i'm just trying to catch my breath from that. >> exactly who is foster friess?uty political director, mark murray. >> there are some things you can hear over and over and can't believe what you're hearing. i know he says he was joking there. i think it was david gregory said maybe he's not old enough to remember that joke. i've never heard that joke, but that aside, who is foster friess? where did he get his cash? why does he like rick santorum so much? >> he's a wealthy investor and lives in wyoming. he's been the chief benefactor to a pro-santorum super pac. he had given more than $330,000 to this super pac and probably some more since then. this pro-santorum super pac is running a pretty heavy buy promoting rick santorum in a very positive way. you look and perhaps there's no one who has been a bigger benefactor to rick santorum's financial success as this goes on in the republican primary than foster friess. >> he supported governor scott walker in his battle that he's having in the state of wisconsin. as i understand it, he's also donated a lot of money to

is foster friess a big problem for santorum? >> this is -- there is no apology that makes this okay. there's nothing that foster friess can say to put this back in the bottle. and when he says i can't apologize for every backer, this is his biggest backer, the man financing his entire campaign. you can't get rid of that, but it raises for republicans, not just democrats, republicans, the question can rick santorum get elected in general election? comments like this, comments like what rick santorum has already said about contraception that is dangerous and bad for women, no republican gets elected in a general with comments like that out there. >> the romney camp probably looking to capitalize off of this of what's taking place in santorum's campaign. but we constantly do talk about mitt romney's inability to connect with the voters. his stiffness in his appearances. take a look at this example from the trail yesterday. >> it seems right here, trees are the right height. i like seeing the lakes, i love the lakes. just something

we know there's cooperation between the super pacs and the campaigns, what do you make of foster friess's comments? >> right, well, you know, we are not going to comment on someone who has no affiliation with the campaign. he does not work for the campaign or rick santorum or speak for the campaign and sure doesn't speak for rick santorum. so, it's just not an issue we are going to address, as you mentioned before, there's no coordination between the campaign and the pac. so whatever foster says, he says. and some of those things are not necessarily the best things but it's not our place to comment on who has no a mill consideration with the campaign. >> foster friess, let's be honest here folks. he is bringing a part of santorum's record which is his position on birth control that could be a problem. what do you make of it? >> i will give hogan the benefit of the doubt here. it's impossible to hold people to the words that their top donors are putting out there and the same argument was put forward obama with his associations. but you bring up an interesting point, the senator has a sort

said this afternoon. >> foster friess. >> foster friess. >> foster friess. >> nbc's david gregory we have a fire storm here but there's a larger question, how santorum handled it and how foster friess handled it and what he said in the first place, david? >> i was there with you when he said it to you yesterday, sort of catching my breath. you know, i actually did not hear that formulation before. i guess i'm not old enough. it was a stupid thing to say, he has acknowledged that. i am not one that believes that santorum faces a huge amount of fall out over this. has tried to create distance and condemned it. there's a broader issue here that is challenging enough for republicans, or a good opportunity depending how it plays out and that is the politics of conception and this is a social issue that energizes the base >> in fact santorum addressed it. he was not apologizing this morning. are let's watch. >> obviously. i do not agree with the basic premise, it was a joke, it was a stupid joke, it was bad taste. >> it does not in my opinion reflect on the campaign or me. i'm not responsi

foster friess, alex? >> well, i was confused when i first heard the advice about the bayer between the knees. i thought that was more about keeping your legs closed and that's how you stay out of trouble. but apparently there's some sort of -- i don't know what. you know, foster friess seems like not a bad guy. i think he has a lot of -- he has a lot of love for rick santorum. but, look, if you talk about some of the positions that rick santorum has taken on these social issues, whether it's gay marriage, whether it's some of the statements as you rightfully pointed out about supporting states that would outlaw contraception, he is so far to the right on this stuff, i don't know how you win over not only american women, but the american public. >> chris, what is the friess effect in the santorum campaign today? >> um, negative. i think the -- >> cold. >> yes. it's cold. i think the clip from andrea's show is going to be everywhere. i think the problem is that it's stacked atop an entire week's worth of th

or the koch brothers shelley and foster friess really fighting for power also tomorrow is valentine's day and men everywhere will be love to suffer through the day alone but do they really need to be working a man to get any woman he wants and obamacare may be in place for a nation with something still missing a piece of the puzzle is still out of place when we fix it. in the best of the rest of the news we turn to the campaign trail remember romney just can't seal the deal and it won the maine caucuses over the weekend edging out ron paul by a mere hundred ninety four votes but that's about where the good news for romney is for the first time ever a new national poll shows rick santorum is the leader of the pack trouncing romney thirty eight to twenty three percent even more troubling for romney in the same poll shows santorum with a thirty nine to twenty four percent lead in michigan state where romney was born then again romney did call for letting the auto industry go bankrupt not exactly the sort of support you'd expect from a native son so maybe santorum has a chance because of

and i don't know what your preoccupation with that is. >> santorum was asked about the friess comment on cbs this morning, this is so sarah palin, he tried to turn himself in the victim. >> when you quote a supporter of mine who tells a bad off-color joke and some how i'm responsible for that, that is gotcha. >> nobody said you were responsible. they said how would you characterize it and what had you said to him, not you were responsible. to understand how you differ from what this person said. so let me quote you. >> i have to respond to every supporter, look, this is what you guys do. you don't do this, you don't do this with president obama, in fact with president obama what you did was you went out and defended him against someone who he sat in a church for for 20 years and defended him that he can't possibly believe what he listened to for 20 years. this is a double standard, this what is you're pulling off i'll call you on it. >> santorum needs history lesson. the jeremiah wright fire storm, barack obama in 2008 had to give a speech on race to calm this nation down. santorum ca

instead these comments from his megadonor, the bankroller of his campaign, foster friess that he said to andrea mitchell have gone viral. >> the contraceptive thing, my gosh, you know, it's so expensive. back in my days they used bayer aspirin for contraception. the gals put it between their knees and it wasn't that costly. >> excuse me, i'm trying to catch my breath from that, mr. friess. >> last night on the trail santorum was forced to respond -- >> i'm not responsible for everything that somebody says in my campaign. >> senator? [ inaudible ] the basic premise, it was a joke. it was a stupid joke. it was bad taste. and, you know, i don't know what your preoccupation with that is. >> mark murray is nbc's deputy political director, and mark, santorum had a lot of momentum here in these polls but seems to be bogged down by the comment by foster friess made on andrea's show. >> the conventional wills dom might be that rick santorum is on the defensive here. i would put it in a different way. this is actually really good news for rick santorum, the more the fight is about cultural issu

foster friess made that now infamous bayer aspirin comment. just a few minutes ago, alex stewart says it was a slip of the tongue. she misspoke but she was trying to defend santorum's comments on radical energy policy but somehow said radical islamic. let me play what she said. >> as he said, he's clarified the statement. he was talking about radical environmentists. there was a type of se cue larism when it comes to the global warmist. it was referring to the president's policies in turm of the radical islamic policies has. >> you had foster friess say it was a joke. domineco said with limited infrastructure, if rick santorum is gone off message and his surrogates get him in deeper mess here, what are we to make here? >> i expect we're going to here more from alex stewart apologizing about those remarks. there will be controversy theoryist thinking it was a message she was trying to get out or on the mind of the santorum campaign when talking about president obama. i think there's a base in the republican party that this isn't going to bother

." >> reporter: foster friess is the multimillionaire mutual fund manager standing behind rick santorum. both literally. that's him right there. and figuratively. friess gave $1 million to the supposedly independent group, which is keeping the santorum campaign alive, with ads like this -- >> they're not so different. >> reporter: friess is one of a handful of superrich people, whose third party donations to these groups, called super pacs, are giving them an outsized role in the primaries. as we learned in just-released disclosure forms. recent court decisions mean the superrich, corporations, and labor unions can make unlimited donations to super pacs to advocate for candidates. critics say, it allows them to try and buy the white house. after all, less than 0.15% of americans give more than $200 to candidates for federal office. so, consider the potential influence of las vegas billionaire sheldon adelson, who, with his family, has given $11 million to a super pac backing newt gingrich. >> under the old rules, a candidate like newt gingrich, might have had to drop out much earlier be

but i agree with you tom politico today is quoting friess as saying quote there isn't he had just come from that meeting of the koch brothers or with all the other billionaires he said there isn't a person at the koch brothers event who would not get a good return on their investment by investing in santorum as president and what do you think it meant. just that these guys don't back candidates they make investments in candidates they don't have strong politics and in fact the big backers you know the big money behind mitt romney which is in the super pac called we store our future and that is bill coke that's called the vulture singur that's paulson that's a billionaire is boys club. they they're not all that even that interested in romney in fact they think that the very clear they withheld their money from their supposed candidate let santorum sneak through what these guys want to do is be the brokers on a brokered convention so what is a brokered convention layout how that works and how could a couple of billionaires. you know make that happen to an entire political party that's it

and foster friess. you're very intelligent. come back, please.uston who died this weekend. this is "hardball" on msnbc. ♪ and i will always love you one chance to hunt down the right insurance at the right price. the "name your price" tool, only from progressive. ready, aim, save! grrr! ooh, i forgot my phone! the "name your price" tool. now available on your phone. get a free quote today. >>> stay with us. we're coming right back with the sad death of singer whitney houston. that's coming up next here on "hardball." >>> we're back. the music industry and many fans are still in shock over whitney houston's death on saturday. surprised me. according to the associated press she battled drug addict shun. they took a poll on her once remarkable voice, largely off the radar in resen years. last night the gram miss, many artists played tribute. >> no way around this, we've had a death in our family. >> when the truly great artists leave us, their legacy lives on. we love whitney houston. >> i want to say to whitney up in heaven, we love you whitney hou

friess, frankly.ldon addleson is, of course, supporting newt gingrich, and supporting that super pac, he's apparently said in the "wall street journal" that, or "the wall street journal" is at least reporting in a bit of political chess that mr. addleson is ready to not only direct support to the former house speaker in the republican primary, but to use his cash to push rick santorum from his position atop the latest national polls. do you think addleson's support for newt gingrich as a way to also topple rick santorum? >> well, i don't concentrate a lot on this political maneuvering. i'm just basically in love with my country. you know, i started out with $800 of accumulative leave pay. i've seen other people become successful, multi-millionaires, steve jobs, mark zuckerberg of facebook, jeff bisos of amazon, and i think this is what america's great about and i want to do everything i can so your grandchildren and every grandchild that's listening to this has an opportunity to run for president as r

from a native son so maybe santorum has a chance because of that but if so he has this guy foster friess leading contributor to his red white and blue pack corporate super fund corporate super pac to thank for the center for american progress as think progress blog uncovered some interesting details on who exactly for he says for one he's an islamophobia in significant donations to new tory islamophobia organizations he's given millions over the last few years to several republican politicians like scott walker rick perry and newt gingrich he gave three million bucks to kick start a can see it conservative news site and back in two thousand and two priests blamed the columbine shooting on liberals this is the guy who's actually running for president through his surrogate rick santorum but friess is just one billionaire and there are many others like him who want to have influence over the republican race and if they have their way and free says guy santorum may not win and neither might mitt romney in fact no one in the race they may win if the millionaires and billionaires get their way

there is an argument that friess' donations kept santorum in the running. thank you for being with us. >> it's an honor to be here. i hope i can hear you. there's so much applause beyond me, i hope i can hear your questions. >> i hope so, too. l four years ago, you backed romney. you gave $331,000. why the switch? >> well, it's so obvious that rick matured into a message america is resinating. he believes we are in this together. it's not just jobs but the spiritual dimension of jobs. we enjoy the rewards of contributing to society. it's beyond the money we make. it's important to get everybody back to work for those reasons. >>ç it's interesting -- it's interesting he didn't talk a lot about that. i think the general election problem for rick santorum is that those very same conservative view that is played well for the cpac crowd, he's against contraception and abortion in cases of rape and incest. same-sex marriage is affiliated with bestiality. they are the views of the general election aren't they? >> the american people aren't so preoccupied with sex

and foster friess. you're very intelligent. come back, please.to look back on the life of whitney houston who died this weekend. this is "hardball" on msnbc. ♪ and i will always love you [ ce llph one rings ] [ female announcer ] with secret outlast, conquer your busy day. burn! let's do it! ♪ hi. [ female announcer ] outlast your day, any day, with secret's 48-hour odor protection technology. new secret outlast. >>> stay with us. we're coming right back with the sad death of singer whitney houston. that's coming up next here on "hardball." when i grow up, i want to fix up old houses. ♪ [ woman ] when i grow up, i want to take him on his first flight. i want to run a marathon. i'm going to own my own restaurant. when i grow up, i'm going to start a band. [ female announcer ] at aarp we believe you're never done growing. thanks, mom. i just want to get my car back. [ female announcer ] discover what's next in your life. get this free travel bag when you join at aarp.org/jointoday. monarch of marketing analysis. with the ability to improve roi thro

the reason santorum is here was because friess was here. no coincidence, foster friess is one of the reasons santorum is still in the race and he's hope to go win it. in mitt romney's case, maybe the most important name to know is wall street. our colleagues at cnn.com compiled this and found that no other candidate came even close to the $12 million that romney's campaign raised directly in 2011 from people who work on wall street. $12 million. even president obama raised just $5 million, and that doesn't compare to the money that was available to romney from super pacs, which was a lesson not lost on the president. just this week, obama's campaign announced this week it will cooperate with and accept the support of super pacs. he railed against them. he fought the supreme court ruling that made them possible, but he can read the numbers. and now president obama wants some of that super pac money as well. back to you. >> jonathan mann reporting there. >>> coming up next on "world business today," with the world cup on the horizon, the foot

that's foster friess, a big-money backer. he gets money to the campaign, he doesn't for it.e said yesterday kind of early on to msnbc the following. >> back in my days, they used bayer aspirin for contraception. the gals put it between their knees and it wasn't that costly. >> foster friess apologized. he said i can see how i confused people. so case closed, paul? >> yes, force foster friess, but rick santorum probably wouldn't want women to have the aspirin. the stated position is birth control is bad for women, states should have the right to outlaw the way they used to be able to. and mitt romney is barely better. he want to ends all federal funding. title x which george bush sr. helped to write into law. >> go ahead, mary. >> complete utter fabrication. paul knows this, it was an epicenter of catholicism. he was talking about his catholic faith. he specifically said he would not ban birth control. that's a -- >> that's not true. he says griswold was wrong, states should have the law right to outlaw contraception. >> griswold was wrong and roe was wrong. but that's not th

amy returns to weekend update to take on foster friess. >> well we would love to accept your apology foster, but you made a mistake and now you'll have to life with it for the rest of your life. >> in our daily fix, santorum leads the national polls and he is ahead in michigan. can he withstand the criticism that comes with success. chris is managing editor of post politics.com. chris, we have heard a lot in the last couple of days from rick santorum and some argue it's great politics that he is firing up the base, he is going after barack obama, others say it's going to scare elders in the party that he is not electable as a general election candidate, what say you? >> i hate to hedge my bets, but i think it's a bit of both. this will help among christians that are not a huge part of the base in michigan. it's about 40%, as the process goes forward, oklahoma and tennessee, it could help in those places. but you are right, i think the kind of republican bigwigs, the gray beards who are worried, look at this and say, we have an economy that is struggling. unemployment still above's 8%

the answer a guy named foster friess that guy who is standing behind rick santorum on tuesday night as santorum delivered his victory speech friso used to be a supporter of romney in two thousand and eight jumped ship is now using his fortune to be the leading contributor to see in terms of corporate super pac known as the red white and blue fund he's admitted to giving at least three thousand three hundred thousand dollars to the cause but friess won't say how much more he's invested in santorum is this good for our democracy should one millionaire or billionaire be able to keep a candidate in the race and what strings are attached to the money of santorum or any other super pac owned candidate wins paul sherman joins me now as an attorney with the institute for justice paul walker thank you tom but we have you with us so we apparently no longer have people running we have the front men for corporate or special interest or whatever groups running it's like the groups are running against each other super pacs against each other how is that good for democracy well i don't think that's a

and then the comments by rick santorum, foster friess. people who haven't heard it, i want to play it again. >> this contraceptive thing. my gosh, it's so inexpensive. back in my days, we used bayer aspirin for contraceptives, the gals put it between their knees and it wasn't that costly. >> excuse me, i'm trying to catch my breath from that, frankly. >> i want to get your comment on that and just overall, are you surprised at the level to which social issues have played in this campaign? >> no, it's an affirmation of the fact that intelligence is not uniform across the board. mr. friess is good at some things that made him very rich, but he also appears to have moronic tendencies. you can be very good about some things and bizarre about others, but it also makes clear what we have here. this is not an attack on contraception. and mr. santorum was clear. when the supreme court decided in the lawrence case with sandra day o'connor and the majority that you should not send people to prison for who adults of the same sex have consenting sex

having me so let's get started so it's santorum won big as we just showed his big thunder foster friess was there behind him we've seen a lot of these guys really have they been at the victory speeches behind the candidates. but santorum is red white and blue fun pales in comparison to romney's restore future pac i think it's the red white and blue fund has spent two million dollars so far whereas restore a future romney spend nine times that over eighteen million dollars so here's what i said the millionaires and billionaires on the republican side they've chosen their person and that's mitt romney and i would be shocked if somehow they lose this race so i mean should i be shocked if romney's not the nominee at the end because about well i think that there's a bit of a declining marginal utility for these super pacs or for any any campaign spending period the underdogs i think tend to gain more from one more political ad or one more political dollar than the front runners because name recognition is such a huge huge attribute for a candidate but i wanted to to note something that it's

>> rick santorum and his campaign, a little bit embarrassed by foster friess' comments.eard him, he has been extremely clear to say he separates his personal views from policy views. you look at his record throughout the 1990s, he doesn't necessarily vote against contraceptives and i thank you is something that is overlooked quite a bit, he separates those two things. >> buzzer batter, 20 seconds each, romney is now in a dogfight in his home state of michigan. even with an endorsement from the governor, why is this such a tough battle for him, maria? >> in addition to the fact that this is not somebody that conservatives trust or conservatives like because he has flip-flopped on so many issue, the key argument for his candidacy, he is a businessman who knows how to turn around ailing industries has completely tanked because of the fact that he came out against the detroit bankruptcy plan or bailout plan that has, in fact, saved detroit and saved the key industry in michigan. >> all right. boris? >> saved the key industry, costing taxpayers billions and billions of dollar

well what do you think too you know when somebody like foster friess big that it's a really good joke to say national television that women should just squeeze aspirin between their needs is a form of birth control. well i mean that form of birth control has never worked in the history of the world you know abstinence. society why it has never been a way that has really successfully lowered the unintended pregnancy rate you know i think the one thing he was right about is that maybe we do need a national therapy session when it comes to sex and you know rick santorum who seems to be very very interested in the details of what goes on in all of our bedrooms maybe should be the first candidate for that kind of therapy. he definitely is a little too interested if you ask me what's going on in everyone's bedroom all right so let's talk about it let's talk about this hearing today. didn't have any women on the panel i mean at the same time we also saw the obama administration come back and make a compromise right to this entire mandate for health insurance so why do we need to have a heari

that speaking of billiards notice the guys standing behind santorum to his right yeah that's foster friess a mutual fund executive and leading contributors to santorum is red white and blue find corporate super pac and he is like the other millionaires and billionaires who are now spending fortunes giving to romney's and gingrich's super pacs was the real winner last night called a collection on investments. meanwhile here's what front runner turned loser mitt romney said in colorado where he was expecting to give a victory speech it's great to be in denver tonight a lot of stuff on the ground pretty cold but so warm to be in this room and with so many friends here and i want to say thank you to you that the race is too close to call in colorado at this point but i'm pretty confident we'll come in number one and number two and number two it was santorum came out on top in colorado to be the romney forty to thirty five percent that's a state that romney won back in two thousand and eight so what does all this mean well it means conservatives can still play around with the idea of nominating