thing. >> perhaps his closest white house adviser. >> what we need to do is focus on what's good for the country, what's good for the american people, and move forward. >> now david axelrod has another cause with his wife susan, fighting to find the cure of epilepsy. i'll talk to david and susan axelrod. this is "piers morgan tonight." good evening. a man who heads the international monetary fund, the man who was a likely candidate for president of france, is tonight on suicide watch at rikers island after being charged with sexually assaulting a maid at his new york city hotel. meanwhile, in a shocking political story, elsewhere arnold schwarzenegger admits he fathered a child with a woman on his household staff. his wife, maria shriver, says -- earlier i spoke to one of the best political minds in the country, david axelrod. listen to what he said about the former california governor. i mean, in the case of arnold schwarzenegger, do you think if the electorate had known that he had a love child by his housekeeper he would have ever become governor of california? >> well, i don't know the answer to that. i suspect the fact that it didn't become public until after suggests that he didn't necessarily believe that. >> joining me now is donny deutsch, mike citric, don goldberg, president clinton's damage control specialist, and hilary rosen, democratic strategist and cnn contributor. hilary, i know you know both arnold and maria personally. i have to say i was pretty shocked by this. i saw them at a restaurant in los angeles only three or four weeks ago. they were just going in to a restaurant i was coming out of. i stopped, i talked to them both. they were clearly dining together. they seemed very happy certainly on the face of it. had no warning at auto about what was coming. were you aware of what transpired from january? >> no. and i think that, you know, it was a very small circle of informed. but, you know, this is kind of typical of maria in that she obviously was worried about her children. she wanted to make sure that whatever happened they knew first and that they were protected and it was handled the right way. and i just admire her so much for the strength that she's showing through this, and it's enormously distressing for her friends and supporters. >> it clearly is. let's turn to the politics here now. do you think that arnold schwarzenegger would have been able to become governor of california if this story had emerged before the election? >> well, i think david axelrod is right, that clearly arnold schwarzenegger didn't think so. otherwise he would have -- this would have come out. you know, he worked extremely hard in that campaign to deny charges. he even had the gal to put maria out there, denying things that were obviously now true. and so i think that, you know, politicians just don't seem to get away with the same kinds of things that hollywood actors get away with. and schwarzenegger was trying to convert his life into a politician's life, and i think he knew it was going to be a different standard. >> yeah. i mean, i think this obviously has come at the same time as the boss of the imf, he's involved in a much more serious scandal. it involves criminal allegations. but the kind of principle there is powerful men misbehaving in a sexually inappropriate manner. should we move on, perhaps, morally? forget the criminal aspect of it for a moment. as a traditional sex scandal, should we all just grow up a bit and accept that, you know, people will misbehave sexually and it shouldn't have any effect on their work as politicians or as leaders of banks or whatever it may be? >> well, i think from public figures and politicians we do expect more, particularly because they actually vote on issues of morality and intrusions into people's lives and how people's lives are conducted. that's literally their job, often. but i think, you know, in the case of maria shriver, the one decent thing that arnold schwarzenegger did today was say leave her alone. and i think, you know, she's going to go back and try and get some semblance of privacy around this to heal and take care of her kids. and we ought to do that. but in my mind, that doesn't mean that we should let arnold schwarzenegger off the hook or other politicians who sort of live by this double standard. >> you're a resident sex expert, self-appointed. >> am i a brand expert or a sex expert? >> so many layers. should we be so energized about sex scandals by politicians? putting aside the imf boss. that's a more serious matter. arnold schwarzenegger. it matters to his family, clearly. should it matter politically? >> whether it should or it does are two different things. as far as should, i'm going to equate a politician to a ceo. if i have a ceo and i own stock in a company, basically if you are voted for politician, you own shares in that country. would you rather have a ceo who's tripling the stock price and maybe screws around on his wife or a ceo who's very faithful and is running the company or the country in the ground? i want to compare clinton and bush and w. i'm not condoning it morally, but as far as what i want from my politicians is performance in their job. i am not looking for them to be moral role models. i want them to perform. now, without the right moral compass, can they get elected? that's the other question. when are we going to stop be shocked when men of power, men of stature and fame, stop chasing women? it goes with the character. it's almost more exceptional if they don't. >> it may go with the character but -- >> when is this going to end? when it's billion-dollar golf players or movie star governors or, guess what, they also feel entitled to women? why is that a surprise to anybody? i'm not condoning it, but it kind of makes sense. >> you are kind of condoning it. >> i'm not condoning it at all. stop acting surprised. >> you're saying men will be men. >> no. i'm saying that men of power and men who are conquerors in other areas of their life, why are we shocked when that stops with other women? i'm not saying it's right. obviously what schwarzenegger did was horrific on any level. obviously the guy in the imf, that's violence against women, a completely different territory. stop being surprised. >> you're the crisis king of hollywood. when you look at what's happened with these two powerful men, what's your take on it? >> first of all, i don't think that we can look at new york or los angeles or chicago necessarily as america. america is the heartland. america is modesto or sacramento or albany. and so our view of -- and, you know, i work primarily in the world with business, so i understand what donny is saying in terms of return on investment. on the other hand, you know, you have to say who's electing these politicians and who's voting for these politicians and what does middle america think of -- think the moral compass should be and what do they think is acceptable? you have president mitterand fathered a child out of wedlock. the french say who cares, right? but -- >> badge of honor. >> correct. >> but the french electorate are not the same at the american electorate. and so -- >> i mean, i kind of feel that the yardstick here really ought to be left with the electorate. you know, i think that you should put all your cards on the table. it's the dishonesty. it's the hiding of information that in the end is people's undoing, isn't it? don't you think? >> of course. it's always the cover-up that is worse than crime. well, not always. but in many instances. and so what you really have here, the question is when schwarzenegger was running, did maria know? did he hope to keep it from maria? and so there is more or there very well could have been more than the electorate -- >> let me ask you about schwarzenegger's acting career. he's now left politics. he's timed this for stopping being governor. he's aiming to relaunch his acting career. can he do that, or can we see rumors about other women and so on? could we potentially see a movie version of tiger woods unfold? >> here's the sad part. it will actually help his movie career. here's a guy, there's a sizzle to it, this is the world we live in. everyone said what's going to happen to lindsay lohan's career. hotter than ever. his audience is not female moviegoers anyway so, certain women will turn away. but in hollywood it kind of puts a little ray of blink on him. it's a perverse take on things, but that's reality. >> we're seeing a slew of sex scandals in recent year, even more than we're probably used to in all forms of entertainment and sport and politics. are we seeing an increase in bad behavior? are we seeing sort of a collective aphrodisiac here linked to power and success? what's going on? >> well, you know, if we're looking for moral leadership from our sports figures, our entertainer, now from our politicians and businessmen, i think we're all looking in the wrong place. to the point of let the elect rat decide, we have a slate of candidates all of whom have some questionable relationship issues there. we're going to find out what the tolerance is. this is not a partisan issue. you can go back to gary hart. you can go back to more recently john edwards. obviously, you know, president kennedy, you can go way back. i don't think it's new. and i think because they're politicians you can't keep secrets anymore in this day and age. but i think the tolerance level for this, as long as they're not breaking the law, is getting a little bit easier. i mean, i think the question with schwarzenegger will be over the next few days were there any state funds used to pay to take care of her, was she an immigrant who had a green card, for example. he may have some legal issues to deal with. >> piers -- >> hilary, let me bring you in here. what was your response to that? >> i think actually we see more of a divergence right now, that you can get away with it in sports and in entertainment and other places. we've seen it with tiger woods and jesse james and probably now with arnold schwarzenegger. i actually think in politics we've gone the opposite direction where it's too big a distraction. the media is too intense. we've seen, you know, with -- i think that it would be a very different environment today with president clinton than it was when it happened that the onslaught of media and accessibility and endless questions are becoming too distracting for a politician. >> let me stop you there. >> and we have lots of examples. >> let me stop you there, because clinton is a great example. he's answer to the argument. the more salacious material came out about clinton, the more his personal approval ratings began to soar as the american public -- >> no, that's not what made his approval ratings soar. what made his approval ratings soar was the ridiculous republican overreach on trying to get rid of him based on what had happened, when his family was sticking by him. that's when the country actually started to come to his defense and realize other things were more important. >> piers, to your point, i think there's a subtext of maybe it adds to his power really, but he is the classic example of a guy who was a spectacularly successful president and as a post president has been nothing but a humanitarian, a leader around the world, what you want from a leader. now, was this guy a leader? of course he was. but we have to get our heads straight about what we want and expect from our leaders. to me, this has been one of the great leaders of the world. his moral compass when it comes to women? i'm not setting him up for -- >> would you take on arnold schwarzenegger right now? would you take on dominique strauss-khan? >> let's separate the two. i mean, arnold isn't accused of a crime. you know, what he has admitted is is fathering a child out of wedlock while he was married. right. so it's very different. look, hollywood has a very short memory. and you have to put the infraction into context as to what it's all about. >> should he come clean quicker than tiger woods did? should he -- >> you can't compare them. they're not comparable. >> i'm not comparing them yet. i'm saying arnold schwarzenegger has been caught in a sex scandal. he's a high-profile guy. there are rumors of other stories. they may or may not be true. should he come on a show like this, lay everything on the table and say, you know what, this is the truth. >> eventually. >> get everything out of the way. >> but the difference is tiger woods had this all-american boy image, right? and he had this super-clean image. and so he was the poster boy for that. arnold schwarzenegger has this tough guy, macho image, and all of these rumors of -- >> not as damaging. >> right. and so, yes, should arnold -- he's already started it. you've already seen this. but i think he wants to give it some time, give it some air. then i think he needs to come through. now, what we really have to see is houma rea is -- are they going to reconcile, what's maria going to say, and then give it a little time and then come on a show. >> thank you all very much, indeed. a good debate. coming up, more from david axelrod. when we come back, in the media spotlight. i'll ask dan abrams if there is a rush to judgment in notorious cases. a lot of times, things are right underneath our feet, and all we need to do is change the way we're thinking about them. a couple decades ago, we didn't even realize just how much natural gas was trapped in rocks thousands of feet below us. technology has made it possible to safely unlock this cleanly burning natural gas. this deposits can provide us with fuel for a hundred years, providing energy security and economic growth all across this country. it just takes somebody having the idea, and that's where the discovery comes from. curtis: welcome back to geico it's savings, on the radio. gecko: hello clarence from stevens point. clarence: ok, you know the grapes at the grocery ore? clarence: well, sometimeyoone. take it foa terive, see that's stealing.rence: s i say it's sampling. what do you think? gecko: yeah, um, listen clarence, i can't really speak to the moral bit, but if you switch to geico, you could save hundreds of dollars on yinsurance. you could buy a whole heap of grapes. how's that? vo: geico.cosa yo% more insurance. you could save hundreds of dollars on yinsurance. look at all this stuff for coffee. oh there's tons. french presses, espresso tampers, filters. it can get really complicated. not nearly as complicated as shipping it, though. i mean shipping is a hassle. not with priority mail flat rate boxes from the postal service. if it fits it ships anywhere in the country for a low flat rate. that is easy. best news i've heard all day! i'm soooo amped! i mean not amped. excited. well, sort of amped. really kind of in between. have you ever thought about decaf? do you think that would help? yeah. priority mail flat rate shipping starts at just $4.95, only from the postal service. a simpler way to ship. stories like arnold schwarzenegger's or dominique strauss-khan's, what happens when scandal and celebrity collide. joining me is abc news analyst dan abrams. dan, two very different stories. >> yeah. >> and important to keep them very different, because there's no suggestion of any criminality by arnold schwarzenegger but there certainly is against dominique strauss-khan from france. a question i suppose coming from france driven back here, is the guy getting a fair trial in terms of the way the media is behaving, in terms of the way the judiciary is behaving in putting him out there to be photographed and stuff. is this fair or is it prejudicial? >> i think the only legitimate question for people to really complain about is the perp walk. in france, they've recently outlawed it in part because of the exact questions you're asking. >> what do you think? >> look, i think that it's probably not necessary. it's been done here for many, many years. i don't think that it -- you know, the goal is to show that the person has been arrested and to demonstrate to the public in essence that the republic is safe. but with that said, you know, i don't know that we necessarily need perp walks anymore. >> i mean, i have to say i've been in newspapers for 25 years before i came into television, and there's no doubt it's a juicy bone to toss a newspaper, to put it on the front pages. i woke up this morning, saw pictures of this guy looking like bernie madoff, the french version, and that in itself wasn't helpful to him. >> yeah. >> it made him look instantly criminal. there he is slumped, looking sort of vaguely guilty. i mean, a damaging image. >> i'm not as worried about it from a sort of legal perspective. i mean, from a moral perspective i think you've got a legitimate argument. from a legal perspective, people always say what happens the presumption of innocence, et cetera? the reality is jury selection is really pretty good in this country, meaning they're able to find people who either don't know that much about a case or people who do know but haven't formed opinions. think about it. in the o.j. simpson civil case, after the criminal case in l.a., with all the attention that case had received, they were able to find a fair jury of people who knew something about the case. they knew facts of the case. they knew what had happened. but they hadn't developed opinions. >> tell me about this separate issue, which i noticed. when maria shriver made this very painful statement about the horrific ordeal she and her family are going through, clearly arnold schwarzenegger and i have always got along well, i think he's a good man, and this is awful for all of them, but she said she wanted privacy for her children. shortly after that, some of her children went on twitter and began to talk quite frankly about what happened, almost breaking their own plea from privacy. can we expect any privacy anymore given the existence of twitter, social networks, facebook and so on? >> we can hope for it. we can't expect it. the reality is i think maria shriver has every right to ask for it, to demand it, to hope for it, a and yet she knows as well as everyone -- i know and respect and like maria a lot, and i guarantee you she know, she knows the way the world works. she knows that she's not going to get the privacy that she deserves to some degree. and, look, kids are kids. you know, the fact that she can't control exactly what her kids do or don't do on twitter is very typical of a parent/child relationship. >> how do you see the legal position in relation to this imf chief going? >> i think that the first question is going to be is he going to get bail. right. he's been denied bail. initially the defense team is hoping that they will still be able to create a bail package that will get him back, meaning he won't be able to go back to france because as a legal matter -- >> get out and stay in new york. >> right. if he was able to get out and go to france, france might send him back. that's not going to happen. the question is he going to get released at all, that's still up in the air. probably not, but there's hope. and a question, big picture in the context of this case, what's the defense going to be? sources close to the defense telling me it's likely to be a consent defense, meaning he's not going to say he wasn't there, not that they've got the timing all wrong -- >> i've got to wrap it up, but if he's going with a consent defense, he's got to lose the imf. >> i think so. when we come back, david axelrod on the schwarzenegger scandal and more. what are you looking at? logistics. ben? the ups guy? no, you see ben, i see logistics. logistics? think--ben is new markets. ben is global access-- china and beyond. ben is a smarter supply chain. ben is higher margins. happier customers... everybody wins. logistics. exactly. see you