>> what do you think of when you see a tree? a treatment for cancer? alternative fuel for our cars? do you think of hope for the environment, or food, clothing, shelter? we do. weyerhaeuser, growing ideas. >> the third agency of government i would do away with

-- education, the -- commerce -- i can't. sorry. oops. >> this week on "inside washington," the brain freeze heard round the world. >> i said, "what are you doing?" >> i don't even know who this woman is. >> herman cain fights more allegations of sexual harassment. >> when you get beat, you have to admit. >> ohio voters slept on the governor on public unions but also repudiate the obama health care mandate. in italy, the bill comes due for la dolce vita. and child sexual abuse scandal brings down a legendary football coach. >> joe paterno is no longer the head football coach effective immediately. captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org--

>> i think it is fair to say that debating is not rick perry's strong suit. i am not trying to be crueler here. at wednesday night's republican debate in michigan, he said he would eliminate three departments. >> commerce, education, and what's the third one at there? [laughter] >> five. >> ok. commerce, education, and -- >> epa? >> there you go. [laughter] >> seriously, is epa the one you are talking about? >> no, sir. agencies of government -- >> you cannot name the third one? >> no, he could in.

-- couldn't. those of us of a certain age can sympathize with gov. perry -- i do. but i wonder if this is it for rick perry, charles. >> it is hard to recover from that. he went on a one-day tour, including a letterman, tried to make light of that, which takes the sting out of it. the problem is there is sort of an axiom in washington -- an incident only counts if it reinforces an existing stereotypes. the existing stereotypes of a guy who was not nimble intellectually, may be polite way, isn't up to the big leagues -- may be a lightweight, is it up to the big leagues. that reinforced it. i am not sure if he survives. >> mark? >> charles is right in this wonderful and rare instance. >> two weeks away. >> wonderful to have you back.

[laughter] rick perry's stumbles in the polls is directly replacrelatedo his debate performance. bill clinton, when he delivered the keynote address and went too long, could go on the light shows and say, "that was not the best hour and half of my life," because that was not seen as his achilles' heel. that is the problem with rick perry and i don't know if he can recover. >> nina? >> there are three reasons he cannot recover. the first is that he did not know this in his inner core, and the second and third i cannot remember. >> colby? >> when i saw this, i let out a primal scream for him. this is one of those situations where you say there but for the grace of god go i. i write a column, three pairs of eyes look at it before it gets published. i do a radiobroadcast and i tape

it. this show was spontaneous, but every now and then we go time out. in this situation, i ache for him. he has got to recover from this, but i am not going to join the chorus and say he is gone. >> here is the problem -- rick perry is a very effective retail politician. when he meets the people in groups of five, eight, 12 people. that requires time. if he had a year, or 11 months, at to spend in iowa, i have no doubt he could meet a critical number of voters. the problem is, it is a wholesale experience. everybody saw this. there is no way it is rebutted -- >> people say of him that he is such a gifted politician but

there isn't a substance there. this was the test of the substance, and he hasn't passed the test. >> herman cain continues to deny that he ever harassed anyone, anywhere, anytime. he says he will not quit the race, period. >> as far as these accusations causing me to back off and maybe withdraw from this presidential primary race, ain't gonna happen. >> as for the allegations of sharon bialek, cain says he never even met the woman. >> the democratic machine in america has brought forth a troubled woman. >> cain's numbers are still up, the campaign says his contributions have actually increased in the wake of these allegations. how long is this going to last, mark? >> i don't know. i think herman cain's crest has been seen.

it is the democratic machine, i understand, it is the rick perry campaign, it is the liberal media. this is a man who has been victimized by incredibly powerful forces. >> let's say something factual here. this woman came forward after 14 years, it is true, but there are two people to whom the restaurant association paid $45,000, the other $35,000. that is a fair chunk of change, and they did it contemporaneously with the complaint. nobody made that part out. that is a fact. >> one other thing that ain't gonna happen. on january 20, 2013, herman cain will not be sworn in as president of the united states. the other thing that ain't gonna happen is herman cain will not be the republican nominee for president of the united states.

>> smooth sailing for mitt romney for now what? >> let me say something about herman cain -- when you have these allegations, he said, she said, all you can do is be somewhat humble and say we are never going to know. even though logically one person is lying and the other is a victim, you sort of have to extend mutual sympathy, since you never know who is the victim and who was the lawyer. what bothers me about herman cain much worse is the way he conducted himself in the debate. every question he got he answered with 9-9-9. to me that is a much more serious allegation, a much more serious indictment, because on the other issue, we will never actually have a real knowledge. >> is that in the bag for mitt romney? >> no, it is not.

the polls consistently show that a majority of republicans are not supporting his candidacy. perry getting a good chunk, cain getting a good chunk, newt gingrich coming up. mitt romney has a serious problem that ruth marcus it captured very well in "the washington post" when when she talked about the flip- floping. he has a serial flip-flopper. >> he is a consistent flip- flopper. >> i thought he had a strong debate performance -- >> he has every time and he has gotten stronger every time. >> colby, you mentioned at the ruth marcus column and she mentions him telling an editorial board in new hampshire, "i am as consistent as humans can be." i don't know if you want to

call attention to yourself -- >> having done that, she was able to document his inconsistencies on a series of issues. where does mitt romney stand on its core? he deflected the question in the debate the other day when he cited his longstanding marriage, his long standing commitment to his faith as examples of his consistency. >> let me play devil's advocate -- doe we admire a certain flexibility in our leaders, the ability to adapt and empathize -- >> when you acknowledge i was wrong, this is where i am and where i have changed. he is saying i have always been consistent on climate change, immigration, abortion. >> i think in the long run he has been a remarkably successful candidate this time. comparedt look smarmy

to the mitt romney of four years ago. i was talking to a top democratic operative who said that in 2004, george bush was pretty much in the same position as barack obama is now, and what karl rove did was to focus on what are called anger points, the things that make people mad -- gay marriage, blah blah blah. what democrats have to do this time, with separate, "independent" groups, is to focus on anger points and drive up the negatives of whoever the republican nominee is. and that is what we've had a lot of lately, and it does not please me -- >> republicans have a pretty heavy arsenal in that area. >> on romney, i want to point out one smalsmall moment that was largely overlooked.

when perry was drowning in the 53 seconds, who threw them a lifeline quietly off the sides? it was suggested epa -- who suggested epa? nobody else help him out -- >> i heard it. >> romney had no reason to. . its he is the top rival. at that moment, he suggested epa, which was not calculated. >> that could also be the smart aleck in the room. >> if i were perry i would have said, "yes, epa." >> somebody will emerge to challenge romney. somebody will emerge -- >> gingrich? >> that is what the statement on tuesday night -- wednesday night

-- about constancy of faith, constancy up spouse -- that was it a shot at newt gingrich, who has been three times married -- >> serial husband. >> that was a clear shot. i just think that romney does not excite republicans. he is getting 80% of the republican vote against barack obama. a republican, in order to win against barack obama, fast to get well over 90%. >> i think as election day approaches next year -- >> i say this based on nina's point about the kind of campaign -- is they run the kind of campaign that george bush ran in 2004, remember what a disaster the second administration was.

>> interesting election results around the country this week. >> it is clear that the people have spoken. my view is that when people speak in a campaign like this, a referendum, you have to listen when you are a public servant. >> that was ohio gov. john kasich after voters repealed the collective bargaining law without a limited rights for teachers, police, -- that would have limited rights for teachers, police, firefighters. you were in ohio recently. >> it would have replaced collective bargaining with collective begging. you are right, including teachers, firefighters, police, they put a new face on organized labor in ohio. the question networking folks have to ask is not why public employees have health and pension benefits, but why don't

private employees? they put a little provision in there, fair share -- i don't belong to the union, but it does the bargaining for me, i am responsible to pay at least part of the bargaining cost. they were going to repeal that? -- they were going to repeal the. why? republicans were open about it, they wanted to defund organized labor and democrats. >> it is interesting, the same electorate that, as mark indicates, supported it is returned to the status quo with the union rights -- the same electorate overwhelmingly defeated a measure that essentially tried to -- and essentially tried to outlaw obamacare by prohibiting the individual mandate. here is a state that is traditionally democratic, traditional union.

unions have decline, obviously, in wisconsin. you have the opposite result where the republican attack on unions succeeded. i think is interesting, here is a state that says lay off our own arrangements with unions but also lay off our health care. i am not sure there is an ideological conclusion that you can draw if you are a democrat or republican as to how ohio will go next year. >> there was very little public debate about that, and the way it was framed, that proposition, down ballot, it was very misleading. i am not sure how much -- >> isn't the supreme court trying to decide whether to tackle this issue? >> they will, and it will not matter whether a state says yes or no. >> you had other indications of

overreached in mississippi -- >> fertilized egg is a person. >> it did not pass in mississippi, probably the most conservative state in the union. >> it was a terrible amendment. if you are a pro-life person, that is the worst way it you would enforce it. a, is so ambiguous, all the power is in the hands of judges, which is exactly what a conservative doesn't want -- hold on a second. secondly, medically, it is ridiculous. if you have a fertilized egg in the wrong area -- it is such a flood and then it -- flawed amendment that it served to discredit -- >> nonetheless, haley barbour, the governor, voted for it -- >> a substantial portion of the pro-life movement is now anti birth control, also.

that is a real killer for the pro-life movement, no pun intended. >> what conclusions do we draw from these elections? >> let me dissent from charles' polemic, exposition, that ohio is a democratic state. ohio has voted for the winning presidential candidate in the last 12 campaigns. no other state can match that. as far as the health care plan, democrats cannot deny the fact that support for the president's plan that has passed into law has dropped and continues to drop. in the latest kaiser coal, it was down to 37%. on abortion, america remains totally conflicted. we are pro-choice but anti- abortion. >> are italy's problems about to become our problems? >> italy is the third biggest bond market in the world, so they cannot just be ignored.

you can see why investors are on edge. >> that is economist austin goolsbee, former chairman of the president's council on economic advisers. italy is a huge problem and is about to go off the cliff. what happens if it does? >> it takes the industrialized world's financial system with it. that is why it cannot and probably won't happen. two words on what is standing in the way -- political will. >> they at 48-hour workweek, have a great retirement plan, but those things are expensive. >> you start with the mediterranean siesta culture, you add the entitlement state, and you get insolvency. it took 60 years, it piled on, they put off the reckoning by

adding on debt. right now we are at the reckoning. it is ironic that we have elected a president in the united states that w who wants to go towards that state of the european social democratic model at that time in history is imploding before our eyes. the political will, the means that you will political class will have to impose on people -- the ruling political class will have to impose on people who have been raised and bred on entitlements, to tell them that w entitlements are over. >> let's give italy credit. it is the seventh largest economy in the world. what they are not doing right is they do not collect taxes and italy. we collect taxes in this country. we do not collect enough taxes, but we do collect them.

americans have the spirit and tradition of paying taxes, except for the 1% represented so well on this show. >> in greece, they do not collect taxes either. we should have a system that collects more taxes, but people pay taxes by and large that they are supposed to pay. that is a big difference between italy and greece, and that is going -- >> i know you guys -- your anecdotes and your stereotypes'. but the average amount the government takes in europe, the eu, the social democratic island in the world, is 48% at the gross national product. that is half, essentially. here we are about 1/3. they are not under-taxed. the reason the europeans are in trouble is they our over- untitled and under-productive. >> former banker here. >> a little bit of apples and

oranges as well. as eugene robinson noted in "the washington post," romney talked about health care in the united states is costing 18% or arrests in the rest of the industrialized world, is what is a -- is at 12%, failed to mention that they're they have a single payer system. figure that out. >> ok, figure it out. >> it is entitlements system, but an organized entitlement system that is geared in part to cutting costs -- >> how, they are insolvent? yes, exactly. >> germany is doing very well, i don't think that barack obama is following the model of a kenyan anti colonial standard suggested by some on the right or by the european welfare state model. >> the sexual abuse scandal at penn state. >> joe paterno is no longer the

head football coach effective immediately. >> i am out of it maybe now. get a good night's sleep. study. [applause] pray a little bit for those victims. >> fired penn state coach joe paterno, who says the allegations that young boys had been sexually abused by one of his assistant coaches is one of the great sorrows of his life. this is the grand jury report. eight is nauseating, -- it is nauseating, colby. >> i read parts of it the other day, and i had difficulty sleeping. i had difficulty reconciling the behavior of the officials at penn state, not just paterno, but somebody like mike mcqueary -- >> assistant coach -- they are keeping him off the sidelines

this week. >> he witnessed sandusky allegedly assaulting his 10- year-old child -- this 10-year- old child and did nothing. he went home and told his father. he did not try to stop it, he did not try to get the kid any help. no one seems to respond to the needs of those kids. that they would have tolerated this, this is as bad as anything i have read, and i did a lot of writing about the scandal with the catholic church. this situation is just revolting. >> to me it shows how celebrity totally destroys our moral compass. we heard there the announcement of the resignation of the coach and the groans, the surprise, the kids at school practically writing in the streets as a result of the firing of a coach. this isn't about a coach, isn't about his successes. it is about a crime that

occurred. the whole story of paterno, is he going to coach or not, is missing the point. it speaks a lot to how celebrity culture makes it impossible for us to have a very straight, honest, and clean judgment on things that are rather open and shut. >> mark. >> this is about child rape. this is about robbing childhood from human beings. all of the attention and all of the focus seems to be on joe paterno and the coaches and whether there was a bureaucratic a follow-through. this is a crime that cries for vengeance -- cries out to heavens for vengeance. a middle aged man who is raping a 10-year-old child in your presence -- somehow you are satisfied by passing it on to the bureaucratic chain of command. these are kids who are having their vulnerability exposed and

exploited. it is indefensible. >> this particular case happened in nine years the. >> this has been going on a we know, since 1999 -- >> 1998, i think. >> there was a confrontation witnessed by campus police between the mother of one of these children and the alleged perpetrator, who said he wished he were dead. and nothing ever happened after that. >> they were preying on the most vulnerable kids in our society. parents want their kids to get it strong supervision they need it. >> penn state football net profits, $52 million. last word. thanks. see you next week.