Political Hotsheet

Romney reminds Iowa it's a year to Election Day

Mitt Romney, Iowa

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, speaks during a campaign stop at Giese Manufacturing, Monday, Nov. 7, 2011, in Dubuque, Iowa.

/ AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall

Updated 11:30 p.m. ET

DUBUQUE, Iowa - Mitt Romney, continuing his practice of focusing on President Obama instead of his Republican opponents, on Monday alluded to the one year remaining before Election Day 2012 in seeking to contrast himself with the president.

"About a year from now, you're going to wake up and turn on the TV and it's going to say one of two things," Romney told an audience at the Giese Manufacturing steel plant in Dubuque. "One, it's going to say President Obama has been reelected to a second term. If that's the case, you know what the next four years look like; they look like the last four years we've just endured.... The alternative, of course, is that you turn on your TV about a year from now and instead of seeing the Obama camp celebrating you'll see something on the TV that says, 'Mitt is it.' And I will have won."

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Bachmann: "Frugal socialists" among my opponents

Republican presidential hopeful U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., speaks during the Iowa Republican Party's Ronald Reagan Dinner, Friday, Nov. 4, 2011, in Des Moines, Iowa.

/ Michele Bachmann, Iowa
WASHINGTON - Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., clarified the conditions under which she would demand a balanced budget from Congress and pledged to cut off foreign aid to countries that hold U.S. treasury bonds, while taking aim at some of her fellow candidates as "frugal socialists" in a Monday speech to the Family Research Council.

Bachmann expanded on previous policy positions, in which she has pledged to send balanced budgets to Congress. But in a move that is likely built on her efforts to shore up her foreign policy chops, Bachmann said Monday she would never send Congress an unbalanced budget - "except in times of declared war."

The move would allow Bachmann more leeway in discussing how she might wage a war as commander in chief. She criticized President Obama for his handling of both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, telling the audience of roughly 40 people that Obama "has not listened to his troops on the ground. He has not listened to General Austin in Iraq. He has listened to General Axelrod in Chicago," referring to Obama's strategist David Axelrod.

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Woman accuses Cain of "inappropriate" advance

UPDATED at 4:15 p.m. ET

A Chicago woman accused Herman Cain on Monday of trying to get sexual favors more than a decade ago in exchange for his help finding her a new job just after she had lost her post at an arm of the restaurant association he was then running.

The woman, Sharon Bialek, is the fourth woman who has accused Cain of sexually inappropriate behavior in the late 1990s and the first to go public with her charges. She outlined her story at a high-profile New York City press conference at the Friars Club.

"I want you, Mr. Cain, to come clean," she said with her attorney, Gloria Allred, at her side. Allred is known for her media savvy and for representing women who have had legal issues with the rich and powerful.

Bialek said Cain put his hand under her skirt and pushed her head toward his crotch after a dinner together in 1997 after she asked to meet him to discuss ways he might be able to help her find employment. She said he backed away after she asked him to stop. Her boyfriend at the time on Monday issued a statement released by Allred confirming that she told him about the incident at the time. Allred did not release the boyfriend's name.

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Bill Clinton backs Rick Perry on immigration

Former President Bill Clinton speaks at the Clinton Foundation's "Decade of Difference" concert on Oct. 15, 2011, in Hollywood, Calif.

/ ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images
Despite all the heat Rick Perry has taken for his stance on immigration, at least one politician is willing to go to bat for the Texas governor's record on the issue: Former President Bill Clinton.

Clinton, in an interview with USA Today, praised Perry for passing the so-called Texas DREAM Act, which grants undocumented immigrants in-state college tuition if they have lived in Texas for at least three years and have graduated from high school or obtained a GED certificate.

"It makes my skin crawl when they attack Rick Perry for one of the best things he did," Clinton said. "What would they like? Would they like the kid to stand on a corner and sell dope or something?"

Clinton, who is promoting his upcoming book "Back to Work," which comes out on Tuesday, conceded that he thinks that "most of what [GOP presidential candidates are] debating is crazy," but that Democrats shouldn't make the mistake of writing them off.

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What do you want to ask the GOP candidates?

On Saturday, November 12, at 8 p.m. ET, CBS News and National Journal will present the first Republican presidential primary debate on broadcast television. It will take place at Wofford College in Spartanburg, S.C., and will be moderated by CBS Evening News anchor and managing editor Scott Pelley and National Journal congressional correspondent Major Garrett. The debate will focus primarily on national security and foreign policy. Viewers will be able to watch the debate on the CBS Television Network and streaming live right here on CBSNews.com.

The CBS News/National Journal debate will provide an opportunity for you to submit your own questions, some of which may be asked to the candidates by the debate moderators. We encourage you to submit questions that will challenge the candidates on a variety of topics.

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New Herman Cain accuser to come forward

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain pauses while speaking at the Congressional Health Caucus Thought Leaders Series, Nov. 2, 2011, on Capitol Hill in Washington.

/ AP

Another woman alleging that Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain sexually harassed her in the 1990's will come forward today, according to her attorney Gloria Allred.

According to a press release from Allred, the woman charges that Cain harassed her during his tenure as chief executive of the National Restaurant Association (NRA), when she sought help from him with an employment issue.

The woman plans to make her allegations public at a press conference with Allred on Friday at 1:30 p.m. in New York City.

Allred's client would be the first of Cain's accusers to speak publicly about the charges. Already, three former NRA employees have reported that they were harassed by Cain at the restaurant lobbying group; two of the women filed formal complaints and reached settlement agreements with the NRA.

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Poll: Cain favorability falls after scandal

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain speaks at the Defending the American Dream Summit, Friday, Nov. 4, 2011, in Washington.

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain

/ file,AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari

Herman Cain's poll numbers dropped for the first time since revelations last week that he was accused of sexual harassment more than a decade ago, a poll released Sunday showed.

The poll, conducted by Ipsos for Thomson Reuters, showed the former pizza chain restaurant executive's favorability rating among Republicans fell to 57 percent from 66 percent a week earlier.

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Cain: Wife took sex claims "harder than I did"

Herman and Gloria Cain

In this May 21, 2011, file photo, Gloria Cain accompanies her husband Herman Cain as he announces his run as a Republican candidate for president in Atlanta.

/ AP

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain, who spent much of last week defending himself against decade-old allegations of sexual harassment and assault, says the ordeal has been harder on his wife than on himself, and he's still "in it to win it."

Cain told the Fox News Channel's "Geraldo At Large" that confronting the allegations has, for him, been "like I'm in the boxing match every day, throwing punches back," but his wife Gloria, who has seen the dramatic accusations unfold in the media every day, "actually took it harder than I did."

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Bachmann: Cain is inconsistent on many issues

Republican presidential hopeful U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., speaks during the Iowa Republican Party's Ronald Reagan Dinner, Nov. 4, 2011, in Des Moines, Iowa.

/ Iowa,Michele Bachmann
Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann says she won't comment on rival candidate Herman Cain's sexual harassment scandal, but criticized him in a radio interview for flip flopping on a host of policy issues.

Speaking to conservative radio host Scott Hennen, in an interview that's scheduled to air on Monday, Bachmann avoided discussing the sexual harassment story that has rocked Cain's campaign for several days, and instead turned the conversation to Cain's changing stances on a variety of issues.

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Presidential hopefuls woo Iowa Republicans

Republican presidential hopeful U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, speaks during the Iowa Republican Party's Ronald Reagan Dinner, , Nov. 4, 2011, in Des Moines, Iowa.

/ AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall

DES MOINES - Just two months from the kick off of the 2012 presidential race at the Iowa caucuses, five Republican contenders for their party's nomination wooed more than 1,000 activists at the state GOP's Reagan dinner here on Friday. Missing are the two candidates leading in the Des Moines Register's most recent poll of caucus-goers: Mitt Romney and Herman Cain.

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Perry's campaign discloses more private jet costs

AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall

Rick Perry's presidential campaign on Friday reported nearly $230,000 in new expenses related to private jet use, after a report revealed last month the campaign mistakenly under-paid the owners of the jets.

The campaign reported the expenses to the Federal Election Commission today, including more than $22,000 paid to Waco businessman Brian Pardo and more than $66,000 to Midland Energy CEO Javaid Anwar. Last month, the New York Times reported that Perry's campaign was improperly reimbursing the jet owners.

The campaign said it was calculating the cost of flights based on the percentage of seats used by campaign officials, instead of the full cost of renting a plane as required under the law (the law was tightened a few years ago).

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Romney plan: Slash spending, overhaul Medicare

AP

WASHINGTON -- Mitt Romney on Friday proposed a sweeping overhaul of the nation's spending priorities in a speech here to a conservative group that also heard from his beleaguered Republican presidential rival, Herman Cain.

For the second day in a row, Romney pressed for an extensive program of spending cuts that he said would slash $500 billion from the federal budget. Romney's program, outlined to a gathering sponsored by the conservative group Americans for Prosperity, includes a proposal give future recipients of Medicare a choice on opting into the existing federal retirement program or purchasing their own health insurance with a federal stipend. The idea is bound to be controversial, but Romney argued that President Obama already has reduced Medicare benefits as part of his new health care law.

Romney reiterated many of his plans for cutting federal programs, but didn't just talk about ways he would save money.

"I will reverse President Obama's massive defense cuts," he said. "Any savings that we can find in the core defense budget we will redirect to rebuild our Navy and our Air Force, to add active duty soldiers and sailors and to provide the care that our veterans so richly deserve."

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Cain accuser stands by complaint, won't go public

Updated 5:47 p.m. Eastern Time

The lawyer for one of the woman who received a financial settlement after alleging sexual harassment by Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain when he was head of the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s said Friday that the woman stands by her allegations but is choosing not to discuss them publicly.

The woman "sees no value in revisiting" the complaint, attorney Joel Bennett said, saying the woman and her husband feel it would be "extremely painful to do so."

"My client stands by the complaint that she made," said Bennett, adding that "she would disagree with the statement's [Cain has] made concerning her complaint."

"She made a complaint in good faith about a series of inappropriate behaviors and unwanted advances from the CEO," he said.Bennett did not provide details of the allegations but did say that multiple incidents took place "over a period of time at least a month or two."

Cain has flatly denied all allegations of sexual misconduct and complained of a "witch hunt" against him. In response to the statement, Cain spokesman J.D. Gordon said, "We look forward to focusing our attention on the real issues impacting this country -- like fixing this broken economy and putting Americans back to work through our 9-9-9 Plan, as well as strengthening national security."

Bennett said the woman is not interested in "exposing herself personally...she prefers her privacy and not to be a public figure." He said she appreciates the media and public respecting her privacy.

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Can Cain survive sexual harassment scandal?

At the end of a week dominated by revelations Herman Cain was accused of sexual harassment more than a decade ago, CBS News political correspondent Jan Crawford spoke to the reporter who broke the story: Politico's Jonathan Martin.

Martin and the Huffington Post's Sam Stein chatted with Crawford about the future of Cain's campaign and more on this week's Hotsheet Live.

"Mr. Cain continues to deny the allegations. He first blamed the media, then blame liberals and then pointed a finger at Rick Perry," Martin said on "Hotsheet Live." "He's now sort of backing off that or his campaign was backing off that but obviously his campaign has faced some real tough questions about this, this week."

"The fact that he's had for him, a historic fundraising couple of days, 1.2 million is a lot considering where he was. It doesn't surprise me, this is sort of playing the victim card sort of speak," Stein said.

Watch the full discussion in the video to the left, including the roundtable's take on who gains from the potential fallout and why opponent Mitt Romney hasn't yet commented.

Herman Cain: "I am the Koch brothers' brother"

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain speaks at the Defending the American Dream Summit, Friday, Nov. 4, 2011, in Washington. file,AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari
Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain embraced the controversial Koch brothers at a speech at an Americans for Prosperity (AFP) conference Friday, telling a cheering crowd: "I am the Koch brothers' brother from another mother."

Cain made the comments in response to a New York Times story Friday discussing Cain and his campaign manager Mark Block's ties to Americans for Prosperity, the conservative advocacy group co-founded and funded in part by David and Charles Koch, the wealthy businessmen who've become targets of the left for their political activity.

Block led the Wisconsin branch of AFP, and Cain and many of his top staffers have worked for the group. (Cain spearheaded its "Prosperity Expansion Project" in 2005.) An outside lawyer is examining whether Prosperity USA, a tax-exempt group founded by Block and reportedly partially funded by AFP groups, illegally subsidized Cain's presidential run.

In his remarks Friday, Cain referenced the Times story, saying the newspaper "tries to make a case of how close the Koch brothers and I are."

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