joining me donna brazile, ari fleischer, dana lohse, erin burnett.avid gergen, the patriot act, conservative libertarian split that hasekisted since this was passed right after 9/11 came out in full force tonight however. >> absolutely. ron paul, i should tell you, john, he continues to speak well for the libertarians and you can see him on twitter, they're cheering him on because they thought he was strong tonight. but at the same time, i think when newt gingrich came back, as did mitt romney, they really speak for the majority of the republican party. a much stronger patriot act would be tough on terrorism, the war continues from their point of view. >> that's a question that essentially puts the legacy of the president wyou worked for i question, you want to continue in strength under the policies put in by bush or as congressman paul says walk way from it? >> it is 8% to 10% group that follows ron paul on this earn. i remember this, arlen specter, former prosecutor, senator from pennsylvania, sat in a meeting with bush that bin laden has been ind

brazile, ari fleischer, cnn contributor dana lash, the co-organizer of the st. louis tea party coalition and cnn analyst gloria borger. a spirited debate about national security issues. some disagreements between the candidates, libertarian conservative divide over the patriot act passed after 9/11, difference on immigration as well. david gergen, your quick, first impression on what we heard from these eight republican candidates tonight? >> i don't have any sound. i'm not hearing anything. >> david's having a bit of an audio problem. dana lash, as a conservative who watched the race, mitt romney at the top of the pack but a host of other conservatives come up what i call the anybody but romn romney candidate, former speaker newt gingrich came in, tied if not nationally ahead tonight, your first impression from what we learned from the eight republican candidates? >> i think there were a couple of really explosive parts of the debate for me. the first one was obviously iran. i thought that perry and gingrich led the way with strategy when it comes to iran. but

here to talk about the raw politics, ari fleischer, former press secretary for george w. bush, and democratic strategist paul begala. and with us senior political analyst david gergen. you've all had busy days. david gergen, let me start with you. you wrote this dot-com op-ed that asked the question, headline, have they gone nuts in washington? were you surprised at all by this? i mean, what do you think appears goi's going on? >> very surprised. what we've seen in the past is we've often had contentious politics, deep philosophical differences between the parties. but at the 11th hour they've found a way to get somewhere close to the middle and signed a deal that got you partway there. this is one of the first times that i can remember when it's been utter failure. and occurring, sanjay, in the midst of an economic situation that's very fragile. as you mentioned, we have a real problem in europe right now. the euro could collapse over there. they're definitely heading towards some sort of recession that could rebound here. and that kind of volatility in the marketplace,

let's talk it over with ari fleischer and james carville.been a face or really a voice to go with some of these charges. now there is. does that make a difference? >> well, i think the whole thing makes a difference because people are going to say, well, this was today, what's going to happen tomorrow or the next day? once these things start, it's endless. and i suspect that he's really -- we're going to see in the next ten days that he's really been hurt in the polls. i never thought he had a chance to be the republican nominee. i certainly don't think so after this. less than zero, but whatever it is, he's gone into negative territory now. >> ari, i'll read you what bill bennett had to say tonight. if herman cain cannot stand up to these charges, if he refuses to, then he should step out of the race. a man big enough to run for president should be big enough to have a full and candid press conference on all of this. do you agree with that? >> no, i don't think he should give a full and candid press conference on this. i think people are si

let's bring in our cnn contributors, ari fleischer, former white house press secretary.avid frum, former speechwriter to george bush. great to have all of you with us. newt is a confident guy. >> he is a confident guy. maybe he could do with a little tobasco sauce. it's a strategic point, not just a boast. because republicans view barack obama as very vulnerable. they feel very confident. a lot of them are hungering to see newt gingrich tear him apart. the problem is they lose sight of the fact to how they react to newt gingrich and how the broader electorate reacts to newt gingrich may not be the same thing. >> very diplomatically put. sort of like a candidate my put it. what do you think, ari? >> anyone who has known newt a long time, you know there's always two sides to newt. there's newt the sharpest guy in the room, and he often is, and the very able newt and inspiring newt. the dinner speaker newt. and then the newt who wilts under pressure and often brings it on himself. who when the lights are shining brightest fails the most. and that's what this primary campaig

joining us once again, paul begala and ari fleischer.s with newt gingrich searching and he is surging dramatically, does he come in planning to get hit by some of the others? >> i suspect so. i think this is better terrain to focus on foreign policy for newt. he was speaker of the house. had access to the highest levels of national security at the time. served on a defense review board when president bush was president. again, had access to highly classified information. he's got a base of knowledge that exceeds many on stage. probably the only one that can match him is jon huntsman, who's just back from beijing. >> santorum knows a lot, too. he was on the armed services committee. >> santorum, watch for him to attack tonight on iran. he has been in the hawkish field. the most hawkish. i don't know if he'll find room to attack newt on that. >> do they go after newt at their own peril? >> what's interesting in these debates, if they keep going after the number two and one, romney keeps skating by because no one has taken him on with force

and ari fleischer from the bush administration. you can follow him on twitter @arifleischer. maria, you know this woman, karen kraushaar. what did she tell you about mr. cain? >> she didn't go into the allegations, anderson, because clearly she didn't want to relive this as she has had to now on an hourly basis, but she did say something very similar to what joel said, which was that they were sexual harassment gestures and they happened repeatedly. what i can tell you is that when i hired her at the i.n.s. -- >> you hired this woman? >> correct. i hired her when i was communications director at the i.n.s., in the last two years of the clinton administration. and she came to the i.n.s. directly from the national restaurant association. and what she told me recently -- i was not aware of this back at the time. i know that she's always been very grateful to me for having hired her at the time. she's told me recently, she said, maria, now you know why i have been so grateful to you all this time for hiring me when you did at the i.n.s. because you have saved me from this monster

joining me are ari fleischer and paul begala. got to start with you on this moment by herman cain. the whole answer goes on for about five minutes. i mean, it is painful to watch. what do you make of it? >> it may not be a full-on brain freeze, but it was at least a slushy, wasn't it. give mr. cain free advice, this is maybe advice that fleischer came up with. when george w. bush was debating al gore, gore knew a lot more about foreign policy than the governor of texas did. you know what he did in the debate? i went back and looked at the transcript. ari, you'll love this. it was a brilliant performance. on so many issues bush surprised gore by saying i agree with president clinton on this. yugoslavia, a triumph. he said that clinton was right about rwanda, israel. east timor, which i don't know if he knew anything about, didn't matter. i think president clinton got it right. if herman cain had said i agree with president obama, let's talk about my 9-9-9 plan, it would have been much better. >> ari, you agree with that? >> what i

. >>> ari fleischer, white house press secretary in the george w. bush administration. also democratic strategist paul begala. i spoke to them just a short time ago. paul, what do you make of this? how damaging might this be to the cain campaign? >> well, the truth is we have no idea about even the content, really, of these allegations much less their truth or falsity. so i certainly don't want to cast judgment. i think you can observe how mr. cain is reacting. and i think it's not the way his campaign might want. his story is shifting. if i had been working for him, i would have tried to beat this out of him before the campaign began. so you can bleed it out before. you don't want this bombshell breaking just when you're starting to soar in the campaign. >> ari, you agree with that? the fact that it's based on the span of 24 hours he's begun to kind of contradict himself or shift the story a little bit? >> anderson, i think there's only one issue in play here. did he sexually harass somebody? if he didn't, then this is unfair to herman cain. if he did, he has a huge pr

joining me now political contributors ari fleischer. you can follow him on twitter @arifleischer.ingrich? >> anderson, i think this is neither a tempest nor a teapot. i think there's any number of people who worked for these companies and gave strategic advice to them. which is what newt acknowledged he did. he said he didn't lobby for them. i think it's problematic the 2008 interview we are said president obama should return the money. obviously, that's a little inconsistent with him keeping the money. but you know, on the day that the debt topped $15 trillion, who newt gingrich worked for, i don't really think is a significant issue in this debate. there's a lot bigger issues this country is wrestling with. >> hillary, there's nothing wrong with lobbying if that's what gingrich was in fact doing. do you think this is a big deal for him? >> vof course it's a big deal because it just piles on top of year after year of newt gingrich's saying one thing and doing another. and this just proves it. for two years he made it his number one priority to trash president obama and barney fra

former adviser to four presidents, david gergen, democratic strategist, donna brazile, ari fleischer,zer of the st. louis tea party coalition and cnn analyst gloria borger. a spirited debate about national security issues. some disagreements ben

former adviser to four presidents, david gergen, democratic strategist, donna brazile, ari fleischer,zer of the st. louis