>> yeah, you know, doibt know what it is, because it sounds like gingrichitis and goes off of the reservation. >> and hillary, do you buy that he was talking about environmental policy or environmentalists? >> no, no. this is like front-runner fever or something where, you know, all of the sudden he thinks that everybody wants to hear every deep last wish that he has ever had. but you know, i went to the rick santorum rallies in small towns in new hampshire, and eric is exactly right, this is what this guy has been saying ever since he has been running for president, and not talking about the jobs or the economy and he ven has a tax plan that the conservatives like better than mitt romney's, but he does not talk about it. he really wants the entire country to adhere to sort of his dogma of christianity, and if he is president, he's talked about it openly, that is what he is going to pursue. >> ari, do you think that he should get back to focusing on the economic issues? >> i think that he has to look at this deeper in this and for the first time in the race, rick santorum has a decent chance to beat mitt romney in the race. a few things have happened in the weekend and the three-state win, and one is the conservative angst of mitt romney coming to a head. people are saying that we don't want the support mitt romney, and is there finally somebody else to go to? and rick santorum now has energized the social wing of the republican party, which is a very powerful and vociferous part of the party and different from the tea party part that he has to get back to, but in the conservative part of the collapse of romney and the social movement toward rick santorum, he has propelled himself forward into the primary contest. >> you really think he could get the nomination? >> i really do. i'm prepare d to say that now fr the first time i would say that, because i always felt it was an open race and anything could happen and that kind of wild year. don't underestimate what has happened now with people going to rick santorum, and he does need to broaden it. the social issues do motivate him and he speaks from the heart, and there was with nothing scripted about what he said over the weekend, because that was rick santorum. >> i believe that is right. >> and he needs to make sure he gets to the economic issues and focuses hard on the economic issues as well. >> hillary, you are saying that he absolutely believes sthit. >> yes, he absolutely believes it, and what is interesting is that for a while mitt romney was running against newt gingrich and he was able to be a little kind of more thoughtful. because gingrich was all over the place. with rick santorum. we are seeing a mitt romney doubling down on his radical conservatism, ho conservatism, who is trying to push things that are going to be rejected by women. and, you know, this motion that women should be prevented from having birth control, that women should stay home and home school their children rather than being into the work force. wait, wait, let me just finish. i let you talk. when mitt romney now has to compete with rick santorum, there's just no way in a general election once he gets a nomination that he can come back to the center and disavow all he's starting to say now. and i think that's really the republican's conundrum. >> i know radical conservatives. they're great friends of mine, but rick santorum is not a radical conservative. if he wants to talk about value, he can phrase them in a different way. i do have to say, though, there's this problem shaping up for romney, santorum and gingrich, i may agree with romney or a lot of what rick santorum says on values, we shouldn'ts a conservatives or republicans say agreeing with them doesn't negate it could be a political liability in the general election. it seems our candidates this year are wanting to amplify their political liabilities instead of down play their political liabilities. that will come out in not a very good way for them. >> do you agree? >> i agree. >> well, there you go. romney's spokesman came out today and say it's not important for romney to win michigan, which means it's absolutely important for romney to win michigan. >> but it does seem the gap is closing a little bit in michigan. romney coming back up. >> i think it will be a close contest in michigan. we'll cross to what i call somewhat super tuesday, the ten states that vote on tuesday march 6th. rick santorum continues to have a lot of momentum in those states. mitt romney has a lot of steadiness but he's been eclipsed in a significant part. let me make this point about rick santorum and the in this that he says. at first glance, many do sound too inflammatory. he often makes a nuance statement such as birth control, he made the point that was a personal issue, how he views it, hen then says i voted for contraception in the past. what you have to be careful of is don't let one side make him into a caricature by distorting what he has said in these positions. there are deep nuances to social policies and also why it's so hard for politicians to talk the most intractable social policy is in america, as soon as you try, due get caricatured. rick santorum did lend himself to do this because he didn't talk with subtlety. his point is not that women shouldn't get birth control, that's not adequate he said. >> republicans are going into these two states, michigan and ohio, looking from the '80s, reagan democrats, independents who will switch party line, conservative social values and conservative economic positions, but the problem is, is that neither candidate is offering for those voters what barack obama has offered, a growing economy, auto industry recovery and lowering unemployment. those candidates are not talking about those issues. they don't have answers for them. that's why i don't think they will get them. >> hillary rosen, ari fleischer and eric erickson. good to leave it at a point where eric and ari or disagreeing with hillary. >> wait a minute. i want the record to reflect i agreed with eric tonight. . facebook, google plus, isle be tweeting tonight in the hour ahead. next up, growing pressure on america to do something to stop the growing slaughter in syria. is there something for america to do, though? we'll talk to darwa, who just got back from being inside of homs and had snuck across the border. later, mind blowing, a school district that finances plastic surgery for teachers. millions of taxpayer dollars for surgery, nose jobs and breast augmentation. you name it. the question is, how did this happen and why is it still happening in the middle of a budget crunch? ♪ dave, i've downloaded a virus. yeah. ♪ dave, where are we on the new laptop? it's so slow! i'm calling dave. 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[ speaking foreign language ] when asked who did this, the child replied the filthy dog, bashar al assad. for 2 1/2 weeks, people have been the targets of weapons aim ed from tanks and troops. and this is a new group opening up on a civilian neighborhood. the question, of course, is -- one of the questions -- one of the many questions, what should america or some other country do? joint chiefs chairman sat down and took one option off the table for now. >> what would you say to those who argue that the united states should arm the opposition movement in syria? >> i think it's premature to take a decision to arm the opposition movement in syria because i -- i would challenge anyone to clearly identify for me the opposition movement in syria at this point. >> dempsey on zakaria. and two senators took opposition. >> a massacre is taking place today and ideas should be on the table. >> the idea of arming the opposition forces should be considered, very much considered. at the end of the day, what happens in syria really can change the course of the middle east. i really do hope we can break them away from iran. >> that's a strategic concern. the focus for civilians in syria remains solely on staying alive and getting rid of their government. as with almost all the video, can't be independently verified, the assad regime keeps sirius out however arwa damon was with those trying to hang on for one more day. >> reporter: these are some of the families who have nowhere else to go. finding relative safety in this makeshift bunker but little comfort. we're not sleeping at night, we're not deeping during the day. the children are always crying, the bombs are always coming down like this. they huddle in near darkness. some cover their faces, afraid they'll lose more than they already have. >> one woman's son been detained since august, and another one, this woman here, for a month and a half. we just walked in and we've been swamped, bombarded by these people's tragic stories here. at a wood cutting factory, turned bunker nearby, this baby is kralded is cradled in her grandmother's arms. her 19-year-old mother gave birth to her in this makeshift shelter 24 hours ago. there are no painkillers. i couldn't sleep all night, she tells us, still in excruciating pain. activists gather the children for the camera, leading a song against the regime. >> my husband died on the first day of the bombing. they didn't let me see his body. it was shredded to pieces, she recalls. his blood is still in the streets and feel his son. he is sick, and there is no medicine. he keeps crying, saying, i want daddy, i want daddy. i can't bring his daddy back. what is the world waiting for? for us to die of hunger and fear? >> arwa damon is now out of syria. i spoke to her earlier tonight. today was the 17th straight day of shelling in homs. you were just there. the images you brought back are horrific. the situation seems desperate for the people there and basic supplies just aren't available. >> reporter: that's exactly it, anderson. the problem is the situation is catastrophic and there is absolutely no one at this point in time stepping in to help these people. that is why we keep hearing them calling out asking the same questions over and over again. how is it that the international community is seeing what we're going through and not doing anything to help? also people wanting to know how long are they going to have to try to survive like this? those are questions no one at this point in time can answer. the harsh reality is the longer this drags on, the more of those images we're going to be seeing of people dying, people injured, people dying because of their wounds, because they can't get medical help and the more people will continuously be crowded into those bunkers trying to keep themselves and their families somehow safe. >> for both side, all side, there's no going back. for the assad regime, it doesn't seem like backing down is an option. certainly for the people in the neighborhood you were in, in homs, going back is not an option. or the red cross is talking about creating some sort of humanitarian corridor. is that possible? >> reporter: if that were to somehow materialize, it most certainly would provide a very significant element of relief for those families. one also has to remember that the syrian government's position has been, look, we're not at war so why should there be a cease-fire? that would make the creation of this type of humanitarian corridor incredibly challenging? arwa day damon, i'm glad you were able to get there and back safely. thanks. >> we look into what the united states can and should do. joining us is united states cnn officer and a member of the cia's external advisory committee. the possibility of somehow arming the opposition, how realistic is that? >> look, there are all sorts of problems with the u.s. doing that directly. when you listen to what senators mccain and graham are saying, they're really talking about, can we act through the arab league? our arab partners have a better sense of what's going on, the factions on the ground. i think general dempsey is right. it's difficult for us from a distance to understand who's in the opposition? we've seen bombings. there's belief in the intelligence community, al qaeda in iraq may be active inside syria, trying to take advantage of the situation. if you want to arm the opposition, you're better to rely on arab partners who have a better sense and closer relationships with the different factions. >> bob, from your vantage point, how possible is it on the ground to arm the opposition if we know who the opposition is? and given that there's so many regional players in this who have vested interests in what's happening inside syria? >> anderson, look at the geography. you've got limited choices. you could sernd arms through lebanon, which is not possible because of hezbollah that could take lebanon over the edge. jordan is not going to come across the border. you have the possibility of the kurds in iraq sending arms and, in fact, some are going across. it's really about trying to supply these people both with arms and medicine. the other thing is the dissidents in syria, the opposition is spread out all over. it's really quite a mess there because a city like homs is divided by sects. alawites, christians and sunni muslims and they're all in small neighborhoods. it's a mosaic. anderson, what i'm worried about is this is really starting to spin out of control. two iranian ships and you have iranians saying they're going to intervene and problems on the turkish border. is this going to spread? we have to do something. >> in terms of the level of danger in this region, fran, how does this compare to what we've seen over the last decade or so? >> as bob rightly says, this is now -- the powder keg's ignited. you have not only the iranian ships, we're talking about getting weapons and russians are supplying weapons to the assad regime they're using to slaughter their own people. that's right and they have this port in charteuse the russians are using to bring in a nuclear warship. this is areal, akin to the proxy war we saw in southeast asia, vietnam 40 years ago. we have to be careful because of the varying interests. iranians are very much in play as are russians and weapons of both of those countries. we have to be careful about being pulled into a potsie war but we can't use that as excuse, shield to let the slaughter continue. we're going to have to exert ourselves and show a leadership role. so bob, what other options are there? what about the notion of some humanitarian corridor, trying to get relief supplies into these neighborhoods in homs, which have just been under systematic attack? >> i think we should establish a place in northern syria, along the turkish border that would provide refuge for these people. it's winter there, snowing, cold, you have women and children dying. they have to be able to go some place, the best people to protect them are the turks. i don't know what the turks want to do at this point. they're very nervous about it. we're coming to the point there should be a humanitarian corridor. >> but can you do that, fran, without a permission of the regime in syria? and the syrian regime is saying there's no need for this because there's not a war going on in our country. these are just some armed terrorists we're dealing with? >> this brings us back to the shameful embarrassment of the u.n. security council. what we need now, more than anything, is an effective security council resolution that includes russia and china. it looks like there's been some small amount of movement on china's part that can see the humanitarian crisis. i don't know that you can move russia, other than to shame them by these horrific videos we see arwa damon has now. the other thing, we need to have the international community push for is the safe passage of journalists. the most important thing in terms of moving the international community and shaming governments like russia is to have international unbiased observers that journalists are. to have arwa damon and ivan watson and other of our colleagues having to sneak in and out at their own personal risk is outrageous. there's a good reason the syrians don't want them there. >> but bob, the syrian regime has said things which are just factually incorrect and lies. they claimed for months, we had them on this show claiming journalists are free to travel wherever they want, there's no holding them back. it's just not true. >> well, fran is absolutely right. it kept the arab league observers away from the real fighting. they're lying to the outside world. this is a regime on the edge. you have about 14% of the population that are alawites. they won't give up. have heavy armor in and will fight to the last because they believe their survival is at stake. this is not ghadafi. the alawites will fight to the very end. >> thanks. explosive allegation in arizona against a sheriff and rising conservative star, the allegations he's facing tonight. he's quit his job as mitt romney's campaign co-chair in arizona. we'll tell you why ahead. also ahead a tense standoff in a police station captured by a camera and police officers wear it like a headset. >> announcer: with nothing but his computer, an identity thief is able to use your information to open a bank account in order to make your money his money. [whoosh, clang] you need lifelock, the only identity theft protection company that now monitors bank accounts for takeover fraud. lifelock: relentlessly protecting your identity. call 1-800-lifelock or go to lifelock.com today. up close, an arizona sheriff with political ambitions is facing accusations that threaten his law and order image. >> paul babeu is known for his hard line stance against immigration. in 2008, he appeared in this campaign ad for john mccain. >> we're out-manned. of all the illegals in america, more than half come through arizona. border security has been babeu's defining image. when this ad was shot, he was a first-term sheriff and today, running for congress and president of mitt romney's presidential campaign in arizona. the primary is a week away. he resigned as co-chairman after a former boyfriend who's mexican went public about their relationship a