cnn's political producer shannon travis is joining us. let's talk about palin and her movie premiere first. >> yeah. yesterday michele bachmann and today, sarah palin. are they kind of competing with each other is anyone's guess. as you mentioned, sarah palin

shannon travis as well. to house speaker gingrich and other candidates, bill maher, i spoke to him earlier tonight. >> so bill, you've been pretty hard object field of gop candidates so far. i think you said at one point that you've seen and i quote more appealing lineups on an episode of "law and order special victims unit". did he change your mind at all after last night's debate? >> no. of course it got even worse. it's tough sledding there. as a progressive, as a sane person, just to watch that, to see that republicanism has -- it's really become a religion. and when i say religion, i mean they just have a series of baseless assertions that they cleave to. you know, and it's like if there was just one sane person in that room to give perspective. but there wasn't. so you have seven people up there who are all claiming things like, you know, things we know don't work like reducing taxes will somehow magically increase revenue and somehow by keeping the profit motive in the healthcare system that's going t

let's turn to shannon travis who's live at the event. tell us the significance of this event. it's clear when you see the kind of people that are there. >> reporter: absolutely. you see these kinds of events a lot. conservative conferences, gatherings of conservative activists. this is significant because this is one of the largest efforts to merge different factions of the conservative movement. what i mean by that is, you have here traditionally christian evangelicals, values voters who vote based on religion and social issues, trying to merge with the tea party movement, economic conservatives, the grassroots activists who are out there talking about spending and debt. they're trying to bring those factions together here. just moments ago, i spoke with ralph reid, the organizer of this event, and i said, hey,s this is one of the biggest efforts i've seen in trying to bring these factions together. and he said, yes, putting those different factions together, they believe they will have electoral success against the democrats and barack obama. reid says he thinks 40% of the e

cnn political producer shannon travis joins us now from minneapolis. shannon? >> reporter: well, what's going on, fred, is i'm running down my sneakers trying to shuttle back and forth between the two conferences. they are literally just a few blocks away from each other. let's explain to our viewers what is going on. on the one hand, in one corner, you have a liberal conference of bloggers, internet savvy folks, called the net roots nation. they're in one hotel. and as i mentioned a few blocks away, you have another conference of conservative bloggers, and other people are internet savvy called right online, sponsored by americans for prosperity, big backer of a lot of tea party groups. at stake is literally battles -- internet supremacy for the 2012 election for the presidential race, for the congressional races. so both of these groups are trying to basically spark up enthusiasm, raise money, raise awareness. democrats have traditionally been viewed as having the edge of -- in terms of doing those kinds of things on the internet. but conservatives wa

let's bring in shannon travis, he joins us live from the faith and freedom coalition conference. it seems this conference is a way to merge social conservatives with economic conservatives, people like the tea party. it seems that that's where this is going. is that right? >> reporter: that's absolutely right, michelle. the reason why you have ron paul fired up, mitt romney fired up and a lot of these candidates coming is because they know that these voters here can help push them over the top in early voting states like iowa and south carolina. this is early key. this is one of the first, earliest and arguably the largest effort to merge those two factions of conservative activists, the economic conservatives who rale against government spending with the cultural conservatives. typically we see them out there against gay marriage and abortion. this is designed to bring the two groups together and say, hey, you know what? we'll be taking on a huge political fight with the democrats in 2012, we need strength in numbers. >> shouldn't we have seen this coming, the republicans trying

shannon travis, i appreciate it. melanie sloan, what is the next step on this? is there an organization that actually is going to look into this beyond reporters? >> well, i feel confident that irs will take a harder look at this. again, mr. gingrich is a known quantity to theist and they really frown on the mixing of political and campaign activities and charitable activities. and this charity which really bears none of the hallmarks of a real charity doesn't seem to be involved in any real activities, and in fact it's sending misleading fundraisers to people asking for money helping a charity that doesn't have a charitable purpose. >> melanie sloan, thank you, shannon travis as well. to house speaker gingrich and other candidates through the eyes of a skeptic, very sharp and funny skeptic, bill maher, i spoke to him earlier tonight. >> bill, you've been pretty hard on the field of gop candidates so far. i think you said at one point you've seen and i quote more appealing lineups on an episode of "law and order special victim unit". did you change your mind at

the producer shannon travis is there.very republican you have been thinking about, what's the goal here? >> you almost have to come to events like this. a committed grass root committed activist they want to test out the candidates and see what the messages are. see what the appeal is. i was out in the hall way a few moments ago. he was about to speak within moments. and they wanted to seek support. this conference is a way for economic conservatives to come together with cultural conservatives and a way to say hey, we need to forge ties and you want to be the democrats of president obama. >> i have to ask you about donald trump. i thought he quit the white house race. he said i'm not going to run. i have been seeing him on television everywhere and appearances. he showed up and got a great reception. >> you can never be too sure about donald trump. you are absolutely right. a few weeks ago, he said hey, i'm not going to get into the presidential race after flirting yet again. i was here for the speech. he got a rousing o

we learned today that meet-up happened last week in new york. >> shannon travis, thank you. update from the best political team on television is political team on television is just an hour away. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >>> this video just in to cnn, former illinois governor rod blagojevich leaving his house heading to court. we're following his car there, where we expect any minute now a verdict in his corruption trial. these are live pictures. our ted rowlands is at the courthouse and as soon as that verdict comes in, we be bring him in and will give you that verdict live right here. as you know, charges against blagojevich include trying to sell the u.s. senate seat that had belonged to barack obama. once again, we are watching rod blagojevich as he makes his way to the courthouse in chicago to learn his fate. we'll bring it to you live right here, just minutes away on cnn. >>> guilty or not? prison, death row or freedom? all of that will be decided by a jury. but 29 days into the first-degree murder trial of casey anthony in florida, live pictures here. one

. >>> and now let's go to cnn political producer, shannon travis with a little news from the politicalting you on my show today. >> hey there. >> talk to me about a date we need to be talking about. june 13th. >> brooke, whatever you are doing monday, june 13th, cancel it. we have announced today that it's the first, the very first new hampshire presidential debate. cnn-wmur are teaming up to host seven republican hopefuls. who are they? got them right here. michele bachmann is going to be on that stage. herman cane, newt gingrich, ron paul, tim pawlenty, mitt romney, and rick santorum. get this. romney and bachmann he our chief national correspondent will moderate. >> june 13th, 8:00 eastern. some of the faces we saw, they are at a conference where you are? >> that's right. it's the place to be if you're a conservative in this town. it's called the faith and freedom-run coalition. ralph is a power broker in christian evangelical circle but presidential hopefuls go there. some of the same people who will be at our debate are actually attending this conference. some of the names, bachma

cnn's political producer shannon travis is joining us. let's talk about palin and her movie premiere first. >> yeah. yesterday michele bachmann and today, sarah palin. are they kind of competing with each other is anyone's guess. as you mentioned, sarah palin will be in iowa today. why? to premiere the movie she stars in, a documentary called "the undefeated." a lot of our viewers probably seeing clips about it and a huge premiere in pell a, iowa today. she will be there for this. no clue if there is red carpets or like a hollywood type premiere but it's going to be a pretty big thing. you mentioned also president obama will be in iowa but not anywhere near this movie premiere but he will be in iowa today. we know the presidential candidates, possible presidential candidates and palin and the president himself are going to iowa because it is, obviously, an important state. it holds the first in the nation caucuses. kyra? >> so we have talked about newt gingrich's campaign losing staffers. now another candidate has a staffer jumping ship.

cnn political producer shannon travis joining me from washington.esidential candidate congresswoman michele bachmann is popular with a lot of tea party activists. there's a man named ron kerry her former chief of staff who says she's not ready to be president. he wrote an op ed in the des moines register. he says he knows tim pawlenty very well and bachman and bachman isn't ready. here's one quote from this op ed. our party is too important to entrust its nomination to a candidate not seasoned and ready to lead. our current president appears unprepared and inexperienced when facing difficult challenges. let's not make the same mistake again. >> cnn has reached out to bachman's campaign for a response. she hasn't responded directly to this. they haven't responded directly to this. earlier this morning on the "today" show, she did say you can expect a lot of negative attacks now that she's in the race. one other thing we're watching, a surprise to us, sarah palin has decided whether she'll run for president or not. but apparently they're keeping it al