from washington, "the mclaughlin group," the american original. for over two decades the sharpest minds, best sources, hardest talk. issue one, marianne and calista. >> i said to him, newt, we've been married a long time. and he said, yes, but you want me all to yourself. calista doesn't care what i do. he was asking to have an open marriage, and i refused.

>> republican presidential contender newt gingrich this week was at the center of a political firestorm. marianne gingrich, his former wife, told abc news her husband had asked her over 10 years ago to engage in an open marriage. marianne would remain married to newt, while newt had a mistress who is his wife now, calista gingrich. newt denies the charges. >> the story is false, every personal frduring that period says the story was false. >> question, how will this affect newt gingrich in the presidential race? pat buchanan? >> john, as a result of newt's response, which was very tough and angry that a personal scandal of his dating back 12 years would be brought up option the first question in the dough bait, the way he knocked it out of the park and

his pressed indignation brought him a second surge in south carolina and brought him up to tie in mitt romney in the polls in south carolina. i think it will get him a surge that will take him into florida. but i'm afraid of this, in the longer run newt has been very weak with women. and in the longer run like mark sanford, former governor of south carolina wife said i couldn't vote for newt gingrich. women will look at this and say, how did they treat his first wife and second wife? how does he behave in his personal life? and i think in the long run, it's going to be an almost prohibative factor for the nomination of newt gingrich for the republican party. >> newt is weak with women? you mean in that voting consequences? >> he is extremely weak with women. no doubt about it. and i found he's very strong among women. mitt romney. >> newt is a weak women voter. >> well, there's a gender gap with newt. if you look at the breakdown with votes, they go to mitt romney, they do not go to newt

gingrich. and it doesn't just have to do with this. it has to do with his whole bombastic style. he's just not somebody who appeals to a -- he doesn't seem like a consensus builder, but the voters in south carolina loved the fact that he came out there, that he attacked the press. republicans hate the press more than they hate the breaches of virtue that have been in newt's past. so i think he managed to turn this into an asset, if you will, and i think the powers of rationalization that people have -- when sarah palin's present unwed daughter stood on the stage at a convention, the reaction of the voters in that hall was, isn't it nice they'll keep the baby? so i think people can explain away whatever they want, when they support somebody. and i think that's what they're going to do with newt gingrich. >> i think pat is right. i think in the median term are this is really going to hurt newt gingrich with women and i

think it! i'm all for people having private lives, which are private and being judged by their public record. but if you are running as a social conservative, if you are a person who is putting the way people live, their personal lives as part of your platform, it's fair to be judged on your personal life. >> uh-huh. >> when you think if an ex-wife goes on tv and says you requested an open marriage, that's a torpedo that -- but the timing of it just two days before the south carolina vote, the moderator john king asking about, it immediately as a first question and gingrich hitting it out of the park, didn't -- made that a short- term benefit to him. but over the long-term it's just another indication of the baggage newt gingrich has. he has more ex-wives than all of the presidents of the united states combined. >> also historical inconsistency if not conundrum

in the record of previous presidents. we had a recent president that we all know who i'm talking about. franklin roosevelt had what, one or two -- >> missy and lucy. >> while president. >> and princess -- >> what about the famous -- >> thomas jefferson? >> five of the seven democratic presidents, five of the last seven democratic presidents had affairs. and only two of them, carter and -- who is one other one? did not. you go back to grover cleveland. this is all happened. but this is -- [everyone talking at once] >> if you are making as part of your politics, which newt gingrich absolutely does, that you are a social conservative, you stands for these values, then i think it's -- otherwise i say we should stay out -- [everyone talking at once] >> as he did lead the

republicans to power in washington. he's seen . and people are still resisting mitt romney, and what is it was the republican governor of nebraska who sent to do with that. [everyone talking at once] >> of the woman voter is the man voter and the instance when the sociology reports that women cheat as much as men do. >> there's a lot of -- [everyone talking at once] >> south carolina governor nicky haley fought back those kinds of charges, and the voters clearly said no, they were not interested in that. and -- democrats supported bill clinton and -- earlier point -- [everyone talking at once] >> feels like a cheap shot. appears as a late shot by abc and cheap shot in bringing this up. although john king is a good guy, he's a fine reporter.

he's an honest guy. he's a straight character. you might ask whether you should start with that question. >> you mean it was a mistake? it was a mistake? >> i think it was a mistake on john king's party to lead on >> my income comes overwhelmingly from investments made in the past. >> republican presidential contender mitt romney was asked this week what tax break he was paying on his income. his answer -- >> it's er tots 15% rate than anything. >> question, governor romney has a net worth of $250 million. he definitely is in the top 1% of the american wealth population. on one hand, this shows his business experience. on the other hand, he is more vulnerable to populous attacks. which impact is the more powerful? eleanor? >> he is going to become the vehicle through which the

american public learns just how rigged our tax system is. he says he paid close to 15%. that could be under 15%. he may have paid less than that over some years. he's also apparently got some investments in the cayman islands. he also may not want everybody to know how much money he gives to the mormon church bus they take -- their responsibility to tithe seriously. so he has lots of reasons perhaps to conceal his tax returns. but he must have known this was coming. and he is being asked about the comparison with his father, and this is a dutiful son and eager to please son who i think had a serious case of further worship and justifiably so, and to watch him in the debates is painful because he does not know how to respond. he squirms, he -- it's payroll to watch. [everyone talking at once] >> tell us really think! romney's reach. >> i've been poor, i've worked from the time i was 12.

my parents were driven out of old mexico when i was only five. my people were revolutionary refugees. they had to be fed by the united states government and housed by the united states government. i know what poverty is. i've been up through it! >> pat, tell us more about mitt romney's father who whom we just saw on the screen. >> he did come out of mexico at the time of the revolution, and -- >> governor of what state? >> governor of michigan, six years, but president of american motors, and the -- was the car that was associated with his father. his father went into new hampshire in 1967, late, and i was with richard nixon and we went in against him in 1967. we went in '68. and we had -- >> what happened? >> well, we -- beat him 7-1 when he jaquitta the race. his father was very energetic guy. >> what think of senior? >> i remember is looking at the motel window saying sir, he's going to be coming up the

street looking for debate. he was really -- and we wouldn't debate him and have nixon go in for two or three days and take him to key biscayne and we run a terrific campaign, but his father was a good man. nixon put him in the cabinet as hud secretary. think romney has the father's dna? of course he has the dna! >> he's very driven. he's a handsome man. he's a successful man. [not understandable] >> yes, he is, father is a tremendously committed -- [everyone talking at once] >> very poor? >> his fact came out of poverty but his father got rich very, very fast. >> but his father was truly self-made. [everyone talking at once] >> if you listen to mitt romney on the campaign trail the stories he tells about his family are all about his dad and his dad rising in the world because mitt doesn't have access to the stories about himself. but the taxing is utterly confounding because you could have seen this coming a mile away, and it's been romney's weakest moments in all the

debates the last two, when he has been asked about his tax returns when it's usually fluid speaker starts falling all over himself. >> look at the rockefellers. i think wealth is a plus in the political arena by reason of appearances. these people have made the american way. >> it is, john. jack kennedy worked it well. but mitt romney does not seem in touch. they'll make him the poster boy of innie quality and vulture capitalism, unless he turns it around. [everyone talking at once] >> i'm going to ask this exit question. what should romney do about the tax issue? she had release his tax returns now and get the issue behind him, or wait until april as he says he will do? >> the sooner he gets it out the better. and he should make the case, looking i went out in the private enterprise system and screed ed and you can as well! [everyone talking at once] >> also call for -- one quick

point -- he should also call for a repeal of the special tax treatment of carried interests. the reason he gets the 15%, the private equity guys would hate him but it would be very popular with both republicans and democrats. >> it's all legal. and i want to change the system. >> exactly. >> could he get it out now? >> he should release them now and his excuse that he hasn't prepared his 2011 tax return isn't good enough. he had release past tax returns and newt and rick perry were right about this republican voters deserve so tee. >> the answer is the sooner the better in getting returns out. when we come back, the bear is back!

almost exactly 20 years ago, soviet premier mikhail gorbachev stepped down from

power. the soviet communist alliance dissolved. 15 states emerged from their alliance's dissolution -- armenia, belarus, estonia, georgia, kazakhstan, kyrgyzstan, lithuania, russia, turn men stan, ukraine, uzbekistan. today 20 years later the former soviet union alliance is undergoing an ingenious reincarnation. but with no communism. vladimir putin, the prime minister of calling for a new economic alliance with four former soviet of the alliance, and vladimir putin staying at the throttle. the name of this new russian connectivity is, get this, the

eu, the eurasian union. in other words, an eu2, with the european union the eu1, if this eurasian union, the eu2, will serve as an ll pivot on free trade. the five nation will enjoy free exchange of goods across their mistake of eu1. >> we won't repeat the mistakes of the european union in our integration. we're conscious of what we're doing. we understand who we're g with. the european union took a shot in the dark.

>> question, is putin trying to capitalize on the eurozone's woes? >> i thibault in is desperately trying to save his skin. the action in russ right now is the russian establishment has been astonished by the public reaction to the parliamentary election that russians came out on the streets. everyone had written the russian people 06 as too apathetic and too much prospering from the putin years. and they went out there -- in moscow last week, the kremlin is absolutely terrified, and the predictions are that either putin is going to seek some kind of foreign distraction, but the joke in moscow is there's no one left to declare war on, or that there's going to be another show trial that he will find someone inside his government, because corruption is such a source of popular rage and put that guy on trial. >> do you think that he can sell the eurasian union as a

distraction for the complaints about the parliamentary election that they've just gone through and some of the public, not all of the public, right? you think it's -- the groups we have seen on television are representative of the public at large in russia? >> in the big cities they are. in the big cities -- [everyone talking at once] >> the and more importantly, the powerful slogan in russia has been that this is the party of crooks and thieves. and the public's sense that corruption is he endemic that, it goes from the police officer who you have to bribe up to the very, very top of government -- driving people -- >> who gets the credit for this change in attitudes towards corruption that now he says when putin has been in office, does he not -- not engineer if he rigged the election? you follow me? in other words, he he indicated the public -- [everyone talking at once]

they kick him out. >> two things happened in the election. one was they turned out to be very ineffective dictators. and this is the other complaint you're hearing inside kremlin circles. they're saying if you're going to rig an election, do a good job. >> let's see where this is moving to. mikhail is putin's president challenger. here he is. >> because i think it's a really window opportunity. it's just -- it's a hot debate in russian society. and maybe it's time for the last 20 years. and for me, maybe -- [not understandable] all of my country. and really i see lot of problems, pino the answers. and to quote abraham lincoln,s the government should be by the people and for the people. >> that was new there on that

videotape, your interview. >> that was my interview. >> and you gave us a piece of that videotape to run. what is the story on mikhail? >> so people -- the question is, is he a puppet of the kremlin or a real challenger? >> money? >> he has $18 billion. that's what his fortune is estimated at. mitt romney is a piker compared to him. >> he's a u.s -- a -- a russian citizen. >> yes. >> but he spends time in the united states. >> in the that much. but he is the owner of the nets. that's the reason -- >> new jersey nets. >> you think -- >> he did tell me if elected president he'll move the nba to russia. so watch out! >> you think president obama could play a basketball game together? >> i think he would win, actually. he's a pretty fit game. >> not disparaging -- [everyone talking at once] >> let's go back to russia, john. >> is he going anywhere with

this idea? it's not certain he can even get on the ballot, and then he -- contender? the question is, i don't think putin will allow it to go forward unless he is sure that he will win. and i think this guy is a puppet or very -- >> the election is for president of russia. it's coming up in march. and it is designed to succeed the medvedev. >> yes, and just football i think that there's no way putin doesn't allow the election to go through. he use it. >> who will win that election? >> look at the law -- [everyone talking at once] >> how much do they have -- [everyone talking at once] i don't think so. >> why? >> i think it's -- but we should be very careful -- remember egypt. once you move into the revolutionary situations, when you have people on the streets, anything can happen. the next protest is february 4th, and i think what he is counting on is he wants to be a

player in the game. >> egypt say good analogy in other respect, where hosni mubarak where he went too far is when he anointed his son to be his successor, and putin himself coming back instead of being the puppet master, and putting himself back in power, may have been just a step too far. >> russia's -- >> save the career of vladimir putin? by getting the guy in the running. >> i think ultimately -- putin will win but russia's problem is what is called hyper mortality. they've lost 10 million people since independence. scheduled to lose 25 million more bit middle of this century. it's a dying country. >> why? >> its population is dying. >> why? >> the fertility rate of women is -- >> why? >> because it's part of the western civilization! >> it's running a corrupt way and they're smothering small democratic impulses. >> we'll be right back with predictions!

florida, republican primary, who wins? pat? >> the winner of the south carolina primary. >> that's a cop-out! i'm going for mitt romney. >> mitt romney, very narrowly. >> mitt romney. >> mitt romney, and not -- narrowly. bye-bye!