covering the week -- john dickerson of "slate" magazine and cbs news, alexis simendinger of "real clear politics," pete williams of nbc news, and james kitfield of "national journal." >> award-winning reporting and analysis covering history as it happens. live from our nations capitol, this is "washington week with gwen ifill," produced in association with national journal. corporate funding for "washington week" is provided by -- >> this rock has never stood still. since 1875 we've been there for our clients through good times and bad. when their needs changed, we were there to meet them. through the years from insurance to investment management, from real estate to retirement solutions, we've developed deloped new ideas for the financial challenges ahead. this hock -- rock has never stood still. and that's one thing that will never change. prudential. >> we know why we're here -- to connect our forces to what they need when they need it. >> to help troops see danger before it sees them. >> to answer the call of the brave and bring them safely home. >> around the globe, the people of b

post's" melinda henneberger, "national journal's" major garrett, and our own political team, john dickerson and norah o'donnell. that's a lot to cover but this is "face the nation." captioning sponsored by cbs from cbs news in washington, "face the nation" with bob schieffer. >> schieffer: ask good morning, again. and welcome to "face the nation." senator joe lieberman who is chairman of the senate homeland security and government affairs committee is with us here. they do have congressional oversight on the secret service. so, senator, let me just get right at it here. on friday, another three secret service agents resigned, and the secret service announced that another agent was under investigation in a separate incident. do you know what this-- this latest person to be identified, what that-- what's going on there? >> right, bob. those announcements on friday were significant in two regards. one is it shows director sullivan at the secret service is pursuing this investigation aggressively and comprehensively. it's clear to me now that he's interviewing everybody from the secret service

john dickerson is our cbs news political director and, john, president obama leads romney by a wide margin among hispanics, rubio is very popular in florida. does that mean we're likely to see a romney/rubio pairing? >> well, we're likely to see the pairing. whether governor romney actually picks senator rubio to be his vice president or not there is the political benefit to a public courtship like this. rubio is of cuban heritage, that might make hispanic voters a little more open to the idea of a romney presidency. they're a key part of the electorate in a number of contested states and governor romney trails president obama by 40 points in some polls. the governor was asked whether a one-term senator like rubio has the executive experience to step in to be president. romney said that's a criteria but didn't answer the question. lack of experience, you'll remember, is a complaint republicans had about candidate obama. and there's the question also of policy. during the primary campaign, governor romney said arizona's much-debated immigration laws were a model for the nation. senator rubi

pbs's gwen ifill, our political and legal correspondent, jan crawford and political director, john dickerson. this is "face the nation." captioning sponsored by cbs from cbs news in washington, "face the nation" with bob schieffer. >> schieffer: good morning, again, and welcome, as we begin the new one-hour edition of "face the nation," and we start with the vice president, joe biden, who sat down with us for an interview earlier this week in milwaukee, wisconsin. well, good morning, mr. vice president. >> good morning. >> schieffer: and welcome to "face the nation." we did some checking. this is your third appearance as vice president. your 55th appearance on "face the nation." that's more than any other democrat. you still haven't caught up with john mccain, who is the leader right now. well, let's get right to it. you really laid into governor romney this week. you said he was consistently wrong about everything. does this mean that you and the president have decided that mitt romney is the nominee, that he's who you are going to be facing come fall. >> bob, i can never figure out who the

. >> pelley: john dickerson is our cbs news political director. hn, how does the republican strategy change as of today? >> well, governor romney has said the key lesson of his business career was focus and now he can focus all of his attention on president obama's economic record. millions of dollars that might have gone into advertisements in the primary states can be directed now towards attacking president obama and the battle map changes. advisors at romney headquarters can take down the maps of republican primary states and put up the maps of swing states where they will target their voters and those voters who might be persuadable. romney was supposed to be in pennsylvania tomorrow ahead of the republican primary. instead he's staying home, getting some rest. on the weekend he heads to florida to raise money with the republican national committee, something he also now has more time to do. >> pelley: and the president was in full campaign mode today and he even adopted a republican idol as his own. >> what ronald reagan was calling for then

covering the week -- john dickerson of "slate" magazine and cbs news, alexis simendinger of "real clear politics," pete williams of nbc news, and james kitfield of "national journal." >> award-winning reporting and analysis covering history as it happens. live from our nations capitol, this is "washington week with gwen ifill," produced in association with national journal. corporate funding for "washington week" is provided by -- >> this rock has never stood still. since 1875 we've been there for our clients through good times and bad. when their needs changed, we were there to meet them. through the years from insurance to investment management, from real estate to retirement solutions, we've developed new ideas for the financial challenges ahead. this hock -- rock has never stood still. and that's one thing that will never change. prudential. >> we know why we're here -- to connect our forces to what they need when they need it. >> to help troops see danger before it sees them. >> to answer the call of the brave and bring them safely home. >> around the globe, the people of boeing ar

john dickerson of "slate" magazine and cbs news. karen tumulty of "the washington post." and david wessel of "the wall street journal." >> award winning reporting and analysis. covering history as it happens. from our nation's capital, this is "washington week with gwen ifill." produced in association with "national journal." corporate funding for "washington week" is provided by -- >> we know why we're here. >> to chart a greener path in the air and in our factories. >> to find cleaner, more efficient ways to power flight. >> and harness our technology for new energy solutions. >> around the globe, the people of boeing are working together to build a better tomorrow. >> that's why we're here. >> align is a powerful thing. it connects the global economy to your living room. cleaner air to stronger markets. factory floors to less crowded roads. today's progress to tomorrow's promise. norfolk southern. one line, infinite possibilities. >> corporate funding is also provided by prudential financial. additional funding is provided by the annenberg foundation, the corporation f

with us is john dickerson. good morning. >> good morning, charlie. >> i'm looking at "the wall street journal" and i see number one contender to be marco rubio, contender number two. >> they love marco rubio. they love his story. son of immigrants, tea party favorite. but this pageant has a long way to do. right now marco and rubio benefit from this buddy movie. on the one hand rubio gets to elevate his national profile and romney benefits from seeing with him. his cuban heritage might help hispanic voters be open to him. if nothing else it helps him in florida, a crucial battleground state. >> do we have any idea as to romney's thinking, what kind of person, what kind of profile would fit him? >> well, not much. we know from his history he's a cautious person. in picking management teams, he likes people with experience who have been leaders before and he has said he wants somebody who can step into the job right away. the mpolitical calculus, we dont know right away. >> dick cheney weighing in. let's take a l

that will also be part of it. >> john dickerson, thanks. >>> u.s. investigators are in colombia asking witnesses exactly what happened. one u.s. senator says up to 20 women were involved with secret service agents and military aides in colombia to prepare for last weekend's presidential visit. norah o'donnell is sat the whit house with the latest. >> reporter: the secret service wants to polygraph a number of those agents and officers involved in this. part of the reason, a lot of those agents are telling different stories about exactly what happened but as one law enforcement official tells us, they're going to do this because "we want to get to use every possible tool to get to the bottom of this." this is the strip club. the play club where cbs news has learned president obama's security team was partying just 48 hours before the president arrived in colombia. the men 11 secret service and 10 military members met as many as 20 foreign women, some prostitutes and reportedly paid them $60 each to go to their hotel. the two highest ranking u.s. sena

. >> with us from washington be, political director john dickerson. good morning. >> good morning, charlie. >> what's happening with these numbers? >> well, the republican party is slowly gathering behind mitt romney. still some reservations out there for people. that's to be expected after a bruising primary. remember, in that primary there was the hard core of the conservative base that couldn't get over mitt romney. no matter, you know, they kept looking for other alternatives. so there's a little of that lingering out there. you do see the republican party coming behind mitt romney and he's basically reminding them, we're all in this against president obama. >> so, electability now becomes a big issue for the republicans and they're willing to support the guy that -- the primary process has chosen. will they be enthusiastically, these conservatives who supported santorum and gingrich and others? >> right now that group of conservatives are not enthusiastic about mitt romney but very enthusiastic about beating the president. we saw last week in thi

with us now john dickerson. good morning. >> good morning, charlie. >> i'm looking at the "wall street journal" today and the number one contender to be romney's number two? is marco rubio number one? >> he certainly is among a lot of republicans who love marco rubio. they love his story. son of cuban immigrants. he's a tea party favorite. but this pageant has a long way to go and right now the two romney and rubio benefit from this buddy movie on one hand rubio gets to elevate his national profile and romney even if he never picks rubio in the end benefits from being seen with him. rubio's cuban heritage might help hispanic voters be open to him. if nothing else, it helps him in florida, that crucial battleground state where rubio is from. >> do we have any idea as to romney's thinking as to what kind of person, with a kind of profile would hit him? >> not much. we know from his history he's a cautious person. we know in picking management teams before he likes people with experience who have been leaders befor

cbs news political director john dickerson >> the white house and his campaign are trying to grab any moment to increase their lead among women voters. to grab these flash point moments and really buried the republicans >> in a head-to-head matchup against mitt romney, a recent poll shows the president leading by 18 points among women voters in swing states. fighting back, republicans point out that women have struggled to gain jobs as fast as men since obama took office but this week mitt romney had knowledge that winning the female vote won't be easy >> i know our party has traditionally faced a gender gap and the democratic party has done an effective job of trying to miss characterize our views >> the lives of the republican candidates are also trying to bridge the gap. on face the nation this morning, is there too much religion in politics? >> bob schieffer interviews the catholic leader today. why he says politics might actually benefit one religion plays a role on face the nation at 8:30 a.m.. today pope benedict celebrated easter mass on the steps of st. peter's basilica. spea

with us from washington is cbs news political director john dickerson. good morning.ays good to see you, sir. >> good morning, jeff. >> one of the reasons we're taking about these battleground states is because the economy is so tenuous in some of these states. which candidate right now is in better shape when it comes to the economy? >> well, if you look at all of the polls, different ways you can look at that. if it's just a referendum on president obama, thumbs up or down, the president's in bad shape. people disapprove of his handling of the economy more than they approve of it. then if you look at which candidate is better to handle the question of the economy and jobs, it's closer there across the polls. although romney-m has a bit of an edge. in our poll, folks look at both candidates the same, although when you ask them who will do -- who will hurt your economic situation more, president obama comes out on the losing end of that. so, the sum here is that mitt romney has a bit of an edge on the economy question. >> when you look at this, what are the handful of

. >> schieffer: cbs news political director john dickerson hosted our latest "face the nation" googleut on the role of hispanic voters in campaign 2012. and our participants have some interesting things to say. here's a look. >> help us define, first, what we're talking about with hispanics. >> i think we should be thinking about hispanics, latinos-- whatever you want to call us-- as american voters. we live in both worlds. so i identify myself a puerto rican but i identify mile as a bostonian in the united states. >> what we need to recognize is hispanics are not a monolithic group. i think that mantra needs to be shouted across the country. when you're talking to latinos this year, we're disproportionately have higher unemployment, so that's what we need to focus on, those issues. >> why did the president do so well among hispanic voters? >> the president is working to strengthen the middle class. he's working to build an economy in which hard work and responsibility pays off. and to build an america in which we're not divided, in which we're united. and mitt romney he vetod the dre

i personally think and a lot of people have said this, it's like, i think john dickerson called it the umbrage wars where somebody says something stupid and everybody pretends to be really up set and people pretend to be really up set. and there is what pass force media in twitter politics these days. i think there was a time when a lot of people said oh people, women who stay at home and raise their kids are somehow not doing enough with their lives. i reallyf. >> the president and president'c campaign manager all repudiated it. >> the alleged war on women. >> what you have with romney is a candidate who has not connected with voters. >> to make her not simply the centerpiece. anyway you energize, stay at home mums who have been indifferent to what basically santorum, to other conservative candidates and not to romney, and they all of a sudden say gee, we can bond with the romneys. then you have energized a constituency that has been dormant and almost indifferent to mitt romney. >> brown: and ann romney no longer a secret weapon. >> i agree with mark as her quality as a candidate. if

cbs news political director john dickerson.he white house, the president's campaigner trying to grab every moment to increase their lead among women voters, to grab these flashpoint moments and just really bury the republicans. >> reporter: in a head-to-head match-up against mitt romney, the likely republican nominee, a recent poll shows the president leading by 18 points among women voters in swing states. fighting back, republicans point out that women have struggled to gain jobs as fast as men since obama took office. but this week, mitt romney acknowledged, winning the female vote won't be easy. >> i know that our party has traditionally faced the gender gap and i think the democratic party has done an effective job to try to mischaracterize our views. >> reporter: and the wives of the republican candidates could play a key role in bridging that gender gap. next friday ann romney, and karen santorum will headline a women's leadership forum hosted by the nra. rebecca? >> we'll be watching. whit johnson in washington, thank y