hello i'm tom are going to washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture nude is in the doghouse tonight a.b.c. is airing what they're calling an explosive interview with newt gingrich's x. why they imply it could blow the roof off his campaign this is really responsible journalism also mitt romney loves to dodge questions and now he's been accused of dodging something a little more serious what's he trying to avoid now and what impact might it have on the rest of his campaign and later a french judge wants to take a little tour of guantanamo bay we'll tell you what he's looking for and why former president george w. bush should be worried.

you need to know this poet robert frost famously said nothing gold can stay sadly that's true today as the golden campaign of rick perry has officially and as i've contemplated the future of this campaign i have come to the conclusion that there is no viable path forward for me in this twenty twelve campaign therefore today i am suspending my campaign and endorsing newt gingrich for president of the united states would like to take a moment here on the program to eulogize the good governor good hair campaign with some of his greatest hits. player to you today as a candidate for president of the united states your state has executed two hundred

thirty four death row inmates more than any other governor in modern times have you . is it the mitt romney that was on the side of against the second amendment before he was for the second amendment was it was before he was before there's something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military when our kids can't openly celebrate christmas or pray in school it is a ponzi scheme live free or die victory or death bring i would do away with the education the. commerce right back to the commerce and let's see i can with our. troops well michelle rick but i want to last parting shot to mitt romney perry endorsed newt gingrich today telling the few dozen or so supporters he still has left to vote for newt in saturday's south carolina primary

things have not been looking up be have been looking for news lately he was considered the winner of monday night's debate has benefited from mitt romney's week of gaffes regarding tax returns speaking fees of bain capital even got sarah palin's indorsement this week or whatever that's worth any more polls out of the palmetto state reveal he a late game bridge surge and he's now neck and neck or even beating romney in some polls seems like nothing can be real newt's campaign now. one of his many wives were to speak up. said to him we've been married a long time. and. he said yes but you want me to yourself calista doesn't care what i do what was he saying do you think he well he was asking to have an open marriage and i refused he wanted an open marriage yeah that i accept the fact that he he has somebody else in his life and

you said no no that is not a marry. that was marianne gingrich talking about her ex-husband new didn't interview airing on a.b.c. tonight we're on the street is that new wanting an open marriage is just one of many explosive revelations set to come out in tonight's interview which is ex-wife says he lacks the character to be president the big question here is the about newt it's about a.b.c. news we're just two days away from the south carolina primary a crucial contest that in part may actually decide who is the next president it states and a.b.c. news is running an uncorroborated interview with an ex-wife of cambridge that could sway the electorate and leave new with no time to respond to charges before the election it's an october surprise in january so is this a diligent journalism or irresponsible journalism here to weigh in on this is eleanor clift senior writer at newsweek a contributor to the daily beast and joining us from los angeles jim cavanaugh

columnist of reason and hit run contributor welcome to you both glad to have you both with us it seems to me thanks to it seems to me that this actually may not hurt newt rush limbaugh has come out and said it might even help him in fact here's just a really short clip of rush limbaugh from today. i got a great note from a friend of mine so newt wanted an open marriage b.f.d. at least here is why for permission instead of just cheering on as a marker character in my book neutral victim we. character rick to actually he has to or several years into the affair so those you know but but. to the issue of the press this kind of highlights the issue the personal responsibility in this watergate broke before the election seventy two but really didn't get dug into could have been. before the election bush drinking in the white house was broken by the national enquirer before the election two thousand and six but there was

a lot of talk about it before two thousand and four there were rumors of edwards and harder on the campaign trail at the time what is the obligation of a news organization. you have legation of news organizations to follow up on every one of those the bush. drinking should have come out earlier it did hurt him coming out a few days before the election may have hurt him more may have been more of a character issue if it had been able to be corroborated earlier i think in the case of marion gingrich she has been available sort of as for an interview for some weeks reporters have been trying to get to her she was she decided on her terms this was the outlet that she wanted everybody knew she was out there she has made this charge before i believe it was printed in esquire magazine so i think it's fair fair game for the media when newt gingrich is rising in the polls could give romney a battle you have

a fight for the heart and soul the republican party much of it rests on values i think it's fine to put this out i think if they had interviewed her and sat on it first of all somebody else would have interviewed her in the in the interim so i think they're handling it responsibly so your take on that same question i'm curious. as well i'm afraid i agree i don't see any reason to sit on this story as far as use the word uncorroborated i mean the only possible corroborate or to a west far as we know. a two person conversation would have to be newt gingrich himself he's free to respond to the question i would presume that a.b.c. made an effort to get a hold of him and will have some you know sort of declined to comment in this story but absolutely i don't see any reason it's not doesn't have a bearing the voters have shown that they consider you know personal character issues if we could call it that and even may not vote on that i think they approve

with bill clinton that they don't vote on that but if this is of interest to the voters and more importantly it's of interest to television viewers and a.b.c. is trying to get as many of those as possible well and i want to get to that because it seems to me that there was a time when news departments reported to news departments and even lost money because they were considered a public service and they were necessary for t.v. and radio stations to keep their licenses now news departments report to the vice president of education and they're expected to make a profit and so is is the is the standard in today's news what's going to make us the most money rather than what's you know really important for an informed electorate in a democracy and this is this was a good get in a political season other news outlets i think were attempting to get or i don't think they said oh this is going to make money they said this will break through this will get some headlines and yeah and i think that's legitimate i don't think

that's. a crane that mode if you take this a step further tonight as well as a print journalist to have to say you know i'm sorry to admit that most of what i know about the history of newspapers is from citizen kane but clearly i don't know that there was ever a case where the news delivery of the news was considered a public service it was always a very profitable. market if you want to look at newspapers i suppose i suppose you're right sarah palin went into a presidential campaign knowing that she had and. pregnant daughter and apparently not informing or running mate of those early on anyway and. what does this say about our society and our prowess if rock and michelle obama had had an unwed pregnant teenage daughter being african-americans that they would've been treated very differently and i well the powers are rational no process and the

people the power of. the press or by the by the campaign itself in the in the case of sarah palin that was a failure of the campaign's own intelligence gathering folks that they didn't find imus i'm saying that that was a ploy and that would have played by the presidency and it came out very badly played into a racist stereotype in this culture and all the powers of rationalization to defend your guy lot of democrats forgave bill clinton for a number of things and when sarah palin and her family stood on the stage and she had a pregnant daughter you had conservative saying isn't it nice that they're going to keep the baby and they're going to build a life together now i don't think yeah exactly ok so then the double standard eliot spitzer step down bill clinton was impeached anthony weiner let it but david vitter after he got busted for being with a prostitute which is actually a crime none of those related crimes well arguably spitzer did but. after he was with a profit came back to the senate got

a standing ovation from his republican peers newt is running for president and mark sanford never stepped on a law that all this court of public opinion is different in each of these cases plus the fact that constituents in south carolina who elect david vitter don't mind apparently that he has this in his past and his colleagues in the senate were not willing to censor him for that try to force him out so he he he he passed through all the separate juries in his life and he's not running for president and i don't think he would have much of a following and not. for that reason either tim your thoughts as a libertarian i will have to both defend david vitter is right to be with the prostitute and the prostitutes right to be with david vitter and also concur that i think there is a difference in the way these things get. repeated and it's true bill clinton was impeached he survived that and you know to the extent that there seems to have been a court of public opinion most people agree that it didn't need to go as far as it

did although everybody was concerned that he lied under oath that remains a legitimate piece of our history i almost wonder if there's another thing that's a factor here the very mention of him there folks who are out of time i'm sorry i just flat out and tim tim thank you nice to meet you. as much appreciate it thanks allen and i talking with thank you coming up. coming up after the break mitt romney has dodged questions left and right throughout the primary debate circuit will tell you about what he's being accused of dodging now and it's not flying here is a magical underwear. this is. all in sync.

present. reality. in this. history of super. technology innovation all the developments around russia. the future of coverage. so it turns out mitt romney didn't make history after all the romney campaign touted that he was the first non-incumbent or apollo going to win both iowa and new

hampshire for a button for the review that quite the case after conducting a recount in the state of iowa g.o.p. officials found that rick santorum actually won the iowa caucuses by thirty four votes officials are still calling the contest a tie republican officials and will not certify the winner since voting in accuracies were found in one hundred thirty one precincts and eight precincts are missing their votes all together great election run by the republican party the caucus in iowa is not run by the state but instead by the republican party itself that same party that is waging a war against democratic voters across america alleging voter fraud all the signs are completely unable to run their own transparent legitimate election in iowa go figure but back to romney does a recount showing he didn't win iowa change this campaign at all probably not but what about a report that romney is dodging taxes. romney has gone to great lengths to keep

secret many important details about his wealth including as a.b.c. news discovered whether he uses tax loopholes available only to the super rich tax lawyers not tell a.b.c. news that companies like bain set up their accounts here in the caymans and other tax havens primarily to attract foreign investors who want to invest in u.s. companies without having to pay us taxes that's great for bain and for the foreign investors but not so great for the u.s. treasury and american taxpayers american taxpayers who vote so romney uses our roads and bridges uses our police officers he uses our education system is protected by our military but he doesn't think he needs to pay for all that stuff at least pay his fair share of taxes joining me now is sam cedar to the majority report co-host of the ring of fire radio and rebecca wilkins senior counsel on federal tax policy at the institute of taxation and economic policy was citizens

for tax justice sam glad to have you both with of saying let me start out rebecca with you as a tack a tax expert can you explain exactly what romney's doing in the caymans and i understand some of this has to do reading the wall street journal piece today with his ira and that there's a secondary tax i want to get stuck in my mind that's a four letter acronym and you probably know that he actually is able to avoid a certain amount of taxes by having rusher well first i have to say it's kind of hard to know for sure what he's doing because he hasn't released his tax returns at and he's told us he's going to release his returns and april which presumably means us two thousand and eleven returns which at makes you wonder what's on the two thousand and ten return that we're never going to say but we do know that he has a substantial amount of investments in the cayman islands and bank capital sat out many of its funds and the cayman islands and there are indications that there.

trying to do things. avoid or delay paying taxes that's the only reason one would go there it's because the you don't physically go there for the sun right you just this is all wire transfers and things sam what are the political consequences of this story you know i think they're going to be pretty big not so much in the republican primary i think that i think you know romney is is more or less i think going to be the nominee but i think things like his taxes i think it's time and i think this is going to play big in the general election and i think that's also going to be a function of a couple of things it's going to be a function of just how far president obama's campaign brings this up and raises it i think the tax issue obviously is going to be brought up again in april he's going to release two thousand and eleven and everybody's going to say why not two thousand and ten why not two thousand and nine like every other presidential candidate you've got you've got governor christie today saying he should release his taxes this is one of his top surrogates so i think there's going to be a problem form and particularly with the backdrop of the occupy movement which is i

think that again a lot of steam come spring i think this is going to be very difficult for him so this could be sort of like i mean it was bill clinton who brought up willie horton in the primary against a caucus and then it kind of went away and nobody really noticed except for forget the guy's name but the you know the guy who ran the campaign against a caucus and he been on behalf of bush this could this is going to pop back up again and yeah and i don't even know if it's ever going to even really go away i mean the thing is that this ties in so much into a prevailing narrative that mitt romney just happens to be very poorly suited for rich which is which is that there's incredible income disparity and one of the reasons why there's incredible income disparity is because of our tax code and we also have a a portion of our capitalism in this country preys on the middle class and we have over financial eyes ation of of our economy which crashed. the economy in two

thousand and eight and all this plays into it and so i think it can be a problem for rebecca to sam's point how prevalent is this kind of tax evasion actually and partly it's very prevalent and what's good about this coming to light is that now puts that topic and american public do you the estimates are that the u.s. treasury delays this over one hundred billion dollars per year. tax havens that's that's that's substantial gingrich's why if versus romney's tax dodging sandwich is going to be more damaging to these candidates you know i think in the long run the thing that's going to be really damaging to gingrich is that he has no real operation in terms of a campaign and he's really he's not it was a book tour it was a book tour and it is only because it sort of blew up into something but the fact is that you need to sort of plan ahead for these things he's not on the ballot in virginia he's not going to be on the ballot in a number of states i don't think he's going to he can really do anything other than

damage romney which seems to be fairly high on his agenda so. i you know i think gingrich is got a little bit of a ceiling because of the problems with his is ex-wife but you know redemption is a big part of the republican base is world view and i think he's going to play that card i'm now a grandpa yeah. yeah and i think i think that's going to rebecca romney's studies might return releases tax returns in april you mention that which raises the question about previous tax returns but does that also give him the time between now and and april to refile to rejigger things to change things around to make him look better maybe even pay some more taxes real quick well he's certainly head i mean it's not necessarily that there's anything and proper and it has higher rates turns but there's probably three things and then that might cause and political trouble there might. the

a form in there for example that does. transfers to foreign trust and there's nothing illegal about that but of course people are going to like it and there might be information in there about a huge capital gain maybe as two thousand and ten income was forty million dollars and people will just be appalled by that and appalled by the fact they don't pay the fifteen percent rate on that much raises another question why is that in this country when you work with your with your hands or your brain you pay a maximum thirty five percent income tax rate. if you're a capitalist you have a special tax category the capitalist gained realize it's called capital gains i call it capitalist means tax and you pay a maximum fifteen percent and even that's graduated why why is that baxley at citizens for tax justice that's been one of our hot as shit for a long time the way that tax code favor thing coming from wealth of our income from work we think they should be taxed at the same rate and that people that may have the same amount of income to pay the same amount of taxes shouldn't matter whether

you're working for a living or whether you're living off here abouts and you know the real problem that is going to be presented romney here is that the standard line we hear is to why the capital gains are so important because people are investing money which is creating jobs but here you have a situation where the reason why they're in the cayman islands is to get foreign money and the money that romney makes off the bain he's still making a million dollars or was up until very recently a year off that was not money that he put into being it was all other people's money he's getting care he's paying that tax on carried interest it's. it's a big it's a vague for basically being a broker and that i think is going to be very damaging to him politically one of these is one of his. advisers today said there's no benefit to him putting that money in the cayman islands well then you asked him why do it why do exactly sam seeder about to william wilkins thanks so much for being just a pleasure to push you to understand what exactly mitt romney romney is a pain for with his tax dodging we have to the story of joe republican we'll get

into that right after this. oh here it is years ago john gray wrote a piece called joe republic and here's a quick summary of it joe gets up at six o'clock in the morning fills his coffee pot with water the water is clean and fresh because some tree hugging liberal thought for water quality standards he takes his daily medication it's safe to take because some stupid conny liberal thought to ensure their safety and that they worked as advertised his medication is paid for by his employer's medical plan because a liberal union workers fought for he prepares morning breakfast bacon and eggs safety eat because some liberal fought for laws to regulate the meat packing industry joe dresses walks outside take a deep breath airy breezes clean because so environmental laws liberal thought for air pollution anti pollution laws joe walks of the subway station for his government subsidized ride to work some liberal fought for affordable public transportation is a good job with excellent pay and benefits because of liberal union members fought

for them if those hurt on the job or because unemployed he'll get a worker's comp or unemployment check because of some liberal who fought for new incomes needs to go to the bank to deposit some of his bills his bet is banking his f.b.i. insured because some liberal want to protect his money he drives home from work and goes to see his dad as cars are among the safest in the world because some liberal thought for car safety standards he sees as dad is now retired lives and medicare lives and social security and union pension because of a whole bunch o. liberals he is back in his car for the ride home turns out a radio talk show host the radios keep saying liberals are bad and conservatives are good and joe says to himself we don't need those big government liberals ruin our lives after all almost self-made man who believes everyone should take care of themselves just like i have a. crazy

alert remember your mom saying don't get too comfy in those. kaito louisiana parish commissioner michael williams wants to ban weight for wearing pajamas in public that's right and we'll let him explain exactly why he wants to ban them and some of the reactions around town. on saturday about our senior citizen family wanted and i observed a couple of young with loose fitting pajamas on probably the private poll is about to come out with no underwear he wants to ban wearing pajama pants in public while while williams is adamant that adorable pink fluffy bunny pajamas have no place in public spaces most of his fellow cato parish residents believe a proposed law banning pajamas in public is ridiculous oh it is crazy i doubt those are crazy says that all where's your pajamas with pride are those pretty maybe and. she says they're perfect for getting stuff done in

a hurry it is comfortable to meet someone who's in the military who is fighting for some of these freedom to be able to just go around and wear whatever they want to they should be able to do that. and the a.c.l.u. says it's against freedom of expression in a related story herman cain is pushing for a new law requiring but jamas mostly lingerie to be worn in public at all times. after the break how would you like it if your local park was replaced by a chemical factory i'll tell you about the plan for florida republican governor rick scott has direct democracy and the consequences his plan could have a way of life. when the clinton comfortable question leads to a grave accusation that will see who is more as you know foggy. the president who

isn't supposed to hide anything. where it's someone asking him why do you make a secret out that when the powers to be suppress the voice of those who think different. when you go experiencing very serious problems off of the saakashvili government came to power in two thousand and three but if you will that was when the problems began piling up. interviews women off limits to all journalists they were all from beeston up and humiliated in public when the attempt to protect property puts life in real danger is that we have been deprived of the only nine hundred fifty million and living i have gone to the original syphoning papers. then legalized the ownership rights on the basis of companies freedom becomes just a stage prop.

and broadcasting live direct from the heart of moscow this is r t let's take a look at your top line. between a rock and a hard place london now owns up to spine inside russia using an electronic gadget inside a fake stone found by russian security services in moscow six years ago it is at least first british confirmation with a former top aide to axe prime minister tony blair saying it was embarrassing and that the british had been caught red handed. the f.b.i. website becomes the latest victim of the anonymous group as they wage the largest attack ever on the us government and music industry websites this comes after the

us authorities shot a popular hub for illegal downloads to charge seven people with copyright crimes. with the arab league mission in syria seeking to broker peace drawing to an end to the bloodshed continues with twenty dead on thursday alone and around six hundred killed by security forces since the mission began a month ago meanwhile the e.u. urges more tough sanctions against be assad regime. plus rage on the streets of romania with crowds demanding the resignation of their government for imposing austerity measures on higher taxes to please the international monetary fund in return for another fight alone violent clashes among protesters and police in bucharest have left scores injured. time now to go back to washington for part two of the big picture.