. >>> john brabender, chief strategist with the rick santorum campaign, your time is at a premium on a night like this, i know this is a big night for your campaign and you're interested in celebrating, thank you for taking the time to be with us, i appreciate it. >> thank you for taking the time, i hope to speak with you soon. >> i hope to take you up on that. as promised, the senior strategist of the rick santorum campaign who said he'd come back and talk with me has agreed to come back and talk with me, a man of his word, john brabender, thank you so much for being with us live tonight. i really appreciate it. >> thank you for letting me celebrate your all-republican all the time night on your channel. i don't know if this is a big switch or you're going for a new audience, but thank you for inviting me back. >> you're kind for saying it, i always ask republicans to come on the show, nobody ever does, but when it rains, it pours. why aren't you guys on the ballot in washington, d.c., and why didn't the santorum campaign get all the paperwork in on time in illinois to get all the d

. >> john brabender is a strategist for the campaign and joins us. ohn, tough states ahead going into illinois tomorrow, 69 dell fwats that we're talking about here. first i want you to spobd to that ad. we know your candidate, what does he have to say to that but how damaging to have that online now for unit decided voters to see ahead of tomorrow? >> well, look, rick santorum has been very clear that he only endorsed mitt romney when he was running against a moderate and said that of the two he was more conservative. we now know things like romney care which has been a disaster, offers free abortions, all these things became the architect and the blueprint for obama care. all of these things that thousand we're realizing the mitt romney we all thought ex t existed four years ago is not the real mitt romney and he's been a disaster, certainly not the a conservative. his record is falling apart. a lot of people now are rallying behind rick santorum. that's why we saw such big wins for rick santorum. >> mitt romney is coming off a success out of puerto

john brabender, appreciate your time tonight.u for having me on. >> you are welcome. >> 12 advertisers now gone from rush limbaugh's radio show after limbaugh, as you know, called a georgetown university law student a slut for his views on contraception. he apologized but not enough to hold on to many sponsors. here's lisa sylvester. >> the rewhacks was swift and fierce. advertisers pulling ads from the limbaugh show including aol which says we have determined that mr. limbaugh's comments are not in line with our values. part of the backlash he now faces after he went after law student sandra fluke with these fighting words on his february 29th program. >> what does it say about the college coed susan fluke who goes off a congressional committee and essentially says that she must be paid to have sex? what does that make her. >> reporter: it makes her a slut, right? makes her a prostitute. she wants to be paid to have sex. >> fluke had appeared at a democratic congressional hearing arguing in favor of broad health care coverage fo

. >> john brabender in a teleconference earlier in the day. he is a senior advisor in the rick santorum campaign. c-span crews traveling to ohio and keeping an eye on other primary states next week including virginia, georgia, tennessee and massachusetts. we'll continue to have cove ragnell a rage. tomorrow morning, we will continue the conversation as we always do on the washington journal. the co-founder of ben and jerry's, the ice cream company, ben cowen is going to be joining us to talk about other things, occupy wall street. to help the occupy wall street movement around the country. he'll be with us to take your phone calls from new york city. and gas prices, the excel pipeline and what to expect from the obama administration, a republican perspective from the member of the house subcommittee on energy and natural resources. the chair of that committee is a republican from colorado. he will be with us tomorrow morning. thanks for being with us on this wednesday. i hope you enjoy the rest of your evening. >> tomorrow, a hearing looks at

that is john brabender's play list. rick santorum picking up serious momentum momentum.romney in alabama and mississippi. mitt romney, however, claimed hawaii and the american samoas. santorum's victories setting up important showdowns in puerto rico. santorum said he is going to win it all. listen. >> we want to make sure that everybody knows we're campaigning everywhere there are delegates because we are going to win this nomination before that convention. >> john brabender joins us now from washington, d.c. the polls were not in your favor and i got a sense everybody was tamping down expectations leading up to these two races and then you won. what happened? >> yeah, we mean, everybody thought romney was going to win mississippi and everybody thought gingrich was going to win alabama and rick santorum won both of them coming off the heels of kansas on saturday. it's an exciting time for the campaign. rick santorum said it best, a at of average americans are showing people the pollsters don't know as well as they do. upset last night and certainly gives the campaign a

thank you john brabender. i think he's a product of the jesuits. dee dee meyers, thanks for joining us. >>> newt doubles down on his plan for a lunar colony. you can't beat newt gingrich for show biz. a lunar colony. i guess he'll be the mayor. up next in the side show. you're watching "hardball" only on msnbc. [ male announcer ] what if an entire car insurance company was thought up and built and run to save people money? what if that company was born online, with tools and apps to make people feel like geniuses? and what if that company was now backed by the stability and reliability of allstate? well, what if that company was esurance and this wasn't just a bunch of hypothetical questions? could be cool-ish. esurance. insurance for the modern world. click or call. >>> it's back to "hardball." now for the side show. making time for the colony in space. even in the midst of super tuesday, that's right, newt gingrich found time for a visit to the u.s. space and rocket center in alabama. of course there have been a lot of jokes about newt's promise

>> well, john brabender came in here a few moments ago and was talking to reporters. it's interesting to hear the conversation that you're talking about. i think -- i have a feeling what the santorum campaign could say. they're looking at the returns come in from chicago and the rest of illinois. they're looking at the exit polls. and brabender said we expected to have mitt romney do well on the counties around chicago. just as he did well, the santorum campaign says in massachusetts. the words moderate and massachusetts came up when brabender were talking to reporters a moment ago. i think you'll hear more of that. this banner over my shoulder we have not seen much in this campaign. it's sort of a new banner tonight. it reads in one word freedom. yesterday we heard rick santorum going after mitt romney accusing him of abandoned freedom and going after health care reform with that individual mandate in massachusetts. we're hearing from the santorum campaign tonight that rick santorum will return to that theme and hammer mitt romney on the issue of the individual manda

thank you john brabender. i think he's a product of the jesuits. dee dee meyers, thanks for joining us. >>> newt doubles down on his plan for a lunar colony. you can't beat newt gingrich for show biz. a lunar colony. i guess he'll be the mayor. up next in the side show. you're watching "hardball" only on msnbc. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 let's talk about the cookie-cutter retirement advice ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 you get at some places. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 they say you have to do this, have that, invest here ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 you know what? ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 you can't create a retirement plan based on ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 a predetermined script. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 to understand you and your goals... ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 ...so together we can find real-life answers for your ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 real-life retirement. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 talk to chuck ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 and let's write a script based on your life story. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 who have used androgel 1%, there's big news. presenting androgel 1.

. >> and john brabender, your time is at a premium on a night like this, and i know it is a big night and you are wanting to celebrate, so thank you for taking the time to be with us. >> thank you, and i hope to speak to you soon. >> thank you. we will take you up on that. chuck todd is here with the great poobah and tell us where you think this is going in illinois? >> well, all of the models indicate that romney is probably going the hold this lead that he has right now. we are still waiting and more count to be voted in hamilton and more vote in cuyahoga, but at this point, we do think that our models indicate that the victory would be from 0.75 percentage points to 1.2. what does that mean? way too close. you can't call that at that point, you have to wait for the raw vote, but as everything is coming in, and remember, all of the late vote was coming in from romney counties, we do feel that somewhat confident, if you put a gun to our head that somehow tonight, romney is more likely to be the one to come out on top once the votes are counted over santorum, but we can't say that bec

. >> john brabender, thanks for coming in. >> thank you very much.d being here. >>> newt gingrich says he's going all the way and will compete for the nomination no matter what despite his disappointing finish in alabama and mississippi. he also took a shot at mitt romney. listen to this. >> one of the things tonight proved is that the elite media's effort to convince the nation that mitt romney is inevitable just collapsed. if you're the front runner and you keep coming in third, you're not much of a front runner. >> knocking romney on what turned out to be a bad night for newt gingrich himself. joining us now, two of newt gingrich's staunch and supporters. they happen to be his daughters. jackie gingrich cushman and kathy gingrich lubbers. thanks very much for coming in. how disappointed is your dad that he didn't win both of these southern states? >> well, you know, he's not disappointed at all. he's very happy to be here in alabama and mississippi. it was a photo finish. it was not a very big gap at all. so i think of course he would have liked t

>> welcome back to "hardball," that's santorum strategist, john brabender today, doubling down on his earlier comments that mitt romney's judgment is questionable, because he took a 12-hour car trip with the family dog, seamus, tied to the roof in a crate. well, the politics of the seamus story made the front page of today's "washington post." and gingrich hit romney on the dog issue in an ad which actually was released before the south carolina primary. here it goes. >> i have a yellow lab named winston. i would no sooner put him in a kennel on the roof of my car than i would one of my children. question, what were you thinking? >> this is a completely airtight kennel mounted on the top of our car. he climbed up there regularly, enjoyed himself. he was in a kennel at home as great deal of time as well. we loved the dog. it was where he was comfortable. we had five kids inside the car. my guess is he liked it a lot better in his kennel than he would have liked it inside. who let the dogs out? who? who? >> you got to wonder about who wants to be an airtight anything, by the way. and ho

. >> john brabender with the santorum campaign. nice to see you.r your time. >> thank you for inviting me. >>> some other stories topping the news, just a short time ago, pope benedict departed for havana to meet raul castro and possibly his brother, fidel. it is part of a three-day visit to cuba, the first since pope john paul ii toured the island nation back in 1998. the pope arrived in cuba monday urging all cubans to abandon communism and build a renewed and open society. >>> president obama is clarifying a remark he made to russian president dmitry medvedev during a nuclear security summit in south korea. the president was apparently unaware of how close reporters' microphones were when he told medvedev that he'd have more flexibility to discuss a missile defense program after the presidential election. take a listen. >> i don't think it's any surprise that you can't start a few months before a presidential and congressional election to the united states. the only way i can get this stuff done is if i'm consulting with the pentagon, if i'm con

i hear you're a great guy and thank you, john brabender.nk he is a product of the jesu jesuits. dee dee meyers thanks for joining us. you can't beat newt gingrich for showbiz. a lunar colony. i guess he'll be the mayor. up next in the side show. you're watching "hardball" only on msnbc. [ male announcer ] in blind taste tests, even ragu users chose prego. prego?! but i've been buying ragu for years. [ thinking ] i wonder what other questionable choices i've made? [ club scene music ] [ sigh of relief ] [ male announcer ] choose taste. choose prego. our machines help identify early stages of cancer and it's something that we're extremely proud of. you see someone who is saved because of this technology, you know that the things that you do in your life, matter. if i did have an opportunity to meet a cancer survivor, i'm sure i could take something positive away from that. [ jocelyn ] my name is jocelyn, and i'm a cancer survivor. [ mimi ] i had cancer. i have no evidence of disease now. [ erica ] i would love to meet the people that made the

. >> and john brabender, your time is at a premium on a night like this, and i know it is a big nightnd you are wanting to celebrate, so thank you for taking the time to be with us. >> thank you, and i hope to speak to you soon. >> thank you. we will take you up on that. chuck todd is here with the great poobah and tell us where you think this is going in illinois? >> well, all of the models indicate that romney is probably going the hold this lead that he has right now. we are still waiting and more count to be voted in hamilton and more vote in cuyahoga, but at this point, we do think that our models indicate that the victory would be from 0.75 percentage points to 1.2. what does that mean? way too close. you can't call that at that point, you have to wait for the raw vote, but as everything is coming in, and remember, all of the late vote was coming in from romney counties, we do feel that somewhat confident, if you put a gun to our head that somehow tonight, romney is more likely to be the one to come out on top once the votes are counted over santorum, but we can't say that becau