[Banfield:] Hi, everybody. Wake up with us. It's 6:29 and you're almost late for work. I'm Ashleigh Banfield.
[Sambolin:] And I'm Zoraida Sambolin. I hope not. Welcome back to EARLY START. On the agenda in the next half hour, five days to New Hampshire. Romney picking up a huge endorsement. Santorum picking up the fund- raising big time. Not bad. And we're waking up Joey Pants. And you would only know who that is if you watch us. Well, now you know because we're putting a picture up there. But we try calling him I think on day two of our show, was it? Or was it the other one?
[Banfield:] Oh, yes. Total bust.
[Sambolin:] Yes.
[Banfield:] Yes. It didn't work. That phone call
[Sambolin:] He's going to answer the phone today.
[Banfield:] How do you know that?
[Sambolin:] Because I feel it. I feel good about this, Ashleigh.
[Banfield:] I think he would have answered. I think it was our problem. We were dialing and getting, you know, these numbers not in service anymore and I thought maybe he's just given me a bogus number to be nice to get rid of me.
[Sambolin:] Fair enough.
[Banfield:] But it really is it's still a good number. So we'll give it another try and see what's Pants has to say about he's huge into politics. He may be a former "Soprano" cast member, but this guy loves his politics. So we're going to find out what he thinks about what happened in Iowa. Thirty minutes past the hour now. It's to get you up on the big stories of the day. U.S. military may not longer be able to fight two ground wars at the very same time. The president and the defense secretary are going to unveil a new Pentagon strategy today. It includes cutting a whole bunch of troops to cut defense costs.
[Zoraida Sambolin, Cnn Anchor:] The accused Hollywood arsonist, Harry Burkhart, a German citizen is now charged with 37 counts of arson. Police alleged he set more than 50 fires in an arson spree triggered by his anger over an immigration hearing last week for his mother.
[Banfield:] And I don't know if you missed it, but it's fun. Ron Paul slamming Jon Huntsman with this tweet. "We found your one Iowa voter and he's in Linn precinct five. You might want to call him and say thanks." Last night, Ron Paul tried to explain this to CNN's Piers Morgan. And Mr. Huntsman responded.
[Rep. Ron Paul , Presidential Candidate:] Well, you know, that was done, you know, through staff. It was supposed to be good humor. And, I mean, I I just didn't think that was a big deal.
[Jon Huntsman , Presidential Candidate:] You think he would have learned the perils of ghost written subject matter by now. But I have to tell you at the end of the day, I actually found it to be pretty humorous.
[Banfield:] I love that they are being nice about it. I was expecting at least one of them, maybe the governor, to go like oh, snap, no, you didn't. But we didn't get that much out of him.
[Sambolin:] I don't know that I was expecting that one. All right. So, next stop here is New Hampshire. Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul are ramping up for round two now. Romney is already in the Granite State and picked up a big endorsement for John McCain. Did you see that?
[Banfield:] Yes. It was kind of found to watch, although I have to admit, John McCain didn't seem like he was on his game. He is such a great campaigner. I just used to love watching the campaign rallies. But I almost fell like he was a bit, I don't know, just a little different.
[Sambolin:] Tired.
[Banfield:] It could have been. He had a lot of travel to do. So, here you go. We got more news about the politics story, too. If you were watching, Michele Bachmann some people called this emotional, I didn't think it was emotional. I thought she was very straight to the message. She was very thankful to her God and to her supporters, but said, I'm stepping aside. So I'm out. Goodbye, Ms. Bachmann. And hello, New Hampshire. We still got more to go, folks. Let's hear what's ahead with our politics panel. In New York, Will Cain, columnist of "The Blaze," getting up early for us. And in San Diego, Ruben Navarrette, syndicated columnist with "The Washington Post" writers group. And in Chicago, conservative commentator, Lenny McAllister. Gentlemen, I got to talk about Rick Santorum for a moment because, well, everything has been all about the money that he's been raising. I want to talk about pork politics because it's very rare that you get to hear someone defending pork, earmarks and he does. He's been under a lot of attacks and probably going to get sharper, those attacks, for his defense of pork. Let's listen and talk on the other side.
[Rick Santorum , Presidential Candidate:] All I said is what the constitution provides is that Congress appropriates funds. And that's what we do. We appropriate funds and as Ron Paul did, as Jim DeMint did, it is about every member of Congress did when you go to Congress, you make sure that when taxes go from your state to Washington, D.C., you fight to make sure you get your fair share back.
[Banfield:] OK. Will Cain, I don't know. Is that going to pass mustard with Tea Partiers and people who just hate pork no matter how you explain it?
[Will Cain, Cnn Contributor:] Depends on if they want to think or not. If they're going to continue voting on emotion and style, and how they perceive somebody to be, then no. But if we are going to continue to look into these candidates and see what they think, yes, it should matter. You add this to the fact that Rick Santorum voted against NAFTA. He's basically anti-free trade. He advocated for varying corporate tax rates on different industries, picking winners and losers. And you come up with the conclusion I don't see how Rick Santorum checks the boxes at these conservative purists at least on economic issues.
[Sambolin:] All right. Lenny, let's switch to you and talk about Rick Perry. He's out. He's in. Romney apparently is happy. This is what he tweeted yesterday. He said, "In the next leg of the marathon is a Palmetto State. Here we come, South Carolina." What do you make of this?
[Lenny Mcallister, Conservative Commentator:] You know what, if I were Mitt Romney, I wouldn't necessarily want Rick Perry getting back into this race. I think it was very good move for Rick Perry because, again, we have seen every other anti-Romney candidate make a flub that makes the Tea Partyfar right wing of the conservative movement move away from that candidate. And you've already seen it with Rick Santorum and the earmarks statement. We'll see how he does with these debates as a front-runner now. But if he starts sliding down the polls, who has the money and organization, the volunteers, to get back into this race? Rick Perry. If his floor was Iowa, if his floor was the early debate performances and can move up from here, he has the structure to get back in this race, I think it is a very good move not to quit now.
[Banfield:] Money, money. I'm glad you said that because, Ruben Navarrette, jump in on this with me, some people thought that was not a reassessment of Rick Perry's campaign. That whole nanosecond he was back in Texas, but that it might have been actually met with some additional bucks, that that was, you know, propelled him to jump right back in. And to know he really could make it through South Carolina and Florida. Do you think that was really the key to the reason he decided to jump back in after the reassessment? Was it a reassessment or was it sort of a re-juicing?
[Ruben Navarrette, Cnn Contributor:] Yes, rebooting. Another trip to that ATM in Texas. It's possible that this was really a trip to Texas to see how long will you be with me, going back to his donors and saying I intended to go to South Carolina, to go on, to make it to Florida and Nevada. Will you be with me all the way? That may have been what is at work here. What Mitt Romney it's double-edged sword because I almost think Romney needs the field to start thinning out because to some degree, yes, you want to keep them fighting among themselves while you stay up on top. But at some point, he's got to unify the party and why not to begin the process earlier as opposed to later. So, the sooner the Republicans can center in on Romney as their candidate, if, in fact, that's going to happen, the better it is for Romney.
[Banfield:] That old 25 percent thorn in the side of this candidate. He just can't push that glass ceiling. Will, I'm going to ask you about this in a little bit but I got to move ahead because we got Soledad's show coming up as well. And we want everybody to keep it here because we have the best political coverage on television. If you didn't see it there Senator John McCain is going to join us live on "STARTING POINT" with Soledad. That's coming in the 7:00 hour.
[Sambolin:] And Soledad has a big show for you this morning. She'll also be talking to Christine O'Donnell. That is scheduled for the 7:00 hour. The Tea Party darling has endorsed Mitt Romney. But will the rest of the Tea Partiers go along with her is the question.
[Banfield:] So, you know that song actually, that's not the one I was thinking. That's our music.
[Sambolin:] That's our music, right.
[Banfield:] I thought we were bogey to hear the song of "The Soprano," the theme song, woke up this morning. Joey Pants, this dude loves his politics. And he has no idea his phone is about to ring. So, we're going to hear how he is first thing in the morning. Does he sleep and think politics? Is he good when he first wakes up? Can he react to what happened in this week in Iowa? You're going to find out in a minute.