what should happen to mark sanford? should mark sanford resign because of all this? among the republicans asked that question was the number two republican in the u.s. house of representatives at the time a gentleman you might have heard of named eric cantor. here's how he responded. >> as far as his remaining governor, brian, it's up to the people of south carolina and that will play out. listen, governor sanford apologized yesterday. we ought to be really dedicating our thoughts and prayers to his family right now going through a difficult time. >> we should be praying for his family right now whether he stays or goes is up to the people of south carolina. it's not for me to say. one of the things that was so amazing about the mark sanford i had an affair press conference was that it came just about a week after a similar but also quite shocking i had an affair press conference from this guy. >> last year i had an affair. i violated the vows of my marriage. if there was ever anything that i could take back in my life, this would be it. >> that of course is republic

for showing up on gawker he gets to be creepier than mark sanford and these guys. but in terms of prosecutable, he's not prosecutable at all. california governor arnold schwarzenegger, republican fathered a child with a woman who worked for his family. the news broke last month after he was already out of office as governor for the affair with someone in a subordinate staff position to you and for having a kid with that staffer who you hide from your wife and your other children for a decade you, sir, are capital c creepy. yes. mr. schwarzenegger has faced a few questions about state money to cover things up here. so far he's way down because nothing is solidly prosecutable. democrat running for president in 2008, the national enquirer publishes news of an extramarital affair and child. in october of 2007 while he was running for president mr. edwards denies it. meanwhile his campaign never gets off the ground. he quits in january 2008 after a disappointing showing in the early primaries. by august of that year, john edwards admits to having the affair. january of

we saw it with eliot spitzer, mark sanford, we see it here with weiner and even president clinton where person will engage in this behavior, then publicly lie and deny the behavior as if they're not going to get caught. what component is that? >> well, particularly for public figures, there is tremendous stress in the work that they do paired with often a lot of traveling and a lack of close emotional supports from their primary partner or staff. >> we see that in that type of a position but more and more we read about articles about people becoming more just average people, engaging in the same type of risky behavior on facebook, having illicit relationships, extramarital relationships. if that's the case for high profile people, why is the average person putting themselves in this position as well? >> well, the internet in general is a much more powerful venue than anything we've ever experienced before. and primarily because of the perceived anonymity afforded by it, the mistaken privacy that people believe they have. >> it's almost people get more emboldened when they're online, too

leave the night so why is it that when republicans like david vitter john ensign christopher lee mark sanford newt gingrich you get the point why is it that when these guys step in it republican leadership says it's up to the constituents. but when a democrat gets in trouble they pounce and ask for an immediate resignation you know look this is really pathetic what he did it's no question about that he apparently showed his writings previous to the to the world but it's out now. hours . and barney frank who didn't leave after after sex scandals i think that he probably should resign but that's not anthony weiner's thing to do that's not what he said type of person he is taking into account what had a person he is this is what he should say he said yes i sent those pictures it's not illegal and guess what i'm going to be sending more so you better get used to it i'm staying around i'm owning this that's that's at least the first half of that is what he should this day want obviously it's a case then all of the cover it's this is just like just like watergate and just like clinton for that matt

piece doesn't talk about arnold schwarzenegger, jim bakker, gary hart, senator david vitter and mark sanfordoes on and on. i like we are getting away from the trend of the >>> this morning on "world news now" -- mass exodus, the top staffers from newt gingrich's presidential campaign have stepped down. >> the shake-up put his campaign in question, but the former speaker of the house says the show must go on. it's friday, june 10th. >>> good friday morning. i'm peggy bunker. >> i'm daniel sieberg. rob nelson is on assignment. >>>, so the hopes for newt gingrich's presidential ambitions have taken a big hit this morning. 16 of his top campaign staffers just up and quit thursday. what was it that made them revolt? you could call it a newtany. >> a bit of a newtany. as everybody started bailing. people were saying he hasn't been on the campaign trail too much. many times when, staffers of this sort, they want to attach their wagon to some one who is really going to go for it. that could be part of it. there is other speculation. >> he says he will carry on. see what happens. >>> then it was a ve

. >> when you've got republican leaders like governor mark sanford of south carolina or nevada senator john ensign admitting to extramarital affairs and staying in office questionable use of private funds or state money in the case of sanford, doesn't the gop with all its talk of family values risk looking like a bunch of hypocrites? >> look, i mean, is anyone happy to see all that have happened? no. it's not good. but listen, we have our thoughts with their families and they themselves. >> if you're going to talk the talk, walk the walk and say they should step down. >> again, in the sin stance of the people in south carolina and nevada it is up to them. >> joining me now "the washington post" columnist and msnbc political analyst eugene robinson, and also howard fineman. thank you goth for joining me tonight. eugene we see that consistency is very hard to come back in reaction to these things. this one seems purely partisan. i can't remember a single republican saying that vitter should resign. even saying that ensign should resign before he revined as well as all these other republi

when former south carolina governor mark sanford apologized for his affair -- >> i have been unfaithfulife. >> reporter: sanford's wife jenny left him. >> e-mailing and sending sexual texts and not knowing somebody might be kind of a lesser offense. but, still, to the person's spouse, it's a betrayal, and to the public, it's a betrayal only because he lied about it. >> that was savannah guthrie reporting. >>> coming up at 5:00, we'll talk to luke russert who has been following this scandal from the start. >>> an atlantic city casino is hoping to boost gambling with bustiers. the tropicana casino and resort is creating a special nightclub where female blackjack and roulette dealers will wear skimpy bustiers and stockings. it's apparently part of a growing trend to get more people into casinos by spicing things up. servers at another atlantic city casino are now wearing revealing flapper costumes. a group of female employees filed a lawsuit over that. >>> well if that doesn't entice people to the tropicana, a recent string of luck may do the trick. according to the press of atlantic city,

>> i don't know who exposed mark sanford, a conservative's reaction is not to say, who put that out?'s attack that person. >> why didn't the republicans expose -- >> would you see -- >> arnold schwarzenegger. >> good, get rid of him. >> arnold schwarzenegger. >> no one said, dam that l.a. times for exposing this. >> too late for any damage to be done, other than to his family. >> it wasn't too late in the case of john edwards, everyone seems to know that in the media coverage. everybody knew clinton was lying. and any sane person last week knew anthony weiner last week was lying. he goes from twittering that he's been hacked to as soon as a lawyer was involved it was a prank. >> you're creating this atmosphere that the left wing all ganged up against breitbart to defend weiner. >> no, my point is -- if you listen to my answer -- >> the way that the current inflammatory cable news cycle works. >> yeah, yeah, yeah, i got that. here is the answer. >> first reaction is it has to be another left wing conspiracy. it wasn't. he gets exposed. he says i've been hacked. when the truth emerges

i think mark sanford has shown that even a republican can ride it out at least to the end of his term. blago did it as well. we all thought he would have to resign. he doesn't have to resign and frankly i don't think the people of new york will probably fire him because democrats don't have to live up to any particular standard in this area. they just don't. >> bill: very liberal district. you are right he could get reelected. look at charles rangle. what rangle did worse than weiner? this is an interesting question. >> yeah. >> bill: you think so? rangle dodged taxes. >> i think the tax scandals for democrats are analogous for sex sandals for social conservatives. they should be as big a deal. they are not as sexy. >> bill: you think what rangle did was worse than what weiner did. >> die. i think it's more a private affair. wrong he is -- rangel writing the tax code and is he a tax cheat? >> looking at it from a political point of view. he was the head of the ways and means committee. the commission as mary katharine just said that writes the tax legislation. you can't be skipping ou

bill clinton, arnold schwarzenegger, eliot spitzer, john mccain, john edwards, newt gingrich, mark sanfordnthony weiner, thomas jefferson, and many, many more. political sex scandals are everywhere. but there is a way you can stop them. cut off their testicles. >> ow! >> paid for by no testicles, no problem. >> i'm hillary clinton, and i approve this message. [ applause ] >> jimmy: and why wouldn't you? rapper flo rida was arrested earlier this morning in miami beach for driving his $1.7 million bugatti while under the influence. this is kind of funny. when the officer tried to conduct the walk the line test, he said, "officer, i can't do this. i don't feel like i can walk a straight line. i've had a few drinks. let's try another test." [ laughter ] "and maybe we can schedule it for next week when i'm not so loaded?" that didn't go over with the police. they asked him to walk a straight line. unfortunately, he hit the floor and next thing you know shorty got low, low, low, low, low. [ laughter ] and then towed, towed, towed, towed, towed. [ laughter ] it looks like he's going to have to fl

so instead of talking about john ensign or larry craig or mark sanford, now, you know you got one of their own who has shown monumentally dumb behavior. i think people are not rushing to weiner's defense because they're not sure this is over. washington is alive with rumors today that there are more photos coming out, more explicit photos coming out. if that happens, he's a dead duck. and then there is this congressional hearing too. and the ethics investigation, did he use government property, computer, office, we don't know that yet. so i don't think we have seen the end of the story. >> you laid it out for us. with all that then on the table, are the democrats better with or without him at this moment? >> they're better without him. clearly he's an albatross that republicans can hang around their neck. keep in mind, democrats hope to take back the house or at least pick up some seats this year. that's going to be hard to happen when you have -- you have democrats running in districts that are much tougher than anthony weiner's district. he's going to be linked to them. republicans

whether it's john ensign republican, whether it's mark foley, republican, whether it's mark sanford, republican, whenever these elected officials put themselves in the position where a private citizen that they're sending these images to, having an affair with, set themselves up to be blackmailed where they say, i know you don't want to lose your job and i have these pictures and i think you should vote this way on the farm bill instead of the other way. i don't like these people put themselves into compromising positions. and as far as i can tell, there are more republicans in the last few years that have been nailed than democrats. this is not a bipartisan position -- i mean, this is a bipartisan position -- >> i was going to say, it is a bipartisan position you're articulating. if you're setting that bar, you say you're not doing it because you wadon't want to be the morality police. but blackmail, which is what the fbi used for investigating every public official up and down, but put that aside. do you think members of congress want to embrace that because my suspicious is it's n

it reminded me of the mark sanford press conference where you sort of went out there because you felt you had to vent to put it behind you but you weren't necessarily prepared to answer all the questions. at this point going forward, i think he should really embrace the ethics inquiry, call for it, say he wants to use it as a vehicle to get all this information out there and basically use that as a shield for all these questions that are coming forth. every time a question comes up, you say if there's an ethics inquiry, i'm cooperating fully. all the information will come out through that vehicle. it gives you some place to go rather than trying to answer questions. >> the other big story, the u.s. economy -- the bigger story here, and fears of the double dip recession ended up becoming the focus of a news conference with president obama that he held today with german chancellor angela merkel. merkel was formally welcomed earlier today for her official visit, the first european leader to receive the red carpet treatment from the president. in about four hours the president and the fir

. >> reporter: when mark sanford apologized for his affair.iling, sending sexual texts and not knowing somebody might be kind of a lesser offense. but still to the spouse it's a betrayal and to the public it's a betrayal only because he lied about it. >> so far abedin issued no public statements about her husband's scandal but according to reports she skipped two state department events on monday. meredith? >> savannah, thank you. how can a marriage survive political scandal? amy singer co-authors the popular reliable source column for the washington post and dr. gail saltz is a "today" contributor. good morning. >> good morning. >> amy, can i can start with you, folks in washington, d.c. know congressman weiner and his wife well. what are they saying on the hill about his admission? >> i think everyone is curious to see how this is going to play out. i think first there is a sense that maybe he can weather this. that he had come clean with more than we are expecting him to yesterday. now it's beginning to sit uneasily with people as you look

. >> mark sanford of south carolina, held on for a long time. >> for a brief time. person who just released. congratulations to abc. you guys own the weiner story. you did all of the reporting. the way all of the reporting on this last week was to attack andrew breitbart. attack some random hacker. i don't know who broke the story. >> abc was on top of that. >> we were upset about that because i believe you guys -- that's the only one i remember the source at all. and the claim was that abc had it but held it until the day after so it wouldn't be replaced. >> that's not true. let's get to the book. "demonic," how the liberal mob is the endangering america. you say it's routed in democrats following the french revolution. and the republicans following the american revolution. >> the first is a psychological profile to the left. even liberals who wonder why they behave the way they behave, might want to read it. it's from a social psychologist, who is the father of group think and hitler. he studied him to learn how to incite mobs. when i was reading it, i read a lot

sanford. i didn't like to when it was senator craig. i didn't like to when it was mark foley. as i look at the ledger, it seems to be about equal between republicans and democrats. the reason people come to me with these types of stories, is that they think that historically, the media covers up for democrats and go after the republicans with an extra zeal. if somebody wants to come to me that shows a congressman who is a republican who like congressman weiner, who is putting himself into a position where he can be easily blackmailed, i think that doesn't do a service to the country or the republican party so i would definitely go after it. >> wolf blitzer, let me end with you here. >> let me add one point to what andrew was suggesting. there is one u.s. senator, republican david vitter works did have an illegal relationship with prostitutes. not only did he not resign, he stayed in the united states and he was just re-elected and is still a member of the united states senate. >> let me answer that. it was reported on. the mainstream media did its job. i wasn't out there sayin