in nashville. and a woman today up today and said president obama is a muslim. how did the candidate respond? senator santorum joins us tonight. tonight the spotlight's on florida and the pressure is on the republican presidential candidates and it isable. the more intense the pressure, the more personal the attacks. just a week ago mitt romney held a comfortable lead. today, florida a dead heat. it's not just florida that has team romney more than a little nervous. a new tracking poll shows govern romney speaker gingrich in a virtual tie among republicans. just a week ago, romney was more than 20 points ahead. romney today warranted voters, take another look. >> as you look at the speaker's record over time, it's been highly erratic. and in the case of the speaker, he's got some records which could represent an october surprise. we could see an october surprise a day from newt gingrich. >> there's a blistering new campaign ad targeting gingrich. >> sanctioned for ethics violations, gingrich resigned from congress in disgrace. and then cashed in as a dc insider. if newt wins, this guy would be very happy. >> gingrich focusing the moment on desperately needed money to keep up the momentum. laughing off governor romney's latest attacks. >> i have been told by a variety of people that governor romney has been saying unkind things. i prefer personally not to believe it. but on the other hand, if you've been campaigning for six years and you begin to see it slip away, you get desperate. and when you get desperate, you say almost anything. >> jim acosta is in tampa for us tonight. you had a chance to catch up with the former speaker about this pointed and personal back and forth. what did he have to say? >> john, it goes back to the charge from mitt romney earlier today. he had a media availability in which he told reporters newt gingrich was essentially a lobbyist for freddie mac and gave the line if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's probably a duck. i went to the former speaker this afternoon and said, you have said that you were not a lobbyist, you were not a registered lobbyist. mitt romney is saying you were a lobbyist for freddie mac. his response was short and sharp. he said basically this is the reason why john mccain and mike huckabee said romney was dishonest in the 2008 campaign. that's just a sign of things to many could, john. when we heard newt gingrich get on stump after making the comments to me, he made the comment that you just played a few moments ago. he also said that you know, you've heard of mitt romney's pious baloney. he said get ready for desperate baloney. perhaps he should open up a deli in florida. the rhetoric is being dialed you. there are two debates this week between now and the primary. there's very little time for these candidates to get their message out. they're going to be a to doing a lot of it on the airwaves and the debates. i was just able to confirm some of this in the last couple minutes. it looks like speaker gingrich is going to be going after mitt romney's ties to charlie crist. at that event earlier this afternoon, newt gingrich actually went after governor romney's staff pointing out a few of them worked for charlie crist during that are 2010 midterm battle between charlie crist and marco rubio that got very ugly and personal. i asked marco rubio's staff earlier today, will he be endorsing anybody before tuesday's primary, the response no, they're staying neutral till the florida primary. >> jim acosta, thanks very much. republican senator rand paul of kentucky already is one of capitol hill's most vocal critics of the government airline operations. the senator had a run-in with the tsa today in nashville. dana bash, what happened. according to senator paul, he was going through the scanner that anybody who travels has been through, the full body scanner. it went off. so the tsa said we want to give you a full body patdown. he said no. perhaps i'll go through the scanner again. they said no. he said maybe you can look at my leg. he pulled up his pant leg because he thought that was where the potential problem was and they said no. the bottom line is he missed his flight and wasn't allowed through because he refused the full body patdown. while he was there, he also said he was talking to tsa agents who he says told him sometimes the scanner goes off randomly with alarms going off. you mentioned, john this is all in the context of senator paul being a long-time critic of the tsa saying the procedures are simply too broad and it hurts people's civil liberties. >> let adults go back through the scanner if they choose to do that versus an invasive body search or give someone discretion. in the nashville airport today, no one had the discretion to say, oh, hello there. i've seen you four times. i see you come through here every week. i'm not asking for special privileges because of the office i hold. i would expect the same thing for any frequent traveler. >> so there you have it, john. this is something that we've heard from senator palm many times. and now he has firsthand experience, let's say, of what he thinks is very wrong with the tsa. >> he also has a father running for president who complains about the government all the time. did ron paul jump into this one? >> this is campaign candy for his father. he said that he believes that this is evidence that there is a police state in this country. he said that the tsa embodies what is wrong with the civil liberties in this country. he even talked about the fact that they grope and grab our children and senior citizens, people with disabilities. and, of course, in his campaign and even before his campaign, he has proposed to eliminate a trillion dollars from the federal budget and totally do away with the tsa. for somebody running as a libertarian, this is something he said could not stop touting as example of what's wronging with this country and specifically the federal government. >> the dana bash live for us on capitol hill. thanks very much. there's late word tonight nug may be about to release some of his records with freddie mac, the mortgage giant, that many blame for pushing risky loans that helped fuel the housing bubble. gloria borger is here. he had a contract. he was a consultant to freddie mac, about 1.6, $1.7 million. what are the big questions as we await this? this is part of a transparent sit dual between gingrich and romney. >> sure it is. you release yours, i'll release mine. the big difference, first of all, mitt romney says he was a lobbyist for freddie mac. and newt gingrich says no, i was a consultant. there is a difference because lobbying is when you go to capitol hill and tap a senator on the shoulder and say vote this way because i'm representing a certain company or whatever. consulting is different. but the question that the romney campaign wants answered, and i think the large question out there is if you're on the payroll of someplace as a consultant, then normally one would assume you are giving them strategic advice to help them, not to hurt them. so what the romney campaign would like to see is what kind of advice actually did newt gingrich give. now, we've heard him say that he alternately served as an historian or that he told them what they were doing was crazy. but they want to see more detail. this may just be the details of a contract that he signed with freddie mac and it may not give us a lot of the details. >> but you make an important point. when he's been asked about this, his initial answer was historian. then he said strategic advice. in that way, his problem could be the things he said about this. we'll read the contract. another question is, he has said a lot of this money went to a bunch of people in his firm. it doesn't all come to him. it sounds like a lot of people but it was spread out. we assume there's contract language about that. >> i've got some word in my ear from our producer that this is going to be released within a half hour which cnn will have and then we'll know the answer to some of those questions. i wouldn't be surprised if we see the contract and then mitt romney says but it doesn't answer all the questions. >> speaker gingrich did this last week right before our debate, he released his taxes as the debates was beginning. he knows this is a source of contention with governor romney. governor romney in the morning will release his tax returns, which have become an issue in the last few weeks. if gingrich releases his contract, governor romney reest going to fight about? >> i don't know, maybe policy. >> wouldn't that be something? gloria, thanks. we'll watch as newt gingrich releases this freddie mac contract. we'll bring news to you as soon as we can. when we come back today, a woman at one of santorum's rallies called president obama an avowed muslim. next, the former senator explains why he didn't correct her. >> the president's a big boy and he can defend himself and his record. i'm going to talk about the issues that the president and i disagree on and try to defeat him. dave. dave. dave. i just saved a ton of money at staples. great job, dave. suck-up. [ male announcer ] in a small business, it's all you. that's why you have us. at staples, we have low prices on everything your small business needs. staples. that was easy. on everything your small business needs. vacations are always wasn'ta good ideaa ♪ priceline negoti - - no time. out quickly. you're miles from your destination. you'll need a hotel tonight we don't have time to bid you don't have to bid. at priceline you can choose from thousands of hotels on sale every day. save yourself... some money gingrich versus romney or romney versus gingrich. read about the republican presidential race the past 24 hours, most of the buzz is about this new dramatic two-man race between the winners of south carolina and the new hampshire primary. not so fast insists the guy who won the iowa caucus. rick santorum, it's good to see you. you understand the dynamic in the race. speaker gingrich is raising money based on his south carolina win. romney has a deeper financial network than santorum. even earlier today, you told this to reporters before an event at a manufacturing plant. sitting on the sidelines watching two people destroy each other creates an opportunity itself. is that what you're hoping for that maybe speaker gingrich takes out romney and all of a sudden, the party says whoa? >> well, you know, has been the narrative from actually the very beginning of this campaign. the media always tries to make this a two-person race. >> that's you said that, senator. you said sitting on the sidelines watching two people destroy each other creates an opportunity. that's not us. >> well, yeah, it was in response to a question about a two-person race. so yeah. it depends on the question that was asked. so having said that, obviously, those twos are getting the media attention. and you can't deny that. that's obviously the case. and there are advantages as we've seen throughout the course of this campaign. one thing is for certain, things are going to change. and we believe things are going to change again, and that as people continue to look at the candidates, there are now four candidates. this is a field where three have an opportunity to become president. and are actually running not just to change the party but to change the country. and actually become president. and very, very good as this campaign continues our stock is going to rise again and we'll be right in the mix of this thing. and starting tonight. >> and you get the sense tonight is one of two debates this week in florida. you get the sense that you view your number one priority is trying to appeal to those voter who's might be heening the speaker's way right now. i say that because governor romney just said today nominate newt gingrich, the republican party might get a dangerous october surprise. sometimes it sounds like you're on the same page. lis. >> and when newt was speaker of the house, well, within three years, the conservatives in the house of representatives tried to throw him out. and in the fourth year they did. why? because he wasn't governing as a conservative. he didn't live up to all of the type. it's great to be glib but it's better to be principled. >> just today again, senator, speaker gingrich said i'm the reagan conservative in the race. do you disagree? >> i'm the reagan conservative in the race. if you look at the track record of someone who not only espoused those principles consistently and as well as someone who when they were in a position of leadership led and actually had conservative broad, strong, consistent conservative support everywhere not just within the ranks of the senate but from outside. and you know, i'm not just a conservative in the race. i mean, vis-a-vis newt gingrich. i'm the conservative in the race vis-a-vis mitt romney. both of them have problems in winning a general election and rallying our base. and i've been out there talking about issues. they're going to track voters both republicans and reagan democrats. talking about growing this economy. manufacturing base, getting this economy going again. strengthening our national security. and, of course, shrinking the size and scale of government. we've been out there on a very clear message as we did here today at the vils in florida. we're going to continue that message for quite some time. >> senator, your event there earlier today, a woman stood up and delivered a pretty outthere attack on the president. i want you to listen. >> i never refer toe obama as president obama because legally he is not. well, he constantly says that is our constitution is passe and he totally ignores it, as you know. he does what he darn well pleases. he is an vowed muslim. >> and this, sir, is how you responded. >> yeah. >> i'm doing my best to try to get him out of the government right now. and you're right about how he uniformly ignores the constitution. >> you're not responsible for what somebody in the audience says, senator. i want to make that clear. do you feel any sense of responsibility to say whoa, senator mccain repeatedly in 2008 would stop people who went down that line saying let's fight him on policy, let's no go there. >> i have repeatedly done that. i don't feel it's my obligation every time someone says something i don't agree with to contradict them. i'm going to go out and talk about the issues that the president and i disagree on. and try to defeat him because i think that's the best thing we can do for the future of our country. >> i understand on every point. something like that, standing up and saying he's an avowed muslim, you don't feel any obligation, ma'am, let's fight him on government, taxes, spending, but let's not do that? >> i have repeated that many, many times throughout the course of this campaign. i don't really feel an obligation to go out and repeat it over and over again as people bring that up. my position's clear. the president's position is clear. i don't think the president's a muslim but i don't think it's my obligation to go out and repeat that every time someone who feels that way says something. >> senator rick santorum, good luck in florida. appreciate your time today. >> thanks, john. you bet. mitt romney's releasing his personal taxes tomorrow morning. but we already have access to records from his charity. and we'll show you just where thinks money is going. next, something new at starbucks that packs more of a wallop than caffeine. at liberty mutual, we know how much you count on your car, and how much the people in your life count on you. that's why we offer accident forgiveness, where your price won't increase due to your first accident. we also offer a hassle-free lifetime repair guarantee, where the repairs made on your car are guaranteed for life, or they're on us. these are just two of the valuable features you can expect from liberty mutual. plus, when you insure both your home and car with us, it could save you time and money. at liberty mutual, we help you move on with your life, so get the insurance responsible drivers like you deserve. call us at... or visit your local liberty mutual office, where an agent can help you find the policy that's right for you. liberty mutual insurance, responsibility -- what's your policy? the sleep number bed. the magic of this bed is that you're sleeping on something that conforms to your individual shape. you can adjust it to whatever your needs are. so whatever you feel like, the sleep number bed's going to provide it for you. and now, the company that redefined sleep is redefining memory foam. save $400 on our all-new memory foam bed. and at our white sale, stock up and save on our exclusive bedding collection. only at the sleep number store, where queen mattresses start at just $699. welcome back. here's kate bolduan with the news you need to know right now nice to see you in person after a week on the road. >> i know. you look the same. >> good or bad. we'll just leave it there. >> moving on. let's catch you up on news this evening. good evening. the supreme court today set new rules for police use of hi-tech surveillance equipment. officers in maryland secretly planned a gps device on a drug suspect's car without obtaining a warrant beforehand. the court said that's wrong. it violated the man's constitutional right. the eu is dialing up pressure on iran saying it will freeze assets in an effort to the starve the nuclear program of funding. in a statement released by the white house, president obama said he approved of the move "in response to the regime's continuing failure to fulfill its international obligations regarding its nuclear program." listen up, beer lovers. you may soon be able to get your suddens in grande format starbucks. the seller says it will begin offering beer and wine at select locations in atlanta and southern california by the end of this year to go along with several locations in chicago. and finally for you, for the moment, billionairefully lan throwist warren buffett is marking this week's chinese new year by appearing on china's state run television with a ukelele and a song. take a look ♪ i've beening on the railroad all the live long day ♪ ♪ i've been working on the railroad just to pass the time away ♪ >> i was going to try to check and see if he's available for hiring for events to get for your next birthday. i think he's a little busy. >> did you listen closely. is it working on the railroad or working on buying the railroad. >> or working on owning the railroad. >> maybe he stopped at starbucks. >> tonight, the plans are set now for penn state's final good-bye to the legendary football coach joe paterno. plus tonight's truth about why big spending on attack ads is the new normal in american politics. in this half hour, a close look at mitt romney's favorite charities. where the money goes says a lot where he is. tonight's truth, attack ads, big spenders and no end in sight. plus tonight's moment you missed. who is pointing their finger at broadcaster terry bradshaw scolding him on live tv. >> pennsylvania's governor today ordered state flags flown at half-staff till the burial of joe paterno. there's a private funeral wednesday afternoon. and then a public memorial service thursday. paterno, penn state's head coach for 46 years died sunday of lung cancer. as jason carroll reports, many think he died of a broken heart. >> joe paterno's family says like in life, he fought until the very end. but there are many here at penn state who feel strongly fight as he did, he was dealing with more than physical health problems. >> penn state was his life. and joe paterno was penn state. so i definitely think he died of a broken heart in some respect. >> he built this the university, without a dou