allegations of a brief affair were enough to ruin gary hart in 1988.r years later, bill clinton survives a much worse level of scan tal. we've seen david vitter in louisiana survive touches of scandal. what is this election of mark sanford telling us about voters' attachment to scandal when it comes to the ballot box? >> you know, lawrence, i think that was -- you were right to do that sort of historical review. because i think historians may look back and say there was pre-clinton and post clinton. and that the comeback kid was the sort of water shed moment for -- a change in acceptance of adultery, basically. i mean, it's not that americans now love adultery. it's just that i think there's more of an understanding that this happens in families, this happens to people, and they can kind of look past it. >> yeah, crystal, part of what you're seeing in these stories are reflections of what everyone has seen in their neighbors' lives, in their friends' lives, their families' lives, somewhere. there's some story that's a little bit like what this politici

clinton was ready to fight it out and gary hart in '88 wasn't. such a shock to him. if he had told the guy screw off, it's none of your business, then we would have had that debate in '88 instead of '92 and hart may have won. >> i he may well have won. talk about a political athlete. >> just read frank bruni's comment from last sunday. >> they didn't look past his personal life but the fact he left his office as governor. that's what a lot of that was not so much judgment about who he was but about the idea he would leave his office and not tell anyone where he was. that was a problem. >> or president and stayed in his office. >> in the day of turning things around. let's say this was a democrat in san francisco that had done something terrible and was running against a republican right now. what would happen there? i mean, you know? vote for the democrats. >> sure. >> journey of self-reflection on the appalachian trail. >> exactly. a male journey. >> i don't know how deep it makes but be about ideology. i'm in napa valley. i'll be back next week. is that what they do

stunni innin, this day in 1987, less than a month after announcing he was running for president, gary hartw from the race. hart seemed like the man to beat for the presidency, but amid rumors of marital infidelity, he let reporters put a tail on him. my old friend did just that and guess what? they found out he was having an affair. we asked when mark sanford returns to congress, how many class of 1994 house members will be serving. the answer is 11. there had been seven members of the '94 freshman class who have served continually since then. three had a break in service, but now are back in congress and sanford will make number 11 and the number four to come back from that class of '94 thanks to our friend for that one and congr congratulations to today's winner. we've got a political trivia question for us, e-mail us. we'll be right back. leaders from capitol hill about the chances of a grand bargain. here is a recent dinner the president had. >> what impressed me the most is republicans and democrats alike in that room and we run the range liberal to very conservative were very serious

meet voters where they are and recognize what we're selling is no longer a majority and that was gary hart80s and bill clinton in the nights. i think you will see that very sharply in the republican party and you do wonder if ted cruz is to mitt romney as george mcgovern was to hubert humphrey. >> i'm sorry, that's like way too much for me. >> the argument that the only way we're going to win is to give people the unadulterated purist. >> nothing concentrates the mind like losing five out of the last six elections. it happened with republicans now. they're getting to the point where they've got to settle this internal debate and i'm not sure if this next election cycle will be the one to do it because they're probably going to do very well in the midterms which means the party's right wing will be even more encouraged to stand fast, but they've got to move -- demographics are saying you have to do something to appeal to the hispanic community among others and immigration is not the key issue among hispa c hispani hispani hispanics. jobs the economy are. >> 30 states have republican governo

remember when gary hart when running for president said follow me around. next thing you know, gary hart, former colorado senator, there he was with donna rice on his lap. what's interesting about the president yesterday is what he remembered -- they have that picture. that's good. what the president remembers and we heard yesterday actually is a lot different than what actually happened. here he is explaining how the day after the terror attack he said it was terror. watch. >> the day after it happened, i acknowledged that this was an act of terrorism. if this was some effort on our part to try to down play what had happened or tamp it down, that would be a pretty odd thing that three days later we end up putting out all the information that in fact has now served as the basis for everybody recognizing that this was a terrorist attack and that it may have included elements that were planned by extremists inside of libya, who executes some sort of cover upor effort to tamp things down for three days? the whole thing defies logic. >>brian: there was the coun