investigation. plus appropriate or despicable? we put my controversial opening question from last night s big debate to the truth test. and a deadly day in afghanistan leaves six u.s. marines and four french soldiers dead. the french now threatening to the french now threatening to pull out for good. captions by vitac www.vitac.com we begin tonight in south carolina where the republican candidates for president down to their final night of campaigning before tomorrow s all-important presidential primary. everything we expected at the start of the week now turned on its head. polls show newt gingrich surging. the one-time frontrunner mitt romney sees the state slipping away. today governor romney fought back by demanding speaker beginning rich release more details of the ethics investigation back when he was the house speaker in the late 1990s. i think over 80% of republican congressmen voted to reprimand the speaker of the house? first time in history. and nancy p
work. thank you so much. facebook.com/carolcnn if you d like to continue the conversation. let s continue the cnn newsroom with randi kaye. hello, it s 1:00. two short days before the make or break south carolina primary. one gop hopeful is out. governor rick perry who dominated the field so briefly last summer called it a race. good morning, i have come to the conclusion that there is no more viable path for me in this campaign. therefore, today i m suspending my campaign and endorsing newt gingrich for president of the united states. our latest polls shows gingrich gaining on romney and perry stuck in fifth with single digits. santorum is running third but today he s officially the winner of the iowa caucuses. 16 days ago, you ll recall romney was on top with eight votes but the final results show santorum actually won by a total of 34 votes. it s basically a toss-up because eight votes are still missing. four republican candidates will meet tonight and wolf blitz
that was upended when the ship went aground. so they have to be very careful. what they re doing is blowing holes or cutting holes into the side of the ship to allow the divers to access the interior cabins more readily from the outside so they don t have to thread their way through the core doors. if you ve ever been on one of these, it can be very difficult to figure out where you are, what level you re at. so these divers are really being very brave trying to carry out this recovery operation. megyn: and this is all happening so quickly. we can presume that these divers don t have some elaborate map of the ship that they take with them underwater. i mean, it is basically just going in blind and looking for anyone in distress? oh, i m sure they re not going in blind. i m sure that every dive is very carefully planned, and they have an entrance and an exit strategy worked out, that they re tending their divers with ropes, i imagine, when possible. so they are working on this very ca
smith, who s leaving politico for buzzfeed. what is that? and a look back at our most provocative interviews of 2011. i m howard kurtz, and this is the christmas day edition of reliable sources. it s been a better year for scandal. some sleazy, some superficial, all devoured by the media. perhaps the most chilling came from the world of sports. first at penn state, then at syracuse university with popular coaches accused of horrendous acts. in retrospect, i you know, i shouldn t have showered with these kids. what s it? yeah, well, that s what hits me the most. are you a pedophile? no. another major scandal involved a global media corporation, the one run by rupert murdoch with a slew of top executives arrested in a massive phone hacking operation. did you close the paper down because of the criminality? yes, we felt ashamed at what had happened and wanted to bring it to a close. and there were the inevitable political sex scandals. one topping a c
taking down newt. also, former new mexico governor gary johnson is dropping out of the presidential race to run as a libertarian. now you might have forgotten that johnson was running, but this year a third party, run by a more serious candidate, could make a huge difference in the election results, and tonight we have new poll numbers to show who might benefit. and barney frank s advice to the colleagues he s leaving behind. that s in the sideshow. finally, let me finish tonight with how the republican party s obsession with opposing president obama at any cost may be costing them way too much. we start with senator charles schumer, a democrat from the great state of new york. senator schumer, thanks for being here. what s the exit strategy? how might this flap over the payroll tax end? house blinks, senate blinks, or does it expire? well, i don t think it will expire. i think that basically there is so much pressure on speaker boehner. he s basically standing alone, that the house