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 national nomination. "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't 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 low 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 themselves. >> yes. 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 welfare, 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 the respect 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 ma 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 this is-- 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 looking 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 ricksantorum.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 people 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 secretary 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 gree