books literally locked up. one of the those books was written by a guy named william shakespeare. "starting point" begins right now. >> welcome. everybody. the cruise ship rescue mission has now been suspended in giglio, italy. the cruise ship is now slipping which we'll update you on what exactly what means in just a few moments but it sounds like that ship which has been listing on one side is now going under. italian prosecutors have ruled out at this point technical error. the ceo is apologizing. he says he believes it is human error and the captain of that ship has been arrested and charge with manslaughter and abandoning his ship. the ship hit rocks, has 160-foot gash in one of its side. many people think the other side looks the same way. 2300 tons of fuel on board. at this point there is no sign of leakage. there are 14 people missing at lea least, including 2 americans and 6 people reported dead at this point. passengers have been reliving as they tell their story it's a story of chaos and confusion. take a look. >> there wasn't anybody to help you. really, the passengers were loading the life boats by themselves. >> we had to go about four or five gates down before we found a life boat we could get in to and then the people were very angry that we got on that life boat because it was very crowded. >> the crew was so young and you would have thought they would have handled it better. you would have thought they would have handled it better on shore, you would have thought they would have handles, you know, getting people off the boat. >> it was just bad. like getting the life boats and nobody followed any procedure. the crew was yelling for people to wait their turn. and pretty much it was just a giant every man for himself to get on to the life boats. the first ones before they were even lowered. >> let's get right to cnn's dan rivers live in giglio, italy. i know the ceo of the company just did a presentation. what did he say about what's happening right now with the ship? >> reporter: well, we understand just within the last few minutes it's still suspended the search. there was concern from the firefighters aboard that the concordia was beginning to move on the seabed where it is behind me. that seabed is very shallow but then it shells away were steeply. i think there's obviously concern that if it continues to move around it may drop offer into that shelf and sink completely. and as you say, that huge amount of fuel oil on board that would be a environmental catastrophe here in these beautiful waters around the island of gigli. elsewhere we're getting more from the lawyer or the prosecutor who sin ve prosecutor is who is investigating the captain here. he remains under arrest, not charged yet but he's facing possible charges of manslaugh r manslaughter, abandoning ship, and causing a shipwreck which would be 15 years in prison if he was found guilty. they're examining the black box, a bit like a flight recorder on a plane from this ship. they've indicated they think simply that he got too close to the shore, that he was on the bridge at the time. and that he left the ship while there was still a significant number of passengers on board. they so far question more than 100 witnesses both crew and passengers to find out exactly what happened. but all indications are both from the costa cruise company and from the prosecutors that this wasn't any kind of technical problem. it was simply that they got too close and hit the shore, hit the rocks. >> dan, that leads us to the question, but why, but why? technically if gps says there are rocks, are there any -- is there any speculation about why the captain might, in fact, have taken the route that would take you right by the rocks and closer to the shore? >> reporter: well, there seems to have been a bit of tradition with the costa concordia of coming past this little town because there was a link between the crew and former captain of the costa concordia that lives on the island. some of the crew are from the island of giglio so there was a tradition of them doing a kind of fly by almost, if you like, a sail by where they would wave and sound the horn to their friends on the island. now, whether they got a bit too close having done this for years, that's a possibility, or whether there's some other issue. we don't know. but certainly they came exceptionally close to this town and to the shore with devastating results. >> dan rivers for us continues to update the story that we're watching closely. thank you, dan. let's get right to ron brownstein, cnn's political analyst and editorial director at the "national journal." we're in the studio. lights. >> the table makes some noise around us just so we feel at home. >> that's right. >> exactly. a lot of bad food. criminal defense attorney. steve joins us. nice to have you. writer and is the co-author of the brand new party joining us around the table spop hello. good morning. i need coffee, too. we have no coffee. >> you are wonderfully preppy. >> 18 cups of coffee will do that. yes, i have. >> i hear you. >> there's a secret to that. let's start by talking about what's happened, the big news politically, which is jon huntsman is out. to me that's a headline and that's it. >> the baby size news. >> baby size news. >> that's news. >> oh, no offense. >> it is a little bit of how can you tell. but, you know, he was running, you know, a very -- >> he was running. >> they spent months and months and months in new hampshire and ended up going to the exit poll winning 10% of new hampshire republicans. but like many other things in this race, it's a marginal advantage for romney because one of the things was if huntsman could get going they could split up the modern with part of the party and same way that the others are diverted. he's consolidating his side of the party enmore and the other side remains fragmented. >> let's get to peter hamby, i know that you got this news late last night and we saw that come across. what do you think the impact is, divide and conquer on both sides or really, or, maybe it's just big old yawn and it doesn't matter? >> yeah, i mean, the impact, i think, down here in south carolina at least, i'm in myrtle beach where the debate is tonight, is somewhat neg gli jibl. huntsman does haven't any money here and hasn't caught on any measurable way after doing somewhat okay in new hampshire. didn't do as well as he needed to do down here. again, huntsman appeals to that moderate establishment leaning side, other republican party. what does it get mitt romney? probably not too much, quite frankly. he needs to appeal to the tea party republican base, the more con zservative and evangelical voter, he still has trouble picking up that support. lucky for him that side of the party is divided between 70 candidates. huntsman doesn't have that much support in new hampshire, so not really sure what he gets. he doesn't bring a big financial network to the table. quite frankly, him and mitt romney never really got along. their families haven't gotten along and their staffs don't like each other one bit. >> i'm stunned. i sit here stunned. no, let's listen who that he said back in november, just in november, about mitt romney who he is now endorsing. this is huntsman. listen. >> i think when you're on too many sides of the issues of the day, when you don't have that core, when there's that element of trust out there, i think that becomes a problem. and i think it makes you want electable against barack obama. >> is it just in this day and age that everybody knows you're going to say mean things and once they're a nominee they're going to say nice thing? mccain and bush. >> same thing happened. >> interesting and glowing personal history between the romneys and the huntsmans. i can remember the race oh. >> they were quite close. >> sure. the two powerful names in utah, and there was a point about a decade ago the race that mid mitt romney's career, when he got elected as governor, he was in utah a year earlier running the olympics me thought the governor of massachusetts, james swift, was going to run for re-election in 2002 and he thought his future in politics would be utah 2004. jon huntsman was looking at utah in 2004. romney came off and became the national star and huntsman has been chasing him ever since. >> all of that interesting drama did not exist at all in the election because people would have been spieaking more about huntsman. no one talked about it. >> there was a lot of people who thought, hey, he's in this wonderful little niche. he's someone who represents this moderate pragmatic side of the party. the trouble is there was no there there. he wasn't able to compel an audience me also had a conservative record he would run on an caught fire with but it never happened. >> let me throw up a graphic for just a second. let me throw up where huntsman did well in new hampshire was among unsatisfied voters. if you take a look at this you see huntsman was leading that. 27%. then ron paul, surprising, right, that ron paul was second to runts man on that unhappy, unsatisfied -- they have a big independent vote in new hampshire. huntsman, i think, had a problem with sequencing. his original message -- he was out of sequence with the party. original message was republicans had to recalibrate their message to reach out to a broader range of voters. that is a message a party is open up after they win a defeat. it's not a message a party is really open to after it has a big win like 2010. there were not a lot of republicans came out 2010 saying we got to recalibrate our message we're doing something wrong. once that cratered and he reinvented himself as a conservative, he went with nothing. one in ten republicans in new hampshire, not enough to justify going forward. >> we have spent more time talking about jon huntsman than we did in iowa the other day, which at the end of the day is the $64,000 problem he had. so he is out of the race. we can now move on. other stories making news. there's lots to talk about. let's get to alini cho. thousands of people coming out of hiding to welcome arab league monitors into syria. they're even carrying them on their shoulders. our nic robertson, one of the few western journalists allowed into syria. he was there to witness it. the city has been under siege for weeks. many people fleeing with their children. this coming as u.n. secretary general ban ki-moon delivers a message to syria's leader assad, stop killing your people. monday ttana teacher sherry arnold vanished more than a week ago while taking a jog. a single running shoe was the only clue left behind. it's the first martin luther king jr. day at the mlk memorial in washington. ceremony there's will kick off in an hour. the government has now said lit correct a paraphrased quote that is carved in stone on the memorial. the inscription says, i was a drum major for justice, peace, and righteousness. the problem is, not an exact quote. and my angelou says taken out of context it makes dr. king sound like an arrogant twit. the markets are closed but markets over seas are reacting to the s&p's mass credit downgrade of european nations. european markets are mixed but flat this morning. and the golden globes last night, silence was golden. the big winner. the big winner was the black and white silent film "the artist." it won three awards including best musical or comedy. george clooney picked up best dramatic actor in "the descendents" and meryl streep for "iron lady" and michelle williams picked for best actress for her role in "my week with marilyn." >> thank the foreign press association for putting in my hands this award that marilyn monroe herself won over 50 years ago. i'm honored. thank you. >> michelle williams looked great. a lot of talk about head bands last night, soledad, on the fashion pront. >> i want to get one of those. a headband. >> shar l. still to come this morning on "starting point," we all move to south carolina. we literally will move to south carolina as we head there in a couple of days. what's the impact going to be from the tea partiers in south carolina? the south carolina gop chair is going to join us next. look forward to that race. joe paterno is speaking out for the very first time since the sex scandal hit penn state. we're going to hear how he handled the situation when he was first told at jerry sandusky. 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that was washington, d.c., parsley cloudy, 25 degrees. only going up to 44 there. pretty and cold. let's talk politics since we're looking that the shot. this morning in the capital the republican field is now down to five as we told you. jon huntsman is boeing out today. the key will be how the tea partiers and the evangelicals in that state vote. we've got chad conley joining us, chairman of the south carolina republican party. nice to see you, sir. thank you for being with us. we appreciate it. >> good morning. >> thank you very much. i wish you could join us for breakfast right here. we're having bagels and locks this morning. in person win day soon maybe. let's talk about the impact that you think the huntsman dropping out of this race really realistically has. >> governor huntsman ran a spirited campaign. he has had a great political team here in south carolina. i'm not sure what kind of impact it will have. any time a candidate endorses another candidate it's a good thing. i'm sure it's going grab a lot of news today and on the day of the big debate that i think is going to be pivotal in this whole campaign. but i think his followers or whatever, his folk tons ground will probably dispurse among the campaigns. i don't know if governor romney will get the bulk of that or not. >> seems like governor romney might get the bulk of that. when you talk about the debate and think it's going will be spirited. tell me about that. >> i've been telling people this is just a third in south carolina. i was with my family over christmas and we have four families since my wife and i were both widowed. it was an interesting focus group because i was surprised how few of them had actually seen an entire debate. now i think folks in south carolina are tuning in. starting to really watch. i believe it's going to be pivotal from the viewpoint that people are really watching now and they're making their decisions before saturday's vote. >> i love a man who uses his family as his research. very good thing. rick santorum -- i did the same thing with my family, too. extended families are good for that. rick santorum said that he thinks that anybody who is supporting mitt romney is crazy because he says he cannot win. i want to a little play a little bbt a what he said. >> and unfortunately, the man who is leading the polls here in south carolina, if you believe them, is someone whose plan was the basis of obama cacare. now, in an election where this is the central issue, freedom, traditional values of the country of free people, free markets, free enterprise, not top-down government control, why would the people of south carolina put out there someone who we lose that issue with, who's wrong on that issue? >> do you think that's a compelling argument, why would the people of south carolina do that very thing? because if you look at the polls, we can throw up a graphic here, mitt romney is winning at 2%. this is south carolina poll likely primary voters. and it's santorum is down, way down, at just 7%. >> i try not to be anybody's strategist and try to stay out of those as much as i can but i think president obama has been so bad for the economy, you know, here in carolina he led the national labor relations board attack a business in boeing. the doj, the department of justice, has gone after, you know, voter id laws and immigration laws here. so the folks in south carolina are looking at a much broader picture than just one issue. and so i think that anybody we elect is going to be better than what we have in the white house right now. i think you're going to see the voters of south carolina make a decisive vote on saturday. >> i'm sure we will see you when we head down to south carolina on thursday morning. maybe we'll get you to come joyner in a diner somewhere in that state. appreciate your time, sir. thanks for being with us. >> thank you. >> he talks about voters are not really one issue voters. when you poll people the economy, the economy, the economy seems to be the big issue. i wonder that's why santorum is lowdown because he's been going with the values and social issues. >> santorum's theoretical strength once he emerged in iowa was his ability to appeal to sam's club republicans and blue collar republicans with economic message and background, contrast favorably with romney for those voters. he has not been able to get to that message. went to new hampshire got in an argument day one with college student about gay marriage. never got to blue collar economic messages. he wrote a big op-ed piece. but the fact is he is not drawing any better among noncollege or cloenlg republicans in the early states that suggest the profile we all see in him voters aren't yet seeing in him. >> do you think it would make a difference in terms of santorum if people started talking more about this is santorum, the fact that she was living with someone who is four years older than her, a doctor, abortion doctor? you heard about this story, right? this is a great story that's out there now. >> well -- whoa. >> whoa. but before we even bring this story in which i know nothing about -- >> me, neither. >> dr. allen is his name. >> but the question becomes, if santorum is having a hard time getting his own message out, at what point do you think people should start focusing on the spouses? >> you saw the clip. the guy has a tone that is not a lovely, friendly, winning tone. and he's talking about this guy, if you believe the polls, you know, who is coming out ahead and just kind of this -- >> but what i have attended, you know, across many states, many of these rallies and the people in the audience love it. there's a part in the rally where you get serious and shout and make jokes. in the audience people love -- they think he is a great communicator. he comes across as very friendly. >> he had on the social conservative i remember and if -- people's families are on the line here. you say you're using your family as a focus group. their families are up for grabs. they have got to bring this out there that mrs. santorum right before she met rick santorum, she was living with dr. allen. he's in his 90s now. there were 40 years apart from each other. and he was aabortion doctor. >> i know nothing about that story. >> i am going to bring up my blackberry and show you. >> that would be great. we'll talk more about that. we're going to take a break and get real in just a moment. did you guys see this sto