he's claiming he's raised a million dollars in less than 24 hours following that south carolina win. so no big surprise that the attacks on both sides are ramping up. we've got congressman bob mcewen joining us. he's a newt deng grich surrogate. sir, welcome to you. also produce you to our pan panelist. we have bob grobrownstein. i just called you bob. i'm going to make up names. and will cain and roland martin. and also this morning, we are being joined by tom, thank you for being with us. appreciate your time. let's get right to it. sir, what's the plan for today when you look at the graphics that show us the lead that you actually had, looks like a nice solid 12-point lead for newt gingrich. give me analysis, why do you think he won? what did you write? >> what? am i on, soledad? >> yes rk, you are. >> last week terrific things happened. one was the united states for the first time in its peace time history has a debt greater than 100% of its gdp. the same time, nine countries in europe had their currencies downgraded as a result of their debt ratios which six of them are better than america's. the worst is greece with 120% of gdp. we will surpass that within a year. now, how do you fix it? there's only been one person able to balance the budget four consecutive years since 1928 and that was under the leadership of speaker gingrich. so when it comes to balancing the budget, getting control of the economy,gasoline prices have been doubled over the last three years. if we're going to take america back we're going to need somebody who knows how to lead and the question is not debatable, that this man knows how to bring together resources to accomplish the task. >> it sounds to me like you're saying it was his economic message that got out to voters in south carolina. legal me tell you what governor chris christi in nrnnew jersey say on "meet the press" over the weekend. listen. >> wrun out of speakership by hs own party. he's had a very difficult political career at times and has been embarrassment to the party. >> embarrassment, that's a tough word. what do you make of that? >> very simply. the republicans had not controlled the congress in 70 years. never had back-to-back wins. he was able to accomplish that. and so -- >> you're not answering me question. my question was, when governor chris christie said the man is an embarrassment and now the leader coming out of south carolina, what do you do about that? >> what he said was he talked about the ethics violation. because they took control for the first time in 70 years, then pelosi and the folks filed an ethics violation every week, not for 30 weeks, not for 55 weeks, not for 67 weeks, 84 different ethics violations back to back forever. 83 of them were investigated and thrown out. finally there was one where he said foundation rather than a pack and should have been inverted one way or the other. that was the only thing. what he said was, look, i'll bay for the cost of that investigation if we can quit this. and so he -- he paid a penalty. >> he paid a penalty, exactly. >> plenty of people who say -- so you're saying that he voluntarily decided to end -- >> voluntarily. and the republicans supported it and said, let's get this behind us and quit this nonsense. now, during that time -- i'm not an anti-romney person. but during that time, mitt romney said, i'm not a republican. he said, during reagan/bush i was an independent. and so now for these folks to come back when he was forging the coalition that made it possible for us to have victory next year, the one who built the coalition which makes speaker boehner in control now to have been under that attack for so long and to use that against them is really unfair. he has paid his dues in order to take the leadership to restore america back to a strong economy again and do the ethics reforms and others needed. >> let me bring in from tampa, rick tyler, senior adviser to one of newt gingrich's pacs. thank you for joining us our conversation. we have a panel was as well. >> thanks for having me. i was enjoying bob's explanation. >> didn't have you visually but glad you could hear us. sounds to me he's saying that, listen, all the ethics investigation was just a big mistake and it's all bygones to this point. to what degree does it hinge on south carolina and the leverage on that debate? >> i think it was very significant. i'm told 60% of the voters in south carolina watch the debate. on tv, that's awfully big. and he had a magnificent performance that drove top radio and top television in the next two days. it's very significant. >> rick, ron brownstein from the "national journal." the speaker made an argument yesterday on several of the sunday shows that essentially the republican party cannot trust mitt romney to implement a conservative agenda. do you believe that in the end, romney -- that the real romney is the one who governor of massachusetts or the real romney is the one, in fact, offering agenda amount indistinguishable on policy grounds as newt gingrich is today? >> my goodness, you would have to ask him. let romney be romney, but who would that be? all we have are people's records. ledge lative records. newt geingrich has four years o records. he created them but they were created. tax cuts, welfare reform. what we know about mitt romney is that he was a supporter of rowe v. wade, he let's judges overrule parents in terms of letting children get abortions by their parents. he raised taxes on business and gave us romneycare. he doesn't want you to know his record or newt's record. if i wanted a conservative, i wanted someone like a mark arube you in florida, i would pit gingrich, chris christie, i would pick romney. >> here's what newt gingrich said about super pacs. as i mentioned coming in, mr. tyler, you run the former speaker's super pacs. here's what he's saying. >> the super pacs have huge amounts of money to run and totally irresponsible, totally secret. i think it's just wrong. >> congressman -- >> i couldn't agree more. >> i couldn't agree more with that statement. i think we need to return the fund-raising ability back to the candidates and put their own names on the ads and need to end this shell game. we should let candidates collect as much money as they can, expect for foreign contributions. then everybody would know who who is supporting which candidate. >> rick, roland martin. if you agree with it why are you running one? and for the congressman, if gingrich's leadership is so great why did his own party throw him out of office as speaker? if they threw him out, why should the american people put him in? >> i'm not sure that they threw him out. >> actually he was thrown out. his own party tloohrew him out. >> no, he wasn't. >> he left on his own? >> he left on his own. >> gotcha. >> he never lost an election. the fact is that by taking control for that period of time, once he left, we have nerf ball lanced the budget sense and the contributions that he made were so significant that they've been ongoing. now, it's appropriate to be -- >> that's not true. >> we balanced it the next several years after he left, in '99 and 2000 as well. so that's not accurate. and also, clearly, he left one step ahead of being pushed when there was a backlash of house republicans when they lost seats in clinton's mid term, the first time that happened in party in power since andrew jackson's second term, six years in. clearly there was a sense among house republicans in that period of frustration. and it does raise the question -- one of the key questions. gingrich was brilliant as a guerrilla leader but running as speaker seemed to be more call lengi i challenging for him. >> what you said was completely false. four years of balanced budget. >> are you saying the it was not balanced in 1999? >> sure it was. hold on, you're asking me a question. we already had surpluses. if you have surpluses going into the budget for the year it's easy to submit a balanced budget. bill clinton never submited a balanced budget. he never submitted welfare reform. bill clinton never submitted tax cuts. he submitted 13 items that newt gingrich passed. don't give me that. it is newt gingrich who led that. nobody disputes that. and, look, people want to say there was chaotic leadership. bob knows. newt served people who were in line for chairmen, says you don't get this republican resolution, step aside for somebody who does. of course people got mad because they wanted -- many of them wanted to continue with earmarks and pork barrel politics the way it was and newt said no. when newt left, that's what it returned to. >> that's going to have to be our final word because we're out of time. >> thank you. >> thank you for joining us this morning. other headlines to get to. christine, good morning. >> let's start the headlines with dangerous severe weather to tell you about. reports of tornadoes and damage in several states this morning. thousands of people waking up without power this monday. the threat ranges from illinois all of the way down to alabama. meteorologist rob ars an no tracking these storms for you. good morning, rob. >> good morning, christine. wide spread damage, especially around the birmingham, alabama, area. and a cell south of birmingham doing some damage and that cell is alive and well. unfortunately heading towards alexandria city, along i-65. reports of damage just west of there with potentially people trapped in their homes and some of our affiliates are reporting fatalities. we haven't confirmed that yet but this is an ugly situation. danger is over for birmingham and tuscaloosa. heading towards aniston and talladega. this will be heading into an environment at least in georgia that is a little bit more stable. so tornado watch out for alabama, but you notice kind of expires. you head into georgia. much cooler air in here. up to the north, severe weather as well. rolling across the tennessee and ohio river valleys. those storms are being allowed to weaken as well. the other point of weather that is of concerned is across the north east, christine, cold pocket of air north of new york city and north and east towards i-95 through connecticut, pockets of freezing rain this morning. that certainly is making it slick. another potent storm heading into the west coast. we'll be keeping an eye on this particular cell, especially in clay, and east central alabama where the storm has a history of doing some damage. christine? >> thanks, rob. we'll keep up to date with you on that as it develops. in italy, officials hope to determine if they can begin pumping out half a million gallons of fuel from that capsized cruise ship. the mayor of the island where the ship ran aground says the situation is now an ecological time bomb because they fear that ship could slip into deeper waters. rescue crews have recovered another body leaving 19 people unaccounted for. a mississippi judge could decide if nearly 200 pardons issued by out going mississippi governor haley barbour if they are valid. the state attorney general requested today's hearing because he said it appeared some of the pardons violated the state constitution. under mississippi law, a public notice must run in the newspaper 30 days prior to a pardon. egypt's parliament meeting today for the first time since the down fall of former president hosni mubarak last year. lawmakers are expected to vote on a new speaker of the house and two deputies. mitt romney plans to release his 2010 tax returns tomorrow. the republican presidential candidate says not releasing them has become a distraction. today congresswoman gabrielle giffords plans to finish the congress on your corner event that jared lee loughner enter rutted last year. she's going to hold a private gathering with some of the people who were there. she announced yesterday in a youtube video that she will resign. >> i have more work to do on my recovery, so to do what is best for arizona, i will step down this week. and the new york giants and new england patriots are super bowl bound. they defeated them 20-17 on a field goal. the patriots beat the baltimore ravens 23-20 in the afc championship game. minding your business this morning, investors bracing for what could be a choppy week. corporate earnings, iran oil talks, right now u.s. stock futures are trading higher ahead of the opening bell. markets gained about 2% last week. also watching blackberry maker research in motion. it has new ceo, thornston heinz. as the company struggles to overhaul the pags with apple and google. soledad, research in motion shares are up 3% but they're down 72% over the past year. >> they've had some big hits over the last literally, over the last year. thank you for that update. i guess in the last block we really understood what the strategy will be for the former speaker of newt gingrich. >> spin, spin, spin. >> i was stunned. that's not even spinning. that is a rewriting of history. i want to play first a little bit of what mitt romney said talking about his competitor newt gingrich. listen. >> he was a film leader and he had to resign in disgrace. i don't know whether you knew that. he actually resigned after four years in disgrace. investigated under an ethics panel and had to make a payment associated with that. and then his fellow republicans, 88% of his republicans voted to reprimand speaker gingrich. he has not had a record of successful leadership. >> okay. whack with our panel. tom is a former democratic congressman, ceo of the center for american progress action fund. it's nice to have you joining our panel. ron brownstein, i mangled your name. will cain is back, roland martin is back. wow. so? >> so i would say, two points. clarify, this criticism is coming from the conservative side of the spectrum. former congressman, roland and ron, had a debate about whether or not newt gingrich was forced out or left on his own, beside the point. i would line up many republicans, they line up out this door to say that newt gingrich is not fit for leadership. i would say explain that to me, why do you have such a different opinion. the second is this, the conversation about the '90s i'm not convinced that's a good idea for newt gingrich. he won south carolina based on no substance, no platform. he won that based on his personality. i don't think he wants to be litigating the '90 tz next couple of weeks. >> we have david fromme joining us. i know you've win a piece for cnn.com which talks about newt gingrich and you use the word panic when you talk about senior republican leadership. what's the panic over? >> just what everyone who worked with him who is a contemporary in congress then as will just said, has serious cess rer investigations about his leadership. i have a joke if you were to do an election between newt gingrich and barack obama and can find the franchise to republicans who serve in the house of representatives in the 1990s it would be a very, very close call. if you were to make people who served in past republican cabinets i don't think newt gingrich would win. will made another very important point whp when you're talking about gingrich you're inevitably talking at the past, personal past, financial past, that was a big part of what that ethics report was about. >> didn't seem to matter south caroli carolina. >> didn't seem to matter in south carolina. lucky him. will that continue to be true? one of the most popular figures in the country right now is bill clinton. if you put newt gingrich back on the platform, you invite a relitigation of the impeachment, of the elections of the 1990s. suddenly the question is bill clinton will have an opinion of who gets the credit of balanced budget of the 1990s and he will be all over tv. every time gingrich faced against clinton he lost. better to run against obama. >> only look backwards or look forward to -- >> no. >> you think backwards? >> no, forward. there are two distinct phases to newt gingrich's career in congress. as a gorilla leader from 1978 to 1994, leading the republicans back to the majority for the first time in 40 -- not 70 years, just another point of fact -- he was undenyably brilliant. led republicans. architect of their recovery. now is the great helmsman, in charge, much more difficult for them. much more chaotic. what worked in south carolina was channeling back that newt of the 1980s who gave voice to the conservatives about democrats. it was the language. it was him channeling the emotion that romney didn't to a greater degree that anybody has. >> roland martin has got to go get on the tom joyner morning show. i say hey as you run out. we look toward florida. >> right. i think what you saw in south carolina as well is a concern for republicans beyond the fact that they're beating each other up and gingrich is getting attacked by ethics. that's never a good news cycle. but what you saw was a real anger driving that. something that i saw in parts of virginia when i was in congress. and i think the concern here, if i were a republican, would be the president is about to give a state of the union address with a positive message about rebuilding our manufacturing base, positive numbers on manufacturing, about the ability to build and grow things here in america again. and you have conservatives fighting each other on nasty political grounds. you see a conservative base that remains extremely upset. you see independents out there who want to see solutions, who want to see a focus on how do we actually create jobs and continue to move out of this recession. and so i think you see the president continuing to build that track record, focused on jobs and payroll tax that hits the middle class. meanwhile you have conservatives fighting each other for who has done more damage for the country. romney's vulture capitalism or mr. gingrich's ethics violation. >> maybe the president can tip toe through and skip the infighting. we're going to take a short break. remembering joe paterno, we'll talk about his legacy and the degree to which it is tarnished by the jerry sandusky scandal. the owners of the costa concordia are making the survivors of the disaster an offer they're hoping they can't refuns refuse. life with crohn's disease is a daily game of "what ifs." what if my stomach pain and cramps end our night before it even starts? what if i eat the wrong thing? what if... what if i can't make it through dinner and a movie? what if i suddenly have to go? what if... but what if the most important question is the one you're not asking? what if the underlying cause of your crohn's symptoms is damaging inflammation? for help getting the answers you need visit knowcrohns.com/tv and use the interactive discussion guide to speak with your gastroenterologist. in state college pennsylvania, they are mourning the loss of a legend. joe a noern died of lung cancer, 85 years old. there's bitterness over paterno's firing and it still runs high in penn state. to what degree will it tarnish his bryan scott is with the pubuffa bills. we all knew that joe paterno was very sick. still, i think his death came as a big surprise. what was your reaction when you heard that, in fact, he had died? >> you know, i have to be completely honest with you. coach paterno always used to talk about bear bryant and when he got finished coaching a few months later he passed away and coach paterno would share this story that he didn't like to golf on saturdays, he didn't like to mow his lawn, he said, to be honest, i don't even know where the foreclosures and knives go in my own kitchen. football was his life. i just had a feeling that once everything transpired and he moved away from football, i kind of figured this was going to happen. >> there was an interview in the "washington post" on january 14th. he said this. i miss the last three days of spring practice