because no other state had a medicate program as lavish as yours, and no other state got as much money under the bush administration for this experiment. so there's a lot of big government behind romney care. not as much as obama care but a heck of a lot more than your campaign has admitted. >> he also likes to hammer the centerpiece of the massachusetts law which is the individual mandate that requires all residents above a certain income level to buy health insurance or pay a fine. now, the idea is controversial, but not so long ago many conservatives including gingrich supported the idea. here's what he wrote in april of 2006 in a newsletter. this was just after massachusetts enacted its health care law. quote, the most exciting development of the past few weeks is what has been happening up in massachusetts. the health bill that governor romney signed into law this month has tremendous potential to effect major change in the american health system. he went on to say, we agree entirely with governor romney and massachusetts legislators that our goal should be 100% insurance coverage for all americans. what's more, gingrich applauded the individual mandate into law. quote, we also believe strongly that personal responsibility is vital to creating a 21st century intelligent health system. individuals who can afford to purchase health insurance and simply choose not to place an unnecessary burden on a system that is on the verge of collapse. these free-riders undermine the entire health system by placing the onus responsibility on taxpayers. now gingrich did include some caveats about the massachusetts law and suggested some tweaks to the nuts and bolts. but still, he gave its basic principles a glowing thumbs up. this wasn't a new position for him either. here's what he said on "meet the press" back in 1993. >> i am for people -- individuals exactly like automobile insurance, individuals having health insurance and being required to have health insurance. and i am prepared to vote for a voucher system which will give individuals on a sliding scale a government subsidy so to ensure that everyone as individuals have health insurance. >> that was in 1993. here he is in 2008 still supporting in the bluntest of language individual mandates. >> we ought to require everybody to either have insurance or to post a bond. but the fastest growing section of the uninsured is people over $75,000 income who are making a calculated gamble that if they get sick, you'll take care of them. and i think that's just immoral. >> immoral, he said. now, the gingrich newsletter that surfaced from 2006 is giving his opponents new ammunition with the iowa caucuses just a few weeks away. a gingrich spokesperson said, this is old news that has been covered already. newt previously supported a mandate for health insurance and changed his mind after seeing its effects. the real question is why mitt the massachusetts moderate won't admit that health insurance mandates won't work. keeping them honest as recently as may just after entering the republican race, gingrich was still backing the idea of an individual mandate. here's what he said on "meet the press." >> well, i agree that all of us have a responsibility to help pay for health care. and i think that there are ways to do it that make most libertarians relatively happy. i've said consistently we ought to have some requirement to either have health insurance or you post a bond or in some way you indicate you're going to be held accountable. >> but that is an individual mandate, is it not? >> the issue wasn't on his radar yet. but gingrich was singing from a different tune, scrambling from the idea he talked about. >> actually, newt, we got the idea of an individual mandate from you. >> that's not true. >> yeah, we got it from you, and you got it from the heritage foundation. >> that is not true. you did not get that from me. you got it from the heritage foundation. >> and you've never supported it? >> i agree. you said this to the audience isn't true. have you supported in the past an individual mandate? >> i absolutely did with the her tan foundation against hillary care. >> you did support it? >> yes, sir. >> that's where we got it, from you and the her tan foundation. >> okay, a little broader. >> how does gingrich support doing a 180? a spokesman said gingrich changed his mind. earlier this month on "the situation room," gingrich call it had a mistake. >> in retrospect we were wrong. once you go to a mandate, you have turned so much power over to the government that the politicians rather than the doctors end up defining health care bp and so it was a mistake. >> well, we invited gingrich to be on the program tonight. he declined, said he didn't have time. in iowa tonight, this is certainly crunch time for the republican president cal contia contenders. wolf blitzer is there. he joins me now. so gingrich spent today playing a bit of defense on this, didn't he, wolf? >> reporter: he did. he realizes that there seems to be a contradiction. he acknowledges it. he says his position has changed. and when i pointed out to him that even this year he seemed to be expressing some support for health care mandate, if you will, he offered this exchange with me. listen to this. i think it was in may you seemed to still at that time be supporting some form of mandates. >> well, notice the phrase here. i think it would be great to find a way to get every american covered. i think that would be better for the country. can you do that without a mandate? and part of what john goodman does is he creates a pool so if you don't want to buy insurance, you're not compelled to. your share of the tax break would go into a charity pool. if something happens to you, the charity pool takes care of you. and there are ways to do it that you don't infringe on constitutional freedom. >> reporter: still, anderson, there's no doubt that this is a very, very sensitive issue for newt gingrich right now because he sees his position over the years going back, and you point out, into the early '90s when he was opposed to hillary clinton's health care plan. and at the time he supported mandates just as the conservative heritage foundation did at that time. there's no doubt his position has changed over these years, most recently. so it's a sensitive subject, especially out here on the campaign trail in iowa where president obama's health care law is not very popular with these conservative republican caucusgoers. >> not what he wants to be spending the day talking about so close to the caucuses. he also had interesting comments today in your interview about another one of his republican rivals. i want to show our viewers what he had to say. take a look. >> you look at ron paul's total record of systemic avoidance of reality, and you look at his newsletters, and then you look at his ads. his ads are about as accurate as his newsletters. >> now, if he were to get the republican nomination -- >> he won't. >> let's say he were. would you vote for him? >> no. i think ron paul's views are totally outside the mainstream of virtually every decent american. >> pretty tough stuff, saying he wouldn't under any circumstances vote for ron paul if he did in fact get the nomination. is gingrich still saying that he is running a positive campaign, taking the high road? is he saying that these are just understandable responses to attacks by ron paul in this case? >> reporter: he was very tough on ron paul today. i was surprised as tough as he was. i think he's the first republican candidate to flatly say he would not be able to vote for ron paul if ron paul were to get the republican nomination. ron paul is doing very well here in iowa. he might win the iowa caucus a week from today. so i was surprised by that. he'll say he's just reporting the facts. he's just learning more about ron paul. and he's not going negative. he's just being honest about it, that he's being above board. but he's getting tougher. he's being hammered. if you're here in iowa even for a day or two, you see the commercials on television, the negative attacks on gingrich never stopped from these other campaigns. and now he's beginning to feel it, and he's responding. he was pretty tough on mitt rochlny today as well, although not by any means as tough as he was on ron paul. >> yeah, just one week left till the caucuses. appreciate it. great interview today. let's bring in our panel, political contributor and democratic strategist hilary rosen and former gingrich spokesman, rich galen. rich, how big an issue are these memos where gingrich complimented romney's health care plan back in massachusetts? >> i think they're much bigger than the court filings on his divorce and that kind of business because it's very difficult for a candidate on the road, one of his opponents to talk about that. this is right in everybody's wheelhouse on the end of the pond, the conservative end of the pond, that newt is swimming in along with perry and bachmann and santorum and to some extent paul. i expect they will hammer him. foreget about the ads. they'll take this to every pizza place in iowa. >> let me just push back on that. what's wrong with him saying, you know what? i thought maybe it was a good idea. we saw how it actually got implemented. and i don't believe in it anymore. i change my mind. i mean, isn't that kind of refreshing as opposed to kind of doing what a lot of candidates seem to do, which is say that it's not actually changing their mind and sort of go through laborious explanations why it's not? >> it would be refreshing if it weren't also being carried by -- or parried by his campaign doing the equivalent of nanny nanny boo-boo by calling mitt romney names. that's just childish. but on the one hand, his campaign is trying to hammer romney for saying essentially what you just said, that he tried it and he found it didn't work. and on the other side saying, well, because of newt gingrich, when i change my mind, you know, it's because i'm smart and i figured it out. >> hillary, do you agree it's a big deal for nutd gingrich? >> well, i think it is a big deal for gingrich, for some of the reasons that rich said but also because he is trying to convince people that mitt romney is not trustworthy. and every time he tries to do that, something else comes out where he himself has switched his position to the point where you really never know what's going to come out of his mouth. and you cannot be sort of the slow, steady conservative alternative to mitt romney if you have all of the same faults that mitt romney has, only you just have them from a more conservative perspective. and so, you know, i think gingrich's only shot here is to really wound romney in a fundamental way. but the more that this stuff comes out about him, the tougher it is. i just have -- it is so important that people understand that what's happening in this republican primary is that these guys are freaking out about the fact that oh, my god, we might get caught actually wanting to help americans have health insurance! that's -- you know, hello? most people actually want health insurance. how dare they go out acting like this is the worst thing that could ever possibly happen. and i think that when it comes to a general election, president obama, it doesn't matter if it's gingrich or romney, he's going to wipe the floor with them because actually people want health care. >> but as you know -- >> i want to watch that floor wiping when we get there. but let me just say quickly, anderson, i just turned 65 so i'm on medicare so i'm out of this conversation. >> you are. you're protected. >> but it's not just, as you know, you know, hillary, it's not just -- they're not saying, look, people shouldn't have health insurance or health care. it's a question of what the government role in it should be. >> well, it is. and newt gingrich stepped right in it because he used to -- you know, the republican conservative line is that these are all free marketeers. he unveiled today the real reason that it's important to have more universal coverage because he actually called them free riders, people who aren't willing to pay into a system for health care or aren't willing to live with some mandates. they're free riders because as we all know, the system ends up paying for everybody, and those who don't participate, you know, get the biggest benefit. >> rich, i want to ask you, just before our show tonight, moments before our show tonight, rick perry, he's always said he's pro-life except in cases of rape, incest or health of the mother. but he just told an iowa crowd this evening, he now opposes abortion in all of those cases as well. >> he didn't say life of the mother. he said the first two. >> in the first two. what do you make of that? >> well, you know, romney -- or i'm sorry, perry is -- it was rick perry, right? yeah. you know, he's been running ads proclaiming himself to be the purest of the evangelical conservatives in the race. and maybe he is. and this is just another step along that way. the conservative side of the equation in iowa is being split and split and split. and i think romney may be making a little headway. i think santorum's making a lot of headway. i don't think bachmann's going to do much. every time somebody decides they want to go to a perry or a santorum, that comes right out of newt's hide, and i think that's one of the reasons we're seeing this drop. perry is not going to be the nominee either. so the fact that, you know, this is probably playing better in texas than it is in southeast iowa. >> but this is rick perry's last stand. >> how does gingrich have to do in iowa, hillary? >> well, he has to do well. he doesn't have to win, but he has to at least come in, i think, second to stay in this. but, you know, we're going to go into new hampshire in a week after iowa and then south carolina a week later. florida a week after that. gingrich is doing very well in south kor south carolina and florida right now. primaries send to have a momentum factor. and people have a lot of expectations for gingrich essentially as the viable anti-romney candidate. if ron paul ends up winning iowa, i frankly think that iowa gets dismissed and it all just moves to the next three caucuses. to really determine it. >> we'll be there again in four years, it's just what we do. it reminds me very much of the thompson campaign four years ago, hillary. which i was a member. where we came in third just barely beating out john mccain. it wasn't quite bad enough to drop out then which i think might have made life easier. we skipped new hampshire and we wanted right to south carolina. we didn't do as well there as we wanted. that was the end of it for us. and i suspect that's the route that gingrich might take as well. >> gingrich is raising a lot of money right now. and he has money. obviously, mitt romney has money. i think coming out of iowa, anderson, the real question is, you know, what happens to rick perry? what happens to rick santorum? those are candidates who might have still some extra support, still some extra resources and a base to deliver to either gingrich or romney. >> hilary rosen -- >> iowa doesn't pick out winners, but it does identify losers. >> rich galen, appreciate it. we said the iowa caucus is one week from today. our coverage on that night begins at 7:00 p.m. eastern, tuesday night, january 3rd, on cnn. let us know what you think. add us to your circles, follow me on twitter. i'll be tweeting tonight. just ahead, you may know that tens of thousands of americans were sterilized against their will or without their consent right here in the united states in the 20th century. it's certainly a shameful chapter in our history, but tonight, we look into something you may not know. the refusal by states to compensate those victims. our elizabeth cohen interviews victims of this unimaginable horror. >> so the state of north carolina has said they're sorry. is that enough? >> no. >> more on his story tonight. also ahead, a deadly blaze that left experienced firefighters shaken. they could not save three little girls or their grandparents from the flames. the latest on the investigation and what caused that fire. let's check in also with aisha. >> thousands of anti-government protesters took to the streets again today in the volatile syrian city of homs. eyewitnesses said security forces fired into the crowd. opposition groups said more than three dozen people were killed across the country. this despite the arrival of arab league monitors. that and much more when "360" continues. [ dad ] i love this new soup. it's his two favorite things in one... burgers and soup. did you hear him honey? burgers and soup. love you. they're cute. [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. tonight a report on a really disturbing chapter in our history, one that's a lot more recent than you might think. did you know that at one point in the united states, more than half the states had four sterilization laws. we're talking about eugenic, a word that is typically associated with nazi germany. but a large eugenics movement in america before and after world war ii. sterilization continued in some states into the 1970s. tens of thousands of americans who were deemed unfit to reproduce were operated on against their will or without their consent. some of those victims are still alive today and many want justice. so far all they've gotten is a handful of official apologies. one state, north carolina, promised to compensate the victims. but we find they're still waiting. elizabeth cohen has more. >> at the time i couldn't do nothing about it. >> reporter: october 22nd, 1968. charles holt was 19 at the time, living in an institution for boys in buttner, north carolina, when his life was drastically changed. without his consent. >> they sent me to the hospital and they put me in a room and she gave me gas and i just went off to sleep. then when i woke up finally, i noticed something was wrong. and they told me what they done. and i waeptd wasn't a happy camper. >> reporter: what they had done was surgery, a vasectomy to make him sterile. but why? it turns out the order came from the state, which said he was feeble minded and unworthy of having children. >> i wanted to be just like any other young man, to try to have a family, have some kids that i could call my own. it's sad that it happened that way. >> reporter: charles holt wasn't alone. in fact, his story is only one representing a shameful chapter in american history. from 1907 through the 1970s more than 60,000 americans were sterilized because they had, quote, unfit human traits. it was called eugenics. the goal -- breed out those considered to be a burden on the rest of society and make, quote, better human beings tomorrow. 33 states had eugenics programs at one time or another supported by some of the nation's most respected doctors and social workers. even the supreme court approved it. oliver wendell holmes wrote in one 1927 case, three generations of imbeciles are enough. in north carolina, anyone, a parent, teacher, neighbor, could ask the state eugenics board to have someone sterilized. some victims were developmentally disabled living in institutions. records show others were living at home, forced to go under the surgeon's knife because they were paupers or because they were blind or deaf or had syphilis. >> to be sterilized if you were sexually promiscuous. >> or if you were paralyzed or not physically attractive. they have a skin disorder, this person is not fit to reproduce. >> reporter: the state of north carolina has tasked charmaine fuller cooper to uncover this frightening past. >> the first time last year that i actually had to read an actual eugenics board record of an individual patient case file, i literally sat at my desk