admitting to an inappropriate relationship with female staffers including asking one female aide to carry his child. in a surprising twist, his hand picked successor faces a scandal of his own now. a sex scandal involving a former aide. joining me now, matt welch, editor at large at reason magazine. and msnbc political reporter alex sikes wald, fellow clinton campaign reporter as well. you ve been tracking all of these developments. what do we know about this scandal and how damaging could it be coming that the point when voters are going to the polls? boy, is this an unusual one. this is a very conservative district. big republican primary field. this guy montenegro, he has franks endorsement, he has the most money. a week ago, local media reported on this relationship he had with a former staffer in which he exchanged text messages. the most salacious one, she sent him a topless photo when he was out of state and he said he wished she had come along on the
today from italy to the north and south poles. michael holmes has around-the-clock and around-the-world look. we ll start off with italy. we just can t get enough of this story. berlusconi, is never enough. what is going on? well, we talked earlier about the fact that we re going to find out when the trial date is going to be for the naughtiness he s alleged to have done. that date is now set. these charges, of course, sex with an underage prostitute. that s the salacious one, if you like. april 6th, all eyes are going to be watching for this sensational trial. that s going to take place in milan. berlusconi denies these charges, saying it s a farce. but this is the other charge. potentially more damaging politically, and has a longer jail term as well, a charge of abuse of power. this stems from the 74-year-old leader calling the cops to have that underage prostitute released after she had been picked up for theft. some time later.