but for the children of rita per perry perry, there was one mystery left., in fact, father two of rita's children? >> my father is and always will be the man who raised me. i love him dearly. >> nothing will change that? >> nothing will change that. our father's a man who converted to the catholic religion to satisfy our mother. he made a vow to the catholic church that he would bring his children up catholic. and he honored that. do i want to believe that that's my father, or the guy who couldn't honor his vow of celibacy? it's not a tough choice in what i want the answer to be. >> the perrys had serious doubts about whether father james foley had done enough to save their mother's life. now they were faced with resolving the question whether he was actually jim or emily's biological father. >> have you asked father foley for a paternity test? >> in the beginning of this, stone, it wasn't even the slightest concern for me. as time has gone on, i've had the desire to find out. yes, i reached out to father foley and asked him several occasions to do the test

perry way down here.ho says he better get up and here and win iowa or come close second if he wants to survive. 54 days out. 61 days away, romney is the runway favorite in the state of new hampshire. and then south carolina comes after that. i'm going to stop here. romney, cain, perry again down here in fourth place, as i walk back over, donna you're a democrat but you've been through the nominating contests on the republican side if romney's here, perry's here, he's's got ron paul, newt gingrich, track. do you see it as feasible? >> look, john, there's so much volatility on the republican side. i'm not surprised that rick perry stepped on his message. he stepped on his economic message going back to the birth controversy. you know, it's very difficult for a democrat to sit down right now and say, okay, it's romney. it may be romney. but who else? rick perry stepped on his message yesterday. >> you're a friend of peter, he's a good guy, he just wrote a memo, one year out, gloria, and he's talking about ro

and he was old rick perry. real rick perry. you know, he was kind of pompous and boring in texas grandiose. but it was rick perry. this is inexplicable. and i think, you know, you think if his campaign could end by shedding a few tears in manchester, new hampshire, you know, you wonder what this does to rick perry's candidacy. it was not the way for him to go. >> is it possible that he is getting campaign adviser direction to -- i can't -- i shouldn't even ask you. i cannot imagine somebody saying, go ahead and do this. is there anything for which we can extrapolate from his texas experience? has he ever run as a candidate who's getting 6% in the polls? could this be sort of a product of desperation? >> well, that's a good question. rick perry has never run behind except the one time, his first statewide race when he challenged jim hightower for ag minister and played the race card with the jesse jackson ad because jim hightower endorsed jesse jackson. he's always run ahead. i can see -- you can see, perhaps, desperation and ma

herman cain's campaign is blaming rick perry. rick perry's campaign is blaming mitt romney. and mitt romney, well, he's quietly going about his business to secure the republican presidential nomination. washington democrats are taking mitt romney very seriously. in a new ad from a pro-obama political action group, gives us an idea of how the president will run against the former massachusetts governor. joining me tonight is bill burton, former deputy press secretary under president obama and senior strategist for priorities usa action, the group responsible for the new ad. bill, good to have you with us tonight. first off, does the cain situation change the game plan for the republicans as you see it? >> look, i don't think he was ever that serious of a candidate. his policy prescriptions weren't that serious. his base of support i don't think was all that serious. what it said more than anything was how nervous republicans were about having mitt romney as their nominee. now, i have no doubt that they'll all rally around someone at the end of the day, but i think people have

it was perry being perry. in the oscars with sally field when she said, you like me, you really like me. >> pretty interesting. last night, politico reporter ken vogel would neither confirm or deny whether the campaign ç gave -- any of the other campaigns gave politico any information about the sexual harassment allegations against herman cain. do you believe the perry campaign had anything to do with this? >> first, i don't know. ed, as you know, what you do is you see who stands to benefit with this. it's got the romney camp. they were happy with cain, keeping him away. they're more afraid of perry than cain in terms of winning the nomination. it wasn't bachmann or anyone else. the perry camp would be the one camp that would benefit directly. there's one other person who could benefit, ed, and it wouldn't be one of the direct presidential cam

anderson now works for perry. second, a former pollster for the national restaurant association named chris wilson today said he witnessed some of 'canes' allegedly inappropriate behavior. he's now involved with a pro-perry super pac. both men deny putting it in play. perry campaign says the first they learn of this was in the press this week. cain is not buying that and is demanding an apology. this morning, cain found reporters interested in little else. >> avert all other questions that you are serious about. >> this is a good question about the confidentiality. >> the fact that the women exist. >> what did i say? >> excuse me. excuse me! >> appearing in a separate high-tech conference, the front-running g.o.p. presidential hopeful himself brought up the issue. >> there are factions that are trying to destroy me personally as well as this campaign. cain is denying any other allegations. >> if something comes up, they will. they will make it up. they believe racism is behind the year's old incident. one alleged

perry. it's time to go away now.bates and this awe shucks grade school stuff might play in texas, but i for one,sy, don't want you anywhere near the nuclear launch codes and the middle east on possibly the brink of another war. there is trouble all around and you claim claim to being able to run the country with what amounts to half a loaf. that saying is half a loaf is better than none. in rick perry's case, that's not true. please just go away. here's the question. is it time for rick perry to withdraw from the presidential race? here's the answer. you bet. post a comment on my blog or go to our post on "the situation room's" facebook page. it really did remind me of the sarah palin train wreck with katie couric. just painful to watch. >> didn't hurt her career as far as making money though. >> hurt her political career. she's not running for anything. she's no longer the governor of alaska. >> but she's made about $20 million if not more. she's done okay. >> stupidity sells. i won't argue with you about that. >> a

a report from anita perry. and rick perry said it himself, he stepped in it at this debate. the question for rick perry now, wolf, is whether he can step out of it. telling jokes, having fun with it in the short term, that works for a while. you can't do it between now and iowa. >> you were there in michigan at the debate. i assume you were watching with a whole group of journalists. what was the reaction during that oops moment? >> i never witnessed anything like it, wolf. we were all in the press file which shared the same space with the spin room outside the debate hall. i have never heard gasps coming from the press corps the way i heard it on wednesday night outside of that debate hall. it was tangible. everybody felt something dramatic happened in the race. and obviously, there was some feelings that perhaps this was it for rick perry. >> i was home sitting on my couch. i jumped off my couch. i couldn't believe it. >> we almost all fell out of our chairs. >> thank you very much for that. herman cain keeps raking in campaign cash while controversy swirls around his pres

the fingerprints are all over the rick perry campaign, based upon our sources. >> in blaming team perry, cain pointed at curt anderson who worked on a cain senate race several years ago. anderson told cnn, he had nothing do with it. >> one of the important things there is, you know, the old saying, thou shall not bear false witness and you have a situation here where mr. cain is saying that people are falsely accusing him, and so the last thing that he ought to do is falsely accuse somebody else. >> we caught up with governor perry a couple hours ago here in iowa and after a private consideration, we had an exclusive interview eight biotech seed company. >> i want to start with what's driving the news right now, which is, the cain campaign and the candidate himself saying that you and your campaign owe him an apology. do you? >> no apology needed. we found out about this the same time that i suppose the rest of america found out about it, both on the internet or the next day in the news. you know, i don't know how to tell any other way except knew nothing about it, sir, and -- >> how di

chris cillizza said the debate's losers were rick perry and rick perry. so bad that we named his twice. and those were some of the kinder comments. to his credit, perry is owning up to his mistake and trying to make light of it. but is there any way he can overcome it? so could it be time for newt? so far donald trump, tim pawlenty, michele bachmann, and rick perry have all auditioned and been rejected for the role of the anti-romney. if herman cain can't overcome or otherwise survive these sexual harassment allegations, is it possible that newt could be the man? he's a mean one, mr. gingrich, but he may be the only game left. >>> the even bigger story that everyone is talking about is the sexual abuse scandal, and that's a very tasteful phrase for what's alleged here, at penn state university. and the ousting of joe paterno. now the question is, how could so many adults who knew what was happening allow this to go on? and why do so many students at penn state still support paterno? >>> and nixon before the grand jury. 11 months after he resigned the amer

herman cain and rick perry. it's fascinating when you look at the not mitt romney primary and the three participants in it at this point, you have newt gingrich who is the brainy guy and you have herman cain who clearly has the passion and the tea party loves him. rick perry has money. if any one of the three can put it together. brains, money and passion, the good news for mitt romney none of the three can put all three of the legs of the stool together. >> it reminds me of what other candidate would you most like and they were talking about being a combination. it looks like you need a combo at the moment to beat mitt romney. i don't think that is happening. you are up way too early in hawaii. the president is obviously in a trade conference there. what's the news out of hawaii and what do we expect? >> i say the big news as far as the economy is concerned is the president has decided to rhetorically get tougher on china. every white house official that spoke and briefed us and reporters here, everything was a

so if you follow this, cain campaign blames perry. perry campaign blaming the romney campaign. perry communications director saying there are much closer connections between the rest naunt association and cain and the romney camp than there are with us. after days of interviews, herman cain seems to be losing his patience with the media. yesterday cain had a tense exchange with reporters while speaking to a doctors group in virginia. >> let me say one thing, i'm here with these doctors and that's what i'm going to talk about. so don't even bother asking me all of these other questions that you all are curious about, okay? don't even bother. >> it's a good question, though. are you concerned about the fact this these women do want to -- >> what did i say? >> are you concerned about -- >> excuse me! excuse me! >> do you have any -- >> what part of no don't people understand? >> despite all of these allegations, supporters of mr. cain are rallying around him. because of these allegations they're rallying around him. the cain reports on tuesday alone it received $600,000 from suppo

rick perry at 6%. michele bachmann is at 5%.ows, a surge in the polls means more scrutiny. he acknowledged as much in a warning to a tea party crowd in jacksonville this afternoon. >> in the next three weeks, i predict you will have all sorts of questions about me, and it's fine. i will cheerfully answer every single question they ask, and at the end of it you will be relatively convinced, i believe that i did no lobbying of any kind. i did no influence pedaling of any kind but the truth is if you have the reputation and i'm not going to use the words because they will distort them but if you take just what people say about me in the debate and say to yourself, gee, is that a person someone might have hired for advice? i think it is hard to argue they should have hired somebody that was truly dumb. >> that was newt gingrich's way of addressing a bloomberg report that said that newt gingrich made between 1.6 and $10.8 million in consult tagging fees with freddie mac between and 99 and 2007. joining me is david gregory, moderator

perry. now the cain campaign says a perry adviser leaked the original story. >> the perry campaign needs to apologize to herman cain and its family and america for the despicable actions. >> the perry campaign suggested the romney campaign can be to blame. sparking a gop family feud. >> you'll not going to get in the middle of it. it's not my job to be the referee. >> you are the head of the rnc. >> of course i'm the head of the rnc, part of that is we don't pick winners and losers in presidential elections. >> herman cain vehemently denied sexually harassing anyone. three women have come forward claiming otherwise, one of them got a settlement. she has not come forward just yet because according to her lawyers she doesn't want to break a confidentiality agreement. did cain already do that? check out one interview that he did. >> i do recall that her performance, it had been told to me about her boss was not up to par. >> rosemary arnold is a victim's right attorney. rosemary, would what her

he just can't take rick perry anymore. the oops moment at the debate apparently was the final straw. that clip a bit later in the show. >>> let's get to the news live at 5:30 here at 30 rock in new york city. the investigation into penn state coach jerry sandusky is expanding beyond the state of pennsylvania. texas authorities looking into the team's 1999 trip to san antonio to play in the alamo bowl. according to the 23-page grand jury report which outlines sandusky's alleged sexual assault of eight boys over the span of 15 years, the coach took one of his victims to the bowl game and threatened to send him home when the boy resisted his sexual advances. that's according to the grand jury report. >>. >> back in state college, the governor spoke to reporters and says he supports the decision to fire coach joe paterno and called on penn state to stop the violence reminding them the couldn't interest i is watching their actions. joe paterno has reached out to a high-profile washington lawyer to represent him. ron mott has th

a perry civil pac doesn't do anything but confirm their thought from the perry campaign. and i know anybody that's been involved in political campaigns knows the animosity in primaries is much more deeper than it is in general elections. so there's real, real friction between the perry and the cain campaign here. what we did, if you'll recall, in '92, right after the gennifer flowers allegation is we went right on "06 minutes" and confronted right up front. now, it seems that cain is kind of hoping this is going to go away and he's hoping against hope, this is not going to go away. and gloria and erick are right, it's all conflict in something like this. but it generally is, when you don't know all the facts. and when you're also fudging a little bit. >> james just mentioned this oklahoma political consultant. i wanted everyone to listen to his voice and i wanted to bring gloria back into the conversation, because she spoke to him today. this is chris wilson, a pollster, works out in oklahoma. he worked for the restaurant association at the time. and it's very important t

perry.i think the cain campaign has started to walk back from that accusation. it was a shame that he started to point fingers at a time when he said, you know, folks should not point fingers without facts. it was a contradiction. and so i think what herman has to do is to get everything out in the open. this is still an open and a live case. the n.r.a. has basically said that the women who filed the complaints are free to speak on this issue. if they choose not to speak until cain is successful in winning some primaries, it had hurt him then. so he has a real interest in getting it out, getting it out as soon as he can and tell the truth. as long as he tells the truth, gets it out and has a consistent story, i think he can get through this. this won't be the issue. the issue takes away... this issue takes away from us focusing on obama's inability to create jobs and high unemployment, and the lack of economic growth that will put us back on the path to prosperity. >> schieffer: liz cheney y