Top Republican strategists to Face the Nation
This Sunday's guests are Republican consultants Ed Rollins, Liz Cheney, and Ed Gillespie and Ken Blackwell, a Rick Perry Supporter and former Ohio Secretary of State, plus CBS News political analyst John Dickerson. Also, a special appearance by new political commentators, the Jon Huntsman girls.
Has the Herman Cain train run off the tracks? Allegations of sexual harassment were met with flat denials followed by admissions and an ever changing explanation of what happened.
"I have never sexually harassed anyone. Let's say that. Secondly, um, I've never sexually harassed anyone," he started the week saying. Later, Cain remembered some of the details. "I cannot even remember her name, she had not been a long-term employee, but I do remember the formal allegations she made in terms of sexual harassment," he said, both statements coming in interviews to Fox News.
But Cain has tried to weather the storm, keeping his busy campaign schedule, including a dinner with senators and a meeting with a doctors group in Virginia.
"Let me say one thing I'm here with these doctors and that's what I'm going to talk about so don't even bother asking me all of these other questions you all are curious about, so don't even bother," he told reporters, clearly unnerved by the burst of attention.
And then Cain went on the attack, blaming the Perry campaign for leaking the story to Politico, which broke the story Sunday.
"The actions of the Perry campaign are despicable. Rick Perry and his campaign owe Herman Cain and his family an apology. It's an outrage," said Cain's chief of staff Mark Block in an interview.
For his part, Texas Governor Rick Perry denies that his campaign has behind the story, as he has been pushing his campaign back into gear after falling to single digits in most national polls. But the video of a speech he gave last weekend in New Hampshire has gone viral.
"I come from a state where they have this little place called the Alamo and they declared victory or death. You know we're kinda into those slogans man...live free or die, victory or death...BRING IT," he said last Friday, leaving many pundits to suggest that Perry wasn't all there when he made the speech, either from medicine or alcohol. He flatly denies that he was under the influence of either.
Trying to get back on message, Perry's campaign has also gone on the airwaves, with a positive campaign ad in both Iowa in New Hampshire.
"If you are looking for a slick politician, or a guy with great teleprompter skills, we already have that. And he's destroying our economy. I'm a doer, not a talker.," he says in the ad."
Perry continued to hit his key issue of job creation and spending while campaigning in the early primary states. "Are you better today than you were four trillion dollars ago?" Perry asked an audience in Johnston, Iowa.
Meanwhile, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has laid low on the Cain story, but has continued his laser like aim at the current occupant of the White House, rolling out a major speech on deficit reduction.
"The right course for us is to be fiscally responsible. And to recognize that deficits do matter, they matter a lot. We are a party that recognizes you don't spend what you don't have. Deficits matter," said Romney.
Can Herman Cain survive the scandal? Can Rick Perry rebound in the polls? Can Mitt Romney convince conservatives that he's the real deal and the best candidate to beat the President?
Those will be among the issues discussed as Ed Rollins, Liz Cheney, Ed Gillespie, Kevin Madden, an adviser to the Mitt Romney campaign, Ken Blackwell, a Rick Perry Supporter and former Ohio Secretary of State, and CBS News political analyst John Dickerson join Bob Schieffer this Sunday to Face the Nation.
And tune in for a special visit to by the nation's newest political commentators -- Abby Huntsman Livingston, Mary Anne Huntsman, and Liddy Huntsman, the daughters of candidate Jon Huntsman, the Jon2012girls!
