actors, and stage crew and staff and all of us, on behalf of whitney houston, i want to thank john simmonsu, i am here, because you were there. and may god bless you all. [applause].

and actors and stage crew and staff and all of us on behalf of whitney houston, i want to thank john simmonslause ] >> we are now going to ask pastor marvin wina

and actors and stage crew and staff and all of us on behalf of whitney houston, i want to thank john simmons

outfront now, john avalon, and jamal simmons joining us.didn't make it, you were caught in traffic on friday, so you didn't make it, so i'll give you the first question today. look, how happy are you to see rick santorum beating up on mitt romney? >> well, it's -- i think it's good for the republican party. no, seriously. i think watching the two of them go at each other is what this whole debate is going to be about, from the conservative evangelical republican stream to the more moderate business-oriented republicans. you see it nationally. you also see it in places like michigan. it's very interesting. mitt romney in michigan, you know, i'm from detroit, so in detroit, you know, everything is about the palm. detroit's here. santorum does very well out here along your pinky finger, which is where the christian conservatives are, and mitt romney does very well over here outside of detroit, where all the wealthy people are. and that is the place around the country i think you're seeing those lines continue around the country. >> all right.

simmons was the man behind the veterans... swift boat veterans for truth ads that helped sink john kerry's political campaign in 2004. >> pelley: armen, thank you very much. a new gallup poll out today finds that mitt romney is leading newt gingrich nationally for the first time in more than a week 31% to 26%. romney hasn't had much time to savor his big victory last night in florida, however. jan crawford tells us he spent much of today explaining a controversial comment. jan is in nevada, which is holding caucuses on saturday. jan? >> reporter: scott, romney was actually taking a victory lap on the morning news shows when he started talking about how he was focused on helping the middle-class, not the very rich or the very poor. he's made that point a lot on the campaign trail but this time it was the way he said it that got him into some trouble. >> i'm not concerned about the very poor. we have a safety net there. if it needs repair, i'll fix it. i'm not concerned about the very rich, they're doing just fine. i'm concerned about the very heart of america, the 90%, 95% of americans who right now are struggling and i'll cont

johns, thanks so much. >>> coming up next, the man who worked with whitney houston on the bodyguard shares his memories. darryl simmonsot of talented people but he doesn't think he will ever see a talent like hers again. >>> two f-16s intercept this private plane after it strays into president obama's restricted airspace. wait until you hear what was found on board. that's next. whwheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! whwheeee! ! whwheeee!! whwheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! ahah h heaeadsds u up. whwheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! evevererytythihingng y youou l , nonow w momobibilele.. dodownwnloloadad t thehe n nep totodaday.y. ah, welcome to hotels.com. i get it...guys weekend. yeah! if you're looking for a place to get together, you came to the right place. because here at hotels.com, we're only about hotels. yeah! yeah! noooo. yeah! finding you the perfect place is all we do. welcome to hotels.com have more fiber than other leading brands. they're the better way to enjoy your fiber. >>> the world is getting ready to say good-bye to whitney houston and many of them are fans, some are colleagues lucky enough to work with her. grammy-winning songwriter

simmons. joining us to talk about some life insurance and some economy as well. get to johnensibly, john, over the house republicans giving in on some demands regarding the payroll tax extension. and maybe some of these headlines on corporate tax reform out of the treasury secretary today. >> it's an interesting moment in this debate. because republicans decided, carl, that they'd taken quite enough punishment on the payroll tax in december, so as the negotiations over how to pay for an extension dragged on, they took the initiative yesterday, the house republican leadership did, to say, we're going to pass it without paying for it, and separate it from the medicare doc fix and the unemployment insurance extension which are both other costly items that the congress wants to pass. interesting to see whether the president addresses that move by the republicans in this event to keep the pressure on for action. this has been a very good issue for the president, coincided with the rise in his approval ratings. one of the questions about unemployment benefits, carl, is that now th

simmons has given over $15 million to various independents and carl rove. adelson and his wife have donated $10 million to a super pac aiding newt gingrich. johnogers, a close friend of president obama who donated $2.6 million to a pro-obama super pac. >> right. and trust me, jeffrey knows this, they're talking about the gop, but now that the president has released the hounds, you're going to have democrats on the list, republicans on the list, and a lot of people scratching their heads looking at these numbers. >> i don't know how many people are really scratching their heads. everybody's aghast, though. this is going to be a $6 billion or $7 billion election cycle. it's all big money. and i think it's interesting we can connect the dots of this story which outlines almost every one of these wall street, wall street, hedge fund, hedge fund. and then you turn to the "wall street journal" today and it says u.s. business is paid 1.2% of national income of gross product in their corporate taxes, the lowest in modern history. why is that? because who's running politics? who's deciding the outcomes? and these are the two dots that need to be connec