Page 31 - Mark Rich News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Early voting state of iowa. mr. gingrich has opened up a big lead there, even though he only ran his first iowa tv ad today. and even though he did not get around to opening up a campaign headquarters in iowa until last week. this is the new normal in running for president in the republican party. good-bye, herman cain. hello, apprenti. joining us now is a man who knows what it takes to win iowa in any year. david yepsen, director of paul simon policy institute. he covered every iowa campaign since 1976 for "the des moines register." mr. yepsen, thanks for joining us tonight. >> good to be wit...

Pains to be really unkinglike, the pardon power is an absolute power giving to the president alone. it's used thousands of times by presidents and most of the times it's not a big deal. some are scandalous. like the iran contra pardons. casper weinberger, about to gone on trial for allegedly illegally selling arms to iranians and using the money for groups in nicaragua which was illegal to fund. sometimes pardons are scandalous and sometimes a nice mix of pitiful and disgusting, like when on his last day in office president clinton pardoned a man, mark rich, a fugitive charged with tax fraud a...

And tend to win from the field of candidates. i think that process is going on right now on the republican side. >> it seems like it remains to be seen, that sort of gut-level -- looking for a gut-level match you were describing. that remains the major unknown with the mitt romney candidacy, whether voters are almost viscerally comfortable with him as a man. and as a candidate, as a potential republican nominee. he's not thought this year as being a good ideological match with the conservative iowa republican electorate that you're describing. i wonder if you see in iowa that mr. romney has be...

Somebody is denied a pardon. that is one reason propublica's investigation into the pardon process is ground breaking. through a freedom of information act request, propublica analyzed a random sample of 500 or so cases. with rigorous statistical analysis, controlling for all other factors, check out what they found. look at this. quote, white criminals seeking presidential pardons over the past decade have been nearly four times as likely to succeed as minorities. white people are 400% more likely to get a presidential pardon than african-americans and other minorities. even when you control ...

Times. he knows i will take that very, very seriously. >> geragos also is a political connection. he helped secure a pardon from president clinton for which of his clients. a mark rich. susan mcdoogle. d roger clinton. geragos got a pardon from bill clinton and the answer is susan mcdougald. so it's a tie, correct? >> bill: i hoped that wouldn't happen don't gloat doocy. >> bolster his ego once a week. >> for his book "it" steven king wrote about a killer clown. >> i georgey am the dancing clown. you are georgey so now we know each other. >> i guess. so i got to go. >> go? without this?