members were legally allowed to use inside information, information they learned through briefings or reports to make money. something regular people like us would be arrested for. why does congress get a pass on this? it s really the way the rules have been defined and the people who make the rules are the political class in washington, and they ve conveniently written them in such a way that they don t apply to themselves. reporter: the buying and selling of stock by corporate insiders who have access to nonpublic information that could affect the stock price can be a criminal offense. just ask hedge fund manager who recently got 11 years in prison for doing it. but congressional lawmakers have no corporate responsibilities and have long been considered exempt from insider trading laws, even though they have daily access to nonpublic information and plenty of opportunities to trade on it. we know that during the health care debate, people were trading health care st
war on religion. you re in the situation room. but first, this just coming in right now at this moment, our brand new poll shows newt gingrich leading the pack in three of the first four states to hold republican presidential contests. with less than a month to go before republicans start voting, newt gingrich has double digit leads in iowa, south carolina, and florida. he trails mitt romney in new hampshire but they still have some competition. ron paul essentially tied with romney in iowa and double digit support in new hampshire. let s discuss these numbers. they spell it exactly the same but they pronounce their names differently. he pronounces it incorrectly. we won t discuss the history right now. iowa is coming up january 3. here is what we have in our cnn time magazine poll numbers. gingrich, 33%. romney 20, ron paul 17, perry 9, bachmann 7, santorum 5 and huntsman 1. it s a rather dramatic lead in iowa for newt gingrich. and a rather difficult state to ap