good economic news. >> we come to germa to find out why it'soing so much better than its european partners. the castle behind me may date from the 1700s, but the economic model they've developed here is 21st century-plus. >> woodruff: jeffrey brown talks with zbigniew brzezinski about america's place on the global stage and his new book "strategic vision." >> the tragedy is the public's understanding of world affairs today is abysmal. it is probably the least informed public. >> ifill: the "washington post" investigates the connection between the private interests and public roles of members of congress. >> woodruff: and special correspondent dave iverson takes us to the theater, where the son of san francisco mayor george moscone remembers his father's legacy, after he was gunned down in 1978. >> ifill: that's all ahead on tonight's "newshour." major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> ifill: it was a big night and day after for rick santorum. he swept the latest round of republican presidential nominating tests and, in so doing, altered the complexion of the race. >> conservatism is alive and well in missouri and minnesota. >> ifill: the former pennsylvania senator scored decisive victories in both those states, plus a five-point win in colorado out gunning frontrunner mitt romney in all three of tuesday's contests. >> i don't stand here today to claim to be the conservative alternative to mitt romney, i stand here to be the conservative alternative to barack obama. >> ifill: santorum won with minimal turnout-- less than 6% of the voting-age population in missouri. and in colorado and minnesota, less than 2%. still, his trifecta dealt a blow to romney's inevitability argument, days after he scored decisive wins in both florida and nevada. the former massachusetts governor addressed his supporters last night in denver. >> this was a good night for rick santorum, i want to congratulate senator santorum, wish him the very best, we will keep on campaigning down the road, but i expect to become the nominee with your help. ( applause ) >> ifill: the romney campaign tried to play down tuesday's bad news. in a memo released in advance by political director, rich beeson. "there is no way for any nominee to win first place in every single contest," beeson wrote, "but unlike the other candidates, our campaign has the resources and organization to keep winning over the long run." tuesday's results can only help santorum's underfinanced campaign. he said today he raised a quarter of a million dollars overnight. texas congressman ron paul finished second in minnesota, third in missouri and last in colorado. he spoke last night in his strongest state. >> believe it or not, we did very well tonight and have a very, very strong second place and it's going to continue. >> ifill: former house speaker newt gingrich finished far back in both colorado and minnesota and wasn't on the ballot in missouri. at a cleveland factory today, he ignored the results as he talked up manufacturing. >> you cannot be the arsenal of democracy if you don't have an arsenal. so we very badly need to rebuild our manufacturing base so that we are competitive. >> ifill: because no delegates were officially awarded last night, romney has still won the most so far. but an associated press analysis based on last night's margins of victory concludes that while romney remains ahead with 107 delegates, santorum is now in second place with 69-- ahead of gingrich and paul. those delegates would be officially be allocated at upcoming party conventions and caucuses. more than 1,100 are needed to clinch the nationanomition "newshour" political editor christina bellantoni is here with more on what's next after santorum's surprising trifecta. christina, given these three outcomes from last night, which one did you find the most surprising? >> colorado was definitely the most surprising. missouri, which i'm sure we can talk about, was less of a formal contest. not very many people turned out. minnesota was going to be a little tighter, but colorado, mitt romney was favored here. there weren't very many polls coming in to the caucus. they were mostly done by a public policy polling, a left-leaning pollster, but romney was favored by 10, 12 points in a lot of these polls and some fairly recently. with santorum winning by five point, as you can see on our map, romney was able to win the northwestern part of the state, which is close to utah, where he has a strength. but he was not able to really deliver. another big surprising thing of the night, this green portion here is the one county where newt gingrich actually won in all three of the states, and i think that's a surprising result as well because this was something where everybody looked at him as perhaps coming in second place, and he didn even really show up. >> ifill: given the low turnout, which we saw, how much of it was a romney loss and how much a santorum win? >> i think santorum's folks look at it as a big win for him. they've been able to raise a lot of money and capture the momentum, and the media attention, you won iowa and you didn't find out you won iowa for two weeks, he didn't get the national attention he's getting today so that's a win for him. it does suggest a lot about a lack of enthusiasm for mitt romney. he wasn't able to get his people out. turp out was l in all three of these states. >> ifill: let's walk through the other two state, in minnesota, what did we see happening there? >> well, minnesota-- and this is a caucus state and it's an area where you can't always predict what will happen there? there are a lot of political dynamics in minnesota on both the republican and democratic side. you had two candidates from minnesota running for president before they actually dropped out, tim pawlenty, and michele bachmann. >> ifill: both kicking tmselve >> ys. bachmann has not endorsed anyone, so who knows if that made any difference but rick santorum was able to really deliver here. it is very important to note the turnout was down in all of these state. down 7% in colorado and 23% for minnesota, and missouri, just half of the people turned out this time that turned out in 2008. >> ifill: let's talk about missouri. is missouri a particularly conservative state among republican circles? >> yes, missouri is very conservative. a lot of evangelicals live there. it's the home of rush limbaugh, where he grew up, and it's an area that was a battled ground state. it slipped away from democrats in recent years. the presidential contest, the obama campaign isn't considering contesting it. phyllis schaafedly, an icon of the early female movement on the conservative side, she was a big endorser for him. she was with bachmann before. he was able to drive home a lot of key groups. >> ifill: is it too soon to say ran corm has relaced gingrich, who wasn't on the map in request of these states as the anti-romney? >> it might be too soon but one of the indications is what the romney campaign is doing. they have gone out with press releases. the question is do they put anti-santorum ads on television ahead of these contests february 28 in arizona and michigan, and then super tuesday, march 6. santorum, if he's able to put some money on the air as well-- he's raising all this money-- that could be very interesting. >> ifill: i know you will be watching, christina bellantoni, thanks a lot. >> woodruff: john brabender, a senior strategist to senator santorum's presidential campaign, joins us now from pittsburgh. wray, thank you for joining us. >> thank you for having me. >> woodruff: congratulations to your candidate. i do want to ask you, yes, the senator won in three states, but with such low turnout-- we heard 2%, 6%-- how much of of an accomplishment was it? >> i think it matteraise lot because it's the people who are paying the most attention in the republican party right now and each state had its own symbolism, if you will. missouri was particularly interesting to me because exactly why you said there. newt gingrich was not on the ballot. it's the one state with rick santorum had a clear shot against mitt romney. it was the moderate versus conservative battle and rick santorum up with the state by 30 points. and minnesota was and he canned to be tight, and mitt romney only got 17, 18% of the vote. so i think that there was a lot said. there have been eight states so far, and rick santorum has won half of them glued speaking of governor romney, he was out on the trail today saying, yes, congratulations to senator santorum, but he said in effect we didn't really compete head to head. we didn't really compete in colorado and minnesota. he said when we do, we can beat him. >> yeah, well, i thought it was also interesting as you mentioned they put out a press release yesterday saying they're the best candidate because they're the best funded. the truth of the matter is, i feel these are excuses, and frankly i think you have to wonder if these aren't slightly insulting to the states that did hold their primaries and caucuses yesterday, after the fact, he's saying those states didn't mart to him. >> woodruff: you know mitt romney is coming after rick santorum, saying when he was in the senate the debt ceiling was raised i think he said six or seven times, and talks about federal spending shooting up when senator santorum was in the senate. he said what this country need is somebody who was not part of washington back then. >> two things, we're talking about mitt romney-- basically, romney-care became obama-care. we're talkin talking about mitty who supported the wall street bailout, which is deeply offensive to tea party supporters. he actually was an insider in the sense he was in washington, but he acted like an outsider. he was part of the gang of seven that closedly the scandal ridden house bank and post office. he got away from perks with senators like taxpayer-funded meals and haircuts and he reformed welfe, taking millions from welfare to work and getting rid of all the abuse. if governor romney want took match for match as far as who has had a bigger impact on fiscal sanity being brought to washington and this campaign trail, we sort of welcome that. >> woodruff: the image many people have of senator santorum is he appeals mainly to social conservatives in theespect party. where are those voters going to be in the contests that come up in late february in michigan and arizona, the super tuesday states in early march? are there enough of those voters for him to continue with the kind of success that he had last night? >> well, first of all, i think you've goat to be a little careful. do those groups appeal-- does the senator appeal to those groups? absolutely because he's been consistent on those issues, unlike mitt romney who has been all over the map on, for example, the life issue. rick santorum has been consistent on those issues. so they do appeal to him. however, i do believe his blue-collar roots, coming from pennsylvania. his plans to bring back manufacturing jobs from china, his fiscal responsibility, all of those are toward eye broader group of people supporting him. rick santorum won won every single county last night against romney. you cannot do that unless you're getting groups from the conservatives and tea party. >> woodruff: the other comment, john brabender, we're hearing today just this afternoon from the romney camp, they're the one campaign with the money and resources to go the distance. now, we know this you were raising money overnight. i gather there was a 20-minute hold at your campaign office from people who wanted to donate. how much money have you raised? and how much of a problem is it just to keep at it? >> look, i will-- i will acknowledge right now that if the campaign simply comes down to who can the largest number of attack ads we should quit all the primaries and declare mitt romney the winner. however, the fact that rick santorum has won half of the states so far, spending just a fraction of the amount that mitt romney has spent, says to me that people care a heck of a lot more about the message and the manage and their record than how many ads they're going to run on tv. >> woodruff: you're in pitts puring, the area with senator santorum grew up. are we to assume you're shooting commercials there to air for his campaign now? >> i also am a native of pennsylvania and i was here doing some things. rick, unfortunately, is not here in pennsylvania today. he's in texas and on to oklahoma. but thisis-- pennsylvania is very much a big part of the hub of the santorum campaign, and many things relative to the campaign are producing here, and many of our volunteers and supporters and staff come from pennsylvania and we're very thrilled the fact that come april, we're also going to have a primary here. >> woodruff: shooting a commercial? >> i was here shooting a commercial today but i'm not telling you any more than that. >> woodruff: finally. if iowa had gotten the results right in the first place, how much difference do you think that would have made? >> i'm sure it would have made some but that's lking back. all i know is last night there were three primaries and caucuses in this country, and rick sabsantorum won all three. the strange thing about presidential primaries and this process is there's no time to look back or even any time to stop and enjoy what just happened. you have to look forward and you have to deal with the cards that are you dealt, and what we believe right now is we have the momentum. the excitement's there. these weren't small victories. we won by big margins we're seeing contributions coming into ricksantum.com coming in through the roof. as you said, there was a long delay today because we had to add more servers. we're pretty excited about where we are and i think there are a lot of people in this country who for the first time in these primaries are very excited about a candidate. >> woodruff: john brabender, thank you for joining us. >> thank you for having me. i appreciate it. >> ifill: still to come on the "newshour": europe's strongest economy; zbigniew brzezinski's world view; private interests and public roles. plus, the legacy of san francisco mayor george moscone. but first, the other news of the day. here's hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: republicans stepped up the pressure on president obama today over a mandate that religious schools and hospitals provide birth control for employees. the provision has spawned a political storm, with catholic leaders and others saying they would have to violate their own teachings against contraception. on the house floor today, speaker john boehner called it an unambiguous attack on religious freedom. >> the federal government has drifted dangerously beyond its constitutional boundaries. if the president does not reverse the department's attack on america's religious freedom then the congress acting on behalf of the american peop and the constitution that we are sworn to uphold and defend must. >> sreenivasan: white house officials suggested tuesday that a compromise might be in the works. spokesman jay carney followed up today. >> we're trying to implement a policy that will affect millions of women-- all women in this country-- and to do in a way that's sensitive to people's religious beliefs. and that reflects the approach the president takes and that reflects the approach that secreta sebelius is taking. >> sreenivasan: carney also criticized republican presidential candidate mitt romney for attacking the birth control mandate. the white house spokesman said massachusetts had a nearly identical policy when romney was governor. romney shot back that the policy was already in place before he took office. the house voted today to grant line-item veto authority to the president. he would be empowered to eliminate specific items in spending bills, instead of having to veto or accept the entire bill. congress would then have to approve the specified cuts. the measure faces an uncertain future in the senate. the u.s. supreme court struck down a previous line-item veto law, in 1998. wall street had a relatively quiet day. the dow jones industrial average gained five points to close just below 12,884. the nasdaq rose more than 11 points to close near 2,916. in syria, the military assault on the city of homs was unrelenting, despite president bashar al-assad's talk of peace. amnesty international warned of a growing humanitarian crisis. we have a report from lindsey hilsum of "independent television" news, in beirut, lebanon. be advised: some of the images may be disturbing. >> reporter: the syrian president says the bloodshed must end, but not quite yet. government forces have been shelling homes for five days now. each day, more terrifying than the last. amateur video coming out of homs shows fire and destruction, few residents dare brave the tanks on the street, patrolling homes with no electricity and diminishing stocks of food. maybe he doesn't care if he's hit. the child in his arm is dead. activists say killed by a rocket which fell on the family home. the bodies are taken to a makeshift morgue. we can't verify the numbers but government opponents say scores of people were killed today. medical supplies are running short. an aid agent today accused the syrian government of targeting medical facilitys. doctors are in despair. >> andy: >> andy: barbarana has been under rocket attack since 5:00 a.m. we are treating this man in the mosque. he needs a hospital. we can't help him here. >> reporter: activists say government snipers are hiding in buildings. just driving along the road is dangerous. >> the syrian state tv version of events is a mirror image-- armed gangs are blamed for everything. >> andy: >> andy: the bombs are from armed gangs. who else? it is not safe to walk here. i can't find any bakers open because the militants won't allow them to open. >> reporter: outside home the military convoy stretches on and on. dozens more tanks are being transported towards the city where president bashar al-assad is showing syrians that whatever the human cost, his regime will prevail. >> sreenivasan: european union officials said today they will discuss tougher economic sanctions on syria, when they meet at the end of the month. but russian prime minister vladimir putin warned against interference. he said, "we should not act like a bull in a china shop." the prime minister of egypt insisted today that a crackdown on foreign non-profit groups will go forward. on sunday, judges referred 16 americans and 24 other foreigners to trial. they are accused of illegally using foreign money to stir unrest. the u.s. and others have threatened to cut off aid to egypt unless the military-backed government relents. but in cairo, prime minister kamal el ganzouri was defiant. >> ( translated ): egypt will follow and abide by the law. egypt has known civilization for thousands of years, so egypt won't back down or take a different route because of the threat of losing some aid. >> sreenivasan: u.s. officials say the americans being held in egypt have done nothing wrong. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to judy. >> woodruff: and to europe's debt crisis. negotiations are going down to the wire on yet another bailout for greece. one that would require german help. from germany, margaret warner reports on some of the people who help make it europe's richest country. >> reporter: the restaurant dionysus was packed on a recent night, heaping plates of greek fare flying from kitchen to table. but at this eatery named for the god of wine, the drink of choice is german beer. owner christos kesitzidis spent 18 years building this showcase of his homelands cuisine for the good folks of frankfurt. but now the economic crisis in greece-- and demands that germany play financial backstop to europe-- has this proud greek wishing his old home behaved a bit more like his neone. >> ( translated ): the difference between germany and greece is that the germans are just working harder than the greeks. >> reporter: that work ethic is forged at places like the herrenknecht factory in germany's booming black forest region. owner and founder, martin herrenknecht grew up in a tiny village here, the son of an upholsterer. >> my dream was always to have more people employed than my father. my father had 12 people. >> reporter: more than 4,000 people work here, from young apprentices learning to shape metal to master craftsmen constructing the subterranean ground-eaters built here: tunnel-boring machines that can cost tens of millions of dollars. the secret to germany's success lies in small-to-medium sized family-owned firms like this one that manufacture some specialized and indispensable piece of equipment. germans like to say, "we make the thing that goes inside the thing, that goes inside the thing." in herrenknecht's case, it's a very big thing. some weigh close to 5,000 tons. projects from the beijing subway to new york's second avenue line to a near-40-mile train bed through the alps have relied on herrenknecht's indispensable innovation, a cutting head that can adjust to any material, from soft soil to rock, anywhere. the founder credits much of his success to the century-old mechanical aptitude and ingenuity of the workers of his region. >> before-- let's say 300 years- - we built cuckoo clock and today we build tunnel-boring machines. so we changed from cuckoo clocks to tunnel boring machine. >> reporter: from cuckoo clock to tunnel boring machines, that's quite an evolution. >> it is. >> reporter: most of herrenknecht's $1.5 billion in sales are world-wide, helping make germany an export powerhouse. with just half of america's population and half of its g.d.p., germany exports more than the united states in total, notes norrt walter, former chief economist of deutsche bank. >> we germans have 1% of the labor force of the world and we have 10% of the exports in the world. that gives you an idea how successful and how oriented towards international markets we are. >> reporter: europe's ten-year- old common currency also helps a third of herrenknecht's sales go to his 17 eurozone neighbors, and pricing his machines in euros rather than what economists say would be a far stronger deutsche mark makes them even more competitive in world markets. currencies, you can imagine every morning i should study what is now, let's say, relation to the frenchfairchgs to the peso to the i couldn't work like this! >> reporter: we've come to germany to find out why it's doing so much better than its european partners. and part of the answer lies here, in the southwest state of baden-wurttemberg. the castle behind me may date from the 1700s, but the onomic model they've developed here is 21st century plus. just outside the state capital stuttgart is another one of baden-wurttemberg's high performers, trumpf. customers from harley davidson to apple inc. buy its ever- improving line of laser-driven metal cutting machines, some $2.7 billion worth last year. the family-owned firm devotes 8% of those annual revenues to r&d to keep its innovation edge. but they invest even more in their 9,000-person workforce. like most german firms, do you trumpf hires them young-- after the equivalent of 10th grade for a rigorous, three-year combined training and schooling program, with a five-year commitment to work at the company afterwards. most stay far longer, and many go on to become managers. apprentice simon richter is 19. >> i applied for training because i like the mechanical work not only the theoretical stuff at school. so always the same at school and you don't know what do you for math for in your life later? >> reporter: so do you think you have a good future ahead of you? >> yes, i have, because there >> reporter: trumpf keeps the apprentice program going even in hard times, as when the 2008 global financial crisis melted down the company's sales. >> it was terrible when it hit us. it went from one hour to the next. we didn't have any orders. suddenly at the same time all over the world, no orders! it was really cruel. >> reporter: c.e.o. nicola leibinger-kamuller watched as sales plummeted 40% in two years and she had to drastically cut production. for most firms that would have meant layoffs. but not here. >> it's just a terrible thought having to lay off people because we like our employees and we need them and they are well trained and they're loyal. >> reporter: instead, trumpf turned to a new german program called kurzarbeit or short work- - cutting its german employees work hours and pay, with the government making up part of the difference. trumpf gave the workers extra training on their off days. 26-year-old sebastian frederick and 30-year-old judith schonemeyer took part. >> tom: rof course, we noticed that the financial figures were declining. right from the beginning it was clear. for me it was one or two days per week that i didn't work. we accept the less money so that once the situation improves, we'll have a job and we won't have to start over. >> ( translated ): it gave us a secure feeling, also for the people with families that they have security, that the company stands behind them and that you get to keep your job. so everybody was happy to do without the 5% or extra hours, safety is the most, so to speak, strongest driver in german >> reporter: nicolas brother peter leibinger-- vice chairman of tmpf and head of its laser division-- met with a lot less work program readily accepted by the german workers, positioned industry to restart quickly after the downturn, and it paid off big time for trumpf. >> if we hadn't had this opportunity, we would not have had the upswing that we saw, meaning 50% growth within one year for a company that makes a very difficult and complicated product and has to deliver that into this would not have been possible without us having our workforce on board. >> reporter: the financial caution also helped them weather the global credit crise. they say trumpf carries no major debt, funding its expansions itself. >> no horse races, no yachting. and that's usually why we have enough money to reinvest with our money for research and development and buildings. >> reporter: but even trumpf is feeling a chill wind stirring from some of its fellow e.u. countries, who make up half of he company's sales. since the euro crisis gathered steam last summer, trumpf has seen a slowdown in orders from their customers in italy and spain and even france. >> they said, we'd like to invest. we could use the extra capacity, but we're just so unsure about the future, we are going to wait for awhile. >> reporter: martin herrenknecht with his european customer base is torn over what to do about the crisis. the self-made man is frustrated that germany is being asked to bail out less prudent and hard- working neighbors. >> it's nonsense. they should control it in a better way. it cannot be that we get retirement with 67 years. greeks get 50. >> reporter: but then there's economic reality. do you think germany is going to, should, put up more money as >> i would say that's quite clear. >> reporter: that tension-- how to shore up the eurozone on which germany depends without endangering its own hard-won prosperity is one that germans haven't yet resolved. >> ifill: in her next report, margaret looks at the roiling debate in germany over whether and when to shore up its indebted neighbors. >> woodruff: and we turn to some thoughts about the u.s. role in the world as it shares power with new global players. that's the topic of jeffrey brown's conversation with zbigniew brzezinski, who served as president jimmy carter's national security advisor. >> brown: america must promote a revital ides westnd provide balance to a rising new st, so writes zbigniew brzezinski in his new book "strategic vision: america and the crisis of global power." the former national security adviser castaise harsh eye on what he sees as this country's stagnation at home and unilateralism abroad and offers a corrector. at his northern virginia home recently, we talked about what he calls a shift in the world's center of gravity from the west to the east. how do you define this shift is it a slow rebalancing or is it a true tipping to power in asia, specifically china? >> it means the end of global supremacy by the west. the whole concept of global power, one power dominating the world eventually, is associated with the west. it started with the great explorations, and then the naval competition-- spain, britain, france-- then became a struggle for the control of europe or even eurasia with imperial germany, then naughty germany, then eventually stalinism. that today is no honger attainable because the west has declined in the influence. simultaneously asia has risen. asia is now composed of states that are increasing the dynamic but also competitive so we coff a period of instatistic in the far east. and all over that, furthermore, is complicated by the new reality of what i call global political awakening. that is to say, for the first time in all of human history, the publics of the world, the population of the world is politically awakened, restless, stirring, resen resentful, in my parts increasingly motivated by an anti-western narrative. >> brown: you're seeing this in the arab spring. >> that's one example. >> russia. >> that's another column. >> brown: when you're talking tk about the shift to the east, specifically on china, so much talk about china, so much written about china. what are we not understanding? what vision do you have for china vis-a-vis the u.s.? >> the vision that i have is that we can avoid the head-on collision, which was ald the case in the past, when one major power was ceasing to rise and another rival arose on the scene and aspired to replace the previous one. that usually resulted in a major conflict, and in the last century and a half, in world wars. i think we can avoid that with china in part because of the new reality of interdependence. the fact of the matter is, for the foreseeable future, we know and the chinese knows, if one hurt the other, one will suffer oneself. >> brown: when you're talking about a declining power in the west and rising in the east and you used the word "partner." what does "partner" mean, just a partner and no longer awe leader? >> for one thing it means we can't dictate. we can't be the determining player of everything that is important on the global scene. it also means we have to learn from our own experience that the use of military power, first of all, sets in motion unpredictable consequences, and secondly, is very, very expensive. >> brown: we're not the global policemen. >> we cannot be the global policemen because we'll drive ourselves into bankruptcy and then social resentments domestically and loss of legitimacy internationally. global power is becoming defused and no longer concentrated in the west or the hands of the united states. america has domestic and special problems and on top of it, there is no larger organizing vision for a world that for the first time need to address global problems. what i advocate is a strategic vision, not a specific blueprint, but a concept of how america ought to strive to reach a balance so we can all collectively face the problems that face us. >> brown: one of those ways is in your term expand the west, include places like russia and turkey. >> absolutely. i think it's in the vital interest of the west to do so, and i think crag in turkey, drawing in russia would greatly increase the vitality of the west. and after all, the turks in the last 100 years have demonstrated a determination to be modern, secular, and democratic. so they're really part of our value system. in russia today we see for the first time the emergence of something we can call a civic society, not isolated dissenters who are heroic, whom we honor, but who are isolated. but community, the society, that is to say, the younger more cosmopolitan elements of the new middle class. and they feel themselves to be part of the west. and i am convinced if we are intelligent and patient and also persistent, not long after putin has gone, are rsh will move much more rapidly toward the u.s. a coalition of america and europe enlarged is something that will have weight in the world. >> brown: do you think the american people, the american political system is prepared to respond to this crise you're talking about? you're talking about when you use word like "diminishing power" or "a partner" rather than "leader," "balancer," these are sort of new terms that i wonder if people are prepared for. or are able to respond top. >> i think really raiding the fundamental question because the fact that is doling with mfocuses not only on our economic social problems but very much in what you have just right now said. we are a democracy. we can onto have assed if a foreign policy as the public's understanding of world affairs, and the tragedy is, the public's understanding of world affairs in america today is abysmal. >> brown: abysmal. >> it is ignorant. it is probably the least informed public of the world among the developed countries in the world. >> brown: what are the consequences-- you spend a fair amount of time on this in the book it's consequences of not adjusting to the global shift, the global crise as you describe it? >> i think the consequences are likely to involve more turmoil in the sense that certain problems which could be avoided move the get out of hand. first on the list, obviously, is iran, and the likely consequences, the destructive consequences of military violence there. the consequences are likely to be more regional crises. the cons againsts are likely to be the absence of complective responsibilities to the new global problems that affect all of humanity. >> "strategic vision america and the crisis of global power." breadth, thank you for talking with us. >> thank you, as always. >> ifill: a new "washington post" investigation has found that members of congress steer taxpayer money close to home and close to their own interests. the report examined the records of all 535 members of congress, tracking their use of earmarks, provisions inserted into spending bills for their home districts. among the findings: 33 lawmakers spent a combed $300 million on public projects within about two miles of properties they own. and 16 members used special spending provisions to give money to groups with connections to immediate family members. moreover, it's all perfectly legal. we're joined now by one of the reporters who spent a year on the project-- kimberly kindy of the "washington post." kimberly, when you started this, did you think this was going to prove that members of congress were feathering their own nests? and did you? >> reporter: i don't think i would put it that way. we-- we just knew there was a big disconnect between members of congress, they have a lot of power to do things. they can pass laws. they can direct money to earmarks, with earmarks. and not a lot is known about their personal financial portfolio. we went way beyond the financial disclosure forms they have to file which, frankly are,-- just don't really reveal very much, and we did a very deep scrub of the existing public records so we could get a very good sense of their financial holdings and then we started looking at their actions. and, you know, we looked at the earmarks, and i think that we were surprised to see how many were very, very close to property and how many of them ended up going to programs that in some cases their family numbers run. >> ifill: let's talk about two examples. one was representative dicks from washington state. and he's a democrat. >> >> reporter: right. >> ifill: tell us about what you found. >> reporter: well, in that case, we're talking about a member of congress and his son who actually worked to create a state agency that then the son was hired to run. and the particular circumstance here is that the member-- he became chair of an appropriations committee that allowed him, gave him the power to direct millions of dollars to the cleanup of a sensitive system of waterways, piewjent sound, in the washington state area. so his son was in charge of a program to clean up the puget sound and his father sent millions of dollars to that effort. much of the money ended up going-- what we were told by the congressman was this money was competed. "i made sure it was competitively bid." but when i asked for the records and kept digging and kept digging and kept digging what i found was millions of dollars, sure, it went to the e.p.a., but they were given to them in the form of grant where they were the only applicants and in one case an outright earmark. >> ifill: haroldommers from kentucky was also involved in this. >> in this particular case, we're talking about earmarks that went all around the area where he has a home, all around the area where he owns stock in a bank, and to give you a sense of how close it came to his property, the-- there's the drived way bib-- i'm not sure how many people know what a drived way bib is. but you have the sidewalk, and it comes down like that, right at the edge of your drive away so you can get out, that was repaved with earmarks he secured. so that's how close it got to his property. >> ifill: so when you tried to decide after going through all these public records pretty exhaustively, how did you decide what the cutoff was, what was too close? >> reporter: that's a good question. there were very few we included unless they were within two miles. we're talking about dozens and dozens more that had things within five miles. we looked at whether or not there was a broad public benefit. we certainly weighed that, but if there was going to be a great member to the property because they had a property a few blocks away or they had a property a mile away, they made it into the project. so we looked at pox im. we looked at the broader benefit, and then we looked at how much it might be beneficial to the member. but those-- that judgment call wasn't a big thing. we really were like it's financial disclosure system is supposed to show you exactly what a membes assets are, and how that intersects with their finances. and it doesn't. >> ifill: well, exactly -- >> reporter: we did that. >> ifill: you looked in property records and county records. did you discover whether any of these lawmakers went to the ethics committee and said, "hey, is this okay?" >> reporter: we did. we asked that question, and another very reel vaatory thing we found out during this process, the rules they set for themselves is so lax and permissive, this is acceptable. they go to them and say is it okay and, yes, it's okay. unless you were a sole beneficiary of an eared mark, it's perfectly permissible under the rules. earmark experts, what they like to say-- and there have been people who have been studying this for a decade. they haven't done a systematic shrub like we have, but they say the rules are so lax you'd have to get an earmark to model your kitchen in order to face an ethics charge. >> ifill: kimberly kindy of the "washington post," thank you for your work. >> thank you very much for having me. >> woodruff: finally tonight, a son brings his father's story to the stage. the play is about the life, the legacy and the memories of san francisco mayor george moscone who was gunned down at city hall 33 years ago. special correspondent dave iverson of kqed san francisco reports. >> okay, i'll just give you the cue line. >> reporter: it's the first week of rehearsal for a new play. >> okay, that's going to be good. >> reporter: at the berkeley repertory theatre, the legacy of george moscone is being re- imagined in the most personal way. >> assassination tends to put a damper on table talk. >> reporter: the play is called "ghost light" and it's directed by jonathan moscone, the late mayor's youngest son. >> i just wanted to explore what it meant to lose somebody. i lost my dad when my back was turned. i didn't see him die; i didn't see it happen. it's obviously a piece of me that hasn't been put together. >> reporter: jonathon moscone was 11 years old in 1975 when his father george was elected mayor. it was a time of change in san francisco, including a new wave of gay and lesbian residents. the new mayor embraced the new san francisco, appointing a gay rights activist named harvey milk to a city board. >> gay support is an asset in any campaign. people look for it, people try to exhibit a platform of fairness, so that they can warrant the support of the gay community and i would hope we'd get the lion's share of it or at least a fair share. >> my dad loved his job so much and he loved being mayor and he just took it as the greatest gift he could ever have received. >> reporter: in november 1978, george moscone was completing his third year in office and then on november 27 shots rang out at city hall. amidst chaos and confusion, the president of the city's board of supervisors dianne feinstein made the announcement. >> as president of the board of supervisors it is my duty to make this announcement. both mayor moscone and supervisor harvey milk have been shot and killed. >> quiet! >> the suspect the suspect is supervisor dan white. >> reporter: for a city and 14-year-old jon moscone,he world was turned upside down. >> i only remember picture frames of the day. someone sat me down on the couch-- it was my mom's best friend-- and she told me that my dad had been killed. and then i don't remember much after that. >> ♪ amazing grace how sweet the sound. ♪ >> whenever i remember you in my prayers as i do constantly night and day, recalling your tears when we part, i yearn to see you again >> he said the world went silent. the world went silent for a very long time. >> reporter: tony taccone is the artistic director at the berkeley repertory theatre. he's known jon moscone for over 20 years. they are fast friends, but in all that time, the topic of jon's father was always off limits. >> so when he took me out to the bar and plied me with alcoh sufficiently to loosen his tongue if not mine and suggested he was ready to do a piece about his dad, i fell off the chair practically. >> reporter: and there was another motivating factor. >> my name is harvey milk and i'm here to recruit you. >> reporter: the movie "milk" celebrated harvey milk's contribution to gay rights but barely mentioned the mayor who gave milk his first city position. for jon moscone, who is gay himself, the movie only told part of the story. >> and that quite honestly pissed me off. >> one of the reasons jon wants to do this play is to liberate his father's memory. >> reporter: the movie "milk" may have jump started the play writing process. a process we documented over time, but the memories that soon emerged were far more personal than political. >> i remember the day he died you know, i wasn't feeling well. and i could tell he was concerned about just making sure i was okay and he thought maybe he should stay home with me for awhile. no! it was bring me to the doctor. he said, "should i take you to the doctor?" that's what it was. >> and you said no? >> i said no. >> and if you had said yes. >> i know, i know. >> there were definitely aha moments. certainly when jon mentioned that he was sick the day his father was killed and he didn't talk about guilt or anything. he didn't mention it but i thought that's dramatic gold. >> reporter: taccone started writing, creating a semi- autobiographical story about a character named jon who goes through life blocking out the pain of the past. >> as president of the board of supervisors, it's my duty to make this announcement. >> reporter: the play begins with a dream sequence. jon is once again 14. >> you were sick that day? the day he was killed? did you feel responsible in any way for him going to work that day? ( knock on door ). >> can you hear that? >> met play, >> can you hear that? >> reporter: in the play, a boy who feels responsible for his fathers death grows up to be a man who can't face the past or even talk about his dad. >> you try to talk but it doesn't come out right. no one gets it. you drift further and further inside yourself. your closest companion is silence forever and ever amen. >> we never talk about our fathers. we never do. we never do except to say either the nicest things or the meanest things, but we never talk about what it means to lose them and how it means to go your whole life with no path made before you. >> rorter: the play is about finding that path. even scenes about the legacy of george moscone focus on finding that way forward. >> my father has been languishing for over 30 years as an asterisk in the life of harvey milk. >> no, honey, your father is doing just fine, it's you who've been languishing. >> reporter: jon can't move forward, nor can his fathers memory be restored unless he fully faces the past. in the final scene, jon visits his father's grave. there's no tidy ending, just a realization of where the path forward begins. >> looks nice, doesn't it? >> yes, it does. >> the play ends up being about learning how to grieve and the place of that in ones life. the importance of that in ones life, the blessing of grief. >> and that's a first step, and the play is a first step play, it's a first step about this kind of complicated relationship, this huge relationship between life and death, between father d son. >> reporter: political legacies aren't created anew in the play, nor is history remade. instead, history is made personal. >> ifill: again, the major developments of the day: rick santorum celebrated and his campaign raked in a quarter million dollars overnight, after he swept three presidential contests. republican leaders in congress the washington state legislature voted to legalize gay marriage today. six other states and the district of columbia allow gay couples to wed. and the syrian military kept up its assault on the city of homs with the opposition reporting another 53 people killed. we have more online, on yesterday's political contests. hari sreenivasan has a preview. hari? >> sreenivasan: find the dates for the next primaries and caucuses on our politics page. also there, patchwork nation examines how the votes from last night broke down by community type. judy filed a blog post exloring one bright spot in the american economy: agriculture. find that on the rundown. and on our world page, we hear from an activist in syria about the continuing violence in homs. all that and more is on our web site: newshour.pbs.org. gwen? >> ifill: and that's the "newshour" for tonight. on thursday, we'll have the latest on the g.o.p. presidential race. i'm gwen ifill. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. we'll see you online and again here tomorrow evening. thank you and good night. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: andhe wliamnd flora hewlett foundation, working to solve social and environmental problems at home and around the world. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions captioned by edia accs group at wgbh access.wgbh.org