising dramatically overnight. that is a huge hit to the euro zone. a lot of talk about where the euro zone goes because everybody admits if italy needs some kind of a bailout, the money doesn't exist. you can bail out greece to a point, nobody has the capital to bail out italy. not even the super committee. >> look at what happened with regard to greece when the germans and french had to agree a deal on that. if italy stumbles, i expect the eurozone is bust, isn't it? >> i don't know if it's bust. i don't want to use that type of language, but here's the thing, the euro zone is created for a reason. again, i don't want to get too wonky about it, but very

difficult to succeed long-term from all the people i've talked to about this without a common bond market. europe has to make a decision. are we going to be like the f federated states of europe. are we going to have these kinds of problems every couple of years? i just heard luke's excellent piece about the struggles of the super committee. at least we're not silvio berlusconi! they've got hundreds of people -- >> absolutely. ron sullivan, thank you very much indeed. we'll be right back to clear the air. what makes scottrade your smartphone's

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journey on. it's time now to clear the air. and the horrendous case of child sexual abuse allegedly perpetrated by assistant coach jerry sandusky has thrown penn state university into utter turmoil. if the grand jury investigation is accurate, then mr. sandusky has behaved in a ghastly,

dreadful, and cruel manner toward children. the alleged abuse occurred for more than 15 years starting in 1994. there are no less than 40, yes, 40 charges, seven of which are first-degree counts of deviate sexual intercourse. one incident, apparently, was witnessed by a graduate student who said he saw sandusky molest what he believed to be a 10-year-old child in a locker room late at night. and yet, despite the horrific nature of these allegations, there are some, many, perhaps, who are rushing, not to the defense of the voiceless victims, but to support the institution of penn state and its football program. at the center is their beloved coach joe paterno, a man who has more victories than any other coach in the history of college football. a grandfatherly figure, indeed, the name paterno means fatherly whose success generated hundreds of millions of dollars for the

university and whose work is incarnated in statues of his likeness littered around the campus. a man who converted football into a religion for those who follow his team. just like a religion, the catholic church, in fact, penn state decided to hide the abuse, preferring to protect the institution. like so many catholic bishops, joe paterno did the minimum, alerting his manager, but not the authorities and certainly not the police. and so, it might be wise for penn state to look at what happened to the catholic church as it now considers how to deal with its own crisis. protecting the institution will only lead to its further demise and resentment in the eyes of the public. only deep repentance and the removal of anyone connected to this scandal will lead to any kind of restoration. and that itself will take some time. because let's be clear, what's at stake here is not the legacy

of an 85-year-old coach, but the very lives of innocent children. so let's hope that penn state does the right thing not only for those children, but also for the very institution itself. thanks very much for watching. dylan ratigan, my colleague and friend is here to take us forward. dylan, it's all yours. >> how was your afternoon, by the way? >> my afternoon is going quite well so far so please do not spoil it. >> well, i will be very aware of that. >> you'd never spoil it. >> and to that end, i may keep my comments brief this afternoon for fear that i could upset you. >> i'm glad you're sensitive about my hypersensitivity. i'm doing great. it was great to talk to you earlier today. we had a robust discussion, it contained a usual lexicon of words we couldn't use on air, but it was a good and healthy discussion. >> and we did agree to the only point of relevance that mattered, which was the immediate