here is randi kaye with an upclose look at callista gingrich. ♪ >> reporter: on most sundays callistaings in the church choir, but not until recently she found her voice on the campaign trail. >> let's give a warm welcome to my husband and best friend, newt gingrich. >> reporter: still moments like that are rare. getting anywhere close to callista on the campaign trail is challenging to say the least. >> no cameras. and sit down. i feel like i'm dealing with 8-year-olds again. >> reporter: are they trying to keep callista away from the reporters? >> i am not aware that they are trying to. >> reporter: and yet when we wanted to interview callista, the campaign said no, and agreed to let us speak with karen olson, callista's friend since the second grade. growing up, olson recalls that callista was a cheerleader, and they played piano together and attended luther college in iowa where calista majored in music. she practiced six hours a day and graduated kum laude. and then she moved to washington, d.c. to work as a clerk with the house agriculture committee. in 1993, callista began a si

here is randi kaye with an upclose look at callista gingrich. ♪ >> reporter: on most sundays callistain the church choir, but not until recently she found her voice on the campaign trail. >> let's give a warm welcome to my husband and best friend, newt gingrich. >> reporter: still moments like that are rare. getting anywhere close to callista on the campaign trail is challenging to say the least. >> no cameras. and sit down. i feel like i'm dealing with 8-year-olds again. >> reporter: are they trying to keep callista away from the reporters? >> i am not aware that they are trying to. >> reporter: and yet when we wanted to interview callista, the campaign said no, and agreed to let us speak with karen olson, callista's friend since the second grade. growing up, olson recalls that callista was a cheerleader, and they played piano together and attended luther college in iowa where calista majored in music. she practiced six hours a day and graduated ckum laude. and then she moved to washington, d.c. to work as a clerk with the house agriculture committee. in 1993, callista began a six-ye

. ♪ >> on most sundays, callista gingrich sings in her church choir but it wasn't till recently that paign trial. >> let's give a warm welcome to my husband and best friend, newt gingrich. . >> still, moments like thatting are rare. getting anywhere close to callista on the campaign trail is challenging to say the least. >> no cameras and sit down. >> are they trying to keep callista away from reporters? >> you know, i'm not aware of that they're trying to. >> reporter: yet, when we asked to interview ca lis ta, the campaign said no but agreed to let us speak with karen olson, her friend since the second grade. >> growing up, olson recalls callista was a cheerleader. they played piano together and attended luther college in iowa where callista majored in music. she practiced six hours a day and graduated in 1988 cum laudee. after college, she moved to washington, d.c. to work as a clerk with the house agriculture committee. in 1993, callista began a six-year affair with newt gingrich who at the time was speaker of the house and on his second marriage. >> did she ever talk to you about

newt gingrich is there along with his wife callista. we'll hear from both of them. >>> also the wow backs down. i'm wolf blitzer you're in "the situation room." >>> and sharp and sudden turnaround by the obama administration. the white house now says it's tweaking the health care reform provision that sparked a sudden confrontation between church and state as well as republicans and democrats. our chief white house correspondent jessica yellin is here in "the situation room" watching all of this unfold. it was pretty dramatic what happened. >> it was, and all of this caught the white house off-guard. there's no sign that the uproar is dying down. the president plays cleanup. >> they will not have to pay foror provide contraceptive services, but women who work at these institutions will have access to free contraceptive services just like other women. a law that requires prepreventive care will not discriminate against women. >> the catholic health association says this resolution protects the conscience rights of catholic institutions.

husband, as we look out on the field of the republican candidates, your take on ann romney or callista gingricht help to romney. and i wonder what you make of looking out and their behavior on the campaign fratrail and ho they help or hurt their husband's reputation? >> you know, i think, listen there's got to be a lot of interesting conversations when somebody tries to run for president, and i think the only thing you can do is kind of stand by your man and be the voice of all the good virtues of him. i look at michelle obama and i think she has done a great job and done a great job because she has been a voice and she has been standing for a woman that works and a mom and a first lady and i think that that to me is the right kind of role model now. especially for, you know, i have two girls more my girls. it's interesting to watch, it's more interesting to see what they do with that role when they become first lady. when you are a first lady, you have a lot of power and bring about more change than you thing, i'm proud of a first lady that goes out and kind of does her own thing and makes her

. >>> callista gingrich warms up the crowd.e will hear what she has to say. >> harry smith talks about his encounters with richard nixon and you will not want to miss his unique take. >>> plus. ♪ >> nice. the first lady doing the robot. you're going to see what inspired mrs. obama to get on stage with dozens of kids. >>> good morning, everyone! welcome to "weekends with alex witt." the maine caucuses and stories unfolding at this hour. this morning, both mitt romney and ron paul spoke at the same caucus site an hour apart and report today suggests a very tight race between those two candidates. romney held a town hall in portland last night and faced a number of hucklers. >> do you think it's patriotic of you to stash your money away in the caiman islands? >> that's okay. that's a good question. come on. i got to take some shots now and then or it won't be interesting. >> let's go to nbc's ron allen who is live for us in portland, maine. a good saturday morning to you. how important of a day is it for romney today, ron? >> repo

one interesting note, we're also hearing that callista gingrich will introduce her husband later todayeaks. she doesn't often do that, so we'll be anxious to hear what she has to say, so that would be interesting if we hear from her. we've heard ann romney. i don't know if she's going to be doing that, but we will soon be, i think we'll be hearing from callista today, so we'll take that live as well. all of these speeches are important because this is a critical moment. we've had a whole bumpbl of them. romney has won, newt gingrich has won. rick santorum has won. ron paul still has not won a contest. he could tomorrow in maine. he's done some campaigning up there. a lot of independent republicans, moderates might like what he has to say. this race is going to continue. this is an important speech for all three of these republicans who will be addressing cpac today because this is the base of the party there and they're going to have to show these guys and gals there why they would be the best republican presidential nominee. >> we've talked so much about rick santorum. his momentum. e

how about newt gingrich and we thought for newt gingrich, v.p., callista. >> that's unlikely. >> youood v.p. >> certainly. the alternate argument could be made a strong v.p. is helpful not only on the campaign trail expressing opinions that are sharper than the candidate him or herself is something that's valued in a vice presidential candidate, but newt gingrich would need someone to take the edge off and take the edge off in particular with women voters so possibly a woman. a couple of names are the south carolina governor and the governor of new mexico, both of whom are women but also minorities and could broaden an outreach for rick santorum and newt gingrich seem physical therapily narrow as julian said. >> just to pick up on the minority point, i think the more likely scenario is romney does get the nomination and looks at somebody like mark rubio. selecting one like mark rubio than singing "who let the dogs out ♪ as rom did. you also have the possibility of chris christie. as jonathan capehart pointed out on your show yesterday, i think it's quite easy to get under chris chris

rick santorum and his wife, karen, newt gingrich and his wife, callista, mitt romney and his swiss bank account. [ laughter ] everybody -- today, president obama urged men to go big for valentine's day. [ laughter ] no, he did. he already urged men to go big on valentine's day. in fact, obama bought michelle the nicest bracelet china's money could buy. [ laughter ] he really went all out. >> steve: yeah. >> jimmy: went all out. [ cheers and applause ] >> steve: come on. >> jimmy: go for it, yeah. did you see this? one of the awards at this week's westminster dog show went to martha stewart's chow chow named genghis khan. [ laughter ] that's weird. i mean, if martha wanted to name the dog after a ruthless tyrant, she should have gone with martha stewart. [ laughter ] you know? you could easily -- it's just an easy -- [ cheers and applause ] i just read this. in the past year, 118,000 drivers in new york were ticketed for using their cell phones behind the wheel. while the rest are really good at doing this. hold on, there's a cop. [ laughter ] "i had to put the phone down. i can't hear y

rick santorum and his wife, karen, newt gingrich and his wife, callista, mitt romney and his swiss bank

but newt gingrich and his wife callista were asked this morning about the start of lent, of course, todayday. take a listen to this, karen. >> what are you giving up for lent? have you decided? >> i am going to give up desserts, all desserts. >> all right. >> and just quickly. >> i challenge you to ask what she's giving up. >> what are you giving up. >> i'm giving up my opinion. >> i'm assuming karen, she's joking. it does seem a bit like women's opinions have no place in the current republican environment. >> apparently not. apparently women are just supposed to be quiet and sit in the back. we're not allowed to show up at hearings about issues that affect us. we're not allowed to have opinions. we're just. >> in can the fa, i suspect darrell issa would be disgusted you're on this panel. >> i'm sure he will be. you'll just have to shut me up. >> okay. ken, mitt romney's comeback strategy. first, don't repeat anything that you only say at the yacht club. but what else? i mean, how does he take on santorum's burning and passion and wherever that burning is, how does he do it, ken? >> i don

speaker gingrich is back at a reception with his family, his two daughter, his wife callista but i'm told he feels good and knew it was coming and determined this is simply the first quarter of the game and, in fact, diane, they've passed out these signs here, 46 states to go, in other words, newt gingrich not giving up after a big loss here and, frankly, a loss bigger than they thought they would have here. he's determined to go on. when i spoke to him this morning, he made it clear that he is gearing up for a long, long fight against mitt romney. just listen to what he said. >> how close so being over? >> i would say probably six months. >> reporter: six months? >> yeah, i would say june or july, unless romney drops out earlier. >> reporter: but the gingrich campaign is telling me right now despite the rather devastating loss here in florida is that they now move on with a 1-1 race against mitt romney and insist they're determined to go on. diane? >> determined to go on even at six months a final -- >> not going to take that long, i don't think but could take some time for mitt rom

gingrich is arriving right now. all the candidates are coming in, doing the final walk through. callista wearing a lovely fuchsia, i guess that is, by his side, arriving here at the msa arts center to get ready. we've got the things we're breaking down here, how decisive this is. let us start with rick santorum in the hot seat. this is his night, and ari fleischer, you have gone out on a limb and said he can win the nomination. >> yeah, he can. for the first time this week, rick santorum has a shot. and the reason is because of the conservative collapse of support from mitt romney, combined with the social wing of the republican party, swinging powerful leader rick santorum. the problem rick santorum has is can he close the deal and is he doing too much damage to himself in the general election? that remains a huge issue. he's got to open up a powerful economic front in order to really springboard out of a primary into a general. >> what do you think, john? what pitfalls does he need to avoid? >> well, romney's game plan tonight is going to be to make mitt romney look small, that he's to

and newt gingrich is going to be speaking as well and his big inintro duckion will come by way of his wife callista. >> you know texas loves football, right? >> it's a religion, at least in dallas. >> and food. first lady michele obama is in dallas with both of those. mrs. obama is teaming up with "top chef" contestants and players of the dallas cowboys for her "let's move" campaign. she's in fine form, promoting healthy eating in schools. >> every time i see michele obama she's either kickboxing or running or doing -- >> tough cookie there. >> amazing she has the pipes she's got. she earned them. >> we have incredible video to show. before you get freaked out when you see it, yes, it is a school bus on fire and yes, there were children on board. this has a great ending. two-fold great ending. the driver smelled something burning but just so quickly and calmly got the kids off that school bus before this happened. but this was the scene that emerging. >> the bus driver, lynn richardson, says she is not a hero, but she is to be honored by the charlotte fire department next week. guess what? she join

gingrich, he has a similar problem to romney. newt has been busy making lots of money and being involved in going to tiffany's and buying expensive jewelry for a callistai think both of them have a bad problem in that respect. but let me say that i think we are sort of headed toward a plutocracy in this country. you either have money or you are going to get money when you run for political office. the poor people, the people that don't vote or know what's going on politically, maybe 60% of people that don't vote in a presidential election, which is shocking, and that's why i say we are headed towards a plutocracy, and that's what rich people want. they don't want the poor people voting. they want people apathetic and inactive. plutocrats controlling all livres a power. the executive, the traditional, and legislative. host: president obama comes in at $5 million on the start. most of that coming from books, popular books that he wrote. do you think president obama represents the 99%? caller: i would say that i was an obama supporter and i worry as a democrat and as an obama supporter, i worried that the president may lose touch with base democratic vote