with us, msnbc's rachel maddow, and california congressman, xavier becerra, and republican strategists, alex castellanos. good morning, and picking up his third win, mitt romney scored the vote. this is where the count stands this morning. it's romney at 48%, and newt gingrich, a distant second at 23%, and paul at 19 and santorum 13%. >> i am a candidate for president of the united states. i will be a candidate for president of the united states. we will go to tampa. what happens is, every primary day or caucus day, the romney headquarters in boston sends out the rumor they believe i will with draw, which, of course, is their greatest fantasy. i am not going to with draw. i am pretty happy with where we are. i think the contrast between romney and me will be wider and wider and clearer and clearer in the next few weeks. >> speaker of the house, newt gingrich, joins me again, live this morning. good to see you. >> good to be with you, david. >> let's look at some of the exit polling among the true conservatives in nevada. this is how it broke down decidedly for governor romney beating y

. >> some of the debate on the issue of payroll tax cut as you heard from xavier becerra from california and kevin brady of texas. they are running out of time because the deadline is the end of this month as lawmakers deal with a number of side issues and ultimately feed to get to the big issue which is how to pay for the tax cut through the end of this year. if you're interested in watching the conference committee, it's available at c-span.org as is all of our program. house lawmakers yesterday voted to freeze their pay and salaries of congressional staffers as well as civilian employees, scoring with the washington post is calling a symbolic victory for congressional republican who have targeted government compensation as an example of excessive federal spending. the vote last night in the house was 309-117. republican supporters scoring the two-thirds majority needed to approve the measure. now, the bill was introduced by congressman sean duffy, a republican from wisconsin. it would extend the two-year freeze on federal cost of living raises for an additional year starting next janu

joining me, host of msnbc's "rachel maddow show," rachel maddow, and california congressman, xavier becerra, you are satisfied we have said enough about the super bowl so far? >> it's apparently this afternoon. >> yeah, i will mention it 30 more times. >> here we are. here is nevada last night. we look at the results. romney, going away at 48%. i don't think this is completely final yet. we have 71% reporting, but obviously a big night for governor romney. gingrich at 23%, and then ron paul. and the delegate counts, romney at 83, and gingrich at 28, and the magic number is 1144. where are we? >> well, the big news is conservatives did so well for raomne romney. i think it's out with a huge issue, the idea that the perception of the religious freedom. it's a sense that we have to beat this guy, obama, okay, romney is good enough. it's significantly healed any wounds that existed between romney and the evangelicals. >> 80% of people say that insurance -- anybody providing health insurance should be provided contraception. all of the republican field has gone very far right specifically on the