KING: Welcome back. We're live tonight in Des Moines, Iowa. Here's the latest news you need to know right now.

Even though it's past midnight, the parliament is getting ready for a no-confidence vote from Prime Minister George Papandreou of Greece because of his handling of that country's debt crisis.

President Obama is on his way back to the G-20 summit after telling reporters it laid a foundation for building financial stability in Europe.

Jitters about Europe and pessimism about the U.S. economy pushed Wall Street lower today. The Dow, NASDAQ and S&P 500 all lost about 2 percent this week.

This afternoon the White House lawyers rejected a congressional committee's subpoenas for documents related to that clean energy company Solyndra, the White House calling it, quote, "a significant intrusion on executive branch (ph) interests" and is complaining it's being driven by partisan politics.

And a senior U.S. Army general lost his job today for making disparaging comments about Afghanistan's government. Major General Peter Fuller was relieved of duty for saying some Afghan leaders are, quote, "isolated from reality."

Back here in Iowa, Herman Cain isn't the only Georgian making big headway in the Republican presidential race. Look at the national numbers. We'll go state by state, through the early primary and caucus calendar, and there's an unmistakable trend.

Newt Gingrich is moving up, and while still in the second tier, he is changing the race just a few months after most reporters and many of his rivals wrote him off as a non-factor. Speaker Gingrich, live with us tonight before a big Republican dinner here.

It's good to see you.

NEWT GINGRICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's great to be here.

KING: If you look at the numbers, I want our viewers to see that here's the ABC News/"Washington Post" poll, your choice for Republican presidential nominee. In September, you were at 6 percent. Now you've doubled that to 12 percent.

If you go to the Quinnipiac poll, again another national poll, Newt Gingrich in August, at the end of August, 3 percent. On the first of November, 10 percent, why?

GINGRICH: I think substance. I think the debates have made a huge difference. The one we did with you made a huge difference. And people like Rush began saying I was the adult in the room. And people watched. And some of my colleagues began bickering, and I think the bickering really shrank them.

And I also think people are worried about jobs. They're worried about the deficit. They're worried about Afghanistan. And so having somebody with experience who's actually done this stuff before I think has made a difference.

KING: Our debate in June that you mentioned in New Hampshire was right after a lot of your staff had quit. And I was making the joke with others the other day with you before you came on the air, maybe you had to be the John McCain of this cycle, meaning you had to die before you could live. Is there anything to that?

GINGRICH: I think -- I think it actually was -- ultimately, although it was very painful at the time, ultimately, it helped us a lot to sort out what we were doing, why we're doing it, this is a much better campaign for having gotten through the summer. And I actually feel that we've got a very good base now to be competitive in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and then on to Florida.

KING: I want to spend most of our time on the substance, but I want talk a bit about Herman Cain. You call him a friend. You've criticized the media for some of its handling of this story.

And yet, if you pick up the newspaper here, Jennifer Jacobson, even before the Cain story broke, Jennifer Jacobson, the political reporter, "Des Moines Register," she said, "Were something to arise during the campaign to lessen Herman Cain's appeal, Romney would be the biggest beneficiary, but Gingrich is next. He would get 23 percent of Cain defectors." That's from the Des Moines, Iowa, poll.

So on the one hand you could benefit from Mr. Cain struggling. On the other hand, what do you make of his handling of this controversy?

GINGRICH: He is a good friend. We've known each other a long time. I think he has just to slow down, take a deep breath. If you've never before been hit by the entire national press corps, it's a very disorienting experience. And I think that he probably wasn't prepared for it, and he now has got to sit down and sort it out. And we'll see how he does.

He and I are debating tomorrow night in Houston, and it should be a lot of fun, on the entitlements, on Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security. I like him. I think he's had the courage to have very big ideas. But it's also a very hard business. And it should be. This is the presidency of the United States, and you should -- if you can't get through the campaign, you sure can't govern.

KING: His campaign has complained these allegations are out there without the specificity, and then in the middle of that, pointing the finger and saying Governor Perry's campaign did this and can't prove it. Was that a responsible thing to do? Governor Perry says -- he told me last night he has nothing to do with this.

GINGRICH: I'm not going to get in the middle of all that. I'd like to stay focused on policy. I'll let Herman sort out what he's doing now.

KING: Well, let's talk about policy. You tweeted out what Governor Perry wanted to bump plans, as he put it, with Herman Cain on taxes. You said, "How about me, Governor Perry?"

I had a conversation with the governor last night. I want you to listen. Here's him making the case. He says his flat-tax plan is the best plan to create jobs for the country. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RICK PERRY (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: My 20 percent tax, I think, says it all. You give everybody a flat 20 percent tax rate, give them those deductions that we talk about. Those above $500,000, they don't get those deductions. But the 20 percent corporate tax rate, bring that money back in from offshore that's sitting out there, that's being taxed at 35 percent today. Tax it at 5 and a quarter percent. That will create over three and a half million jobs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Why is your plan better than his plan?

GINGRICH: Well, let me start and say, as people watch this, you've got 9-9-9 with Cain, which is a big idea. I don't think it works, but it's a big idea. You do have Perry with the flat tax. And the outlier here is Romney, who's very, very cautious and very, very much a managerial approach, as opposed to a bold approach.

First of all, I have -- my flat tax is at 15 percent. His is at 20. My corporate tax rate is at 12.5 percent. His is at, I think, 25. I have zero capital gains for everybody. He caps it at $500,000, which I think gives in to class warfare in a way that makes no sense. But it's not a bad plan. Steve Forbes and other experts have helped him do it. I have a lot of respect for him doing it.

I think if you have to -- if you look at it, you'd say I'm a little bolder and a little more growth-oriented than he is. But deserves a lot of respect. It's a serious plan.

KING: And a serious time, as we have this conversation. You just heard me reading headlines. President Obama's on his way back to the G-20. He says they made significant crisis in the European debt crisis. If a President Gingrich had made that trip, what would your message have been to the Europeans?

GINGRICH: Well, first of all, I have no idea, because the total lack of involvement by the Obama administration is just astonishing. I don't know that they made any progress.

As you just showed, the Greek parliament's voting on a vote of no confidence. Everything I see says that the Greeks are still substantially away from getting their house in order. Whether or not they can even stay in the European Union or stay in the Euro Zone, rather, I think is a question right now.

The Italians are now in deep trouble.

I think this president has consistently failed to understand economics. And I see -- he doesn't understand the American economy. Why would we expect him to understand the European economy?

KING: About 100 hours from now we could be having a conversation about a very tense world. The International Atomic Energy Agency will come out with its latest report on the Iranian nuclear problem. The Israelis test-fired a ballistic missile this week, and there's a lot of talk in the region if that IAEA report says Iran is back about the business of advancing its nuclear program, Prime Minister Netanyahu might be prepared to make a choice, a pretty dicey choice, to launch a preemptive strike. Would a President Gingrich say, "Green light, go"?

GINGRICH: No, I think the Gingrich administration would say we want to replace the Iranian administration. The dictatorship is dangerous; it will always be dangerous. Our interest is to have a post-dictatorship government in Iran. And I would use all of the tools that Reagan, and Thatcher, Pope John Paul II used against the Soviet empire, and I would work methodically to literally undermine and replace the current dictatorship.

KING: If a nervous Prime Minister Netanyahu said, "I agree with everything you just said, President Gingrich. I don't think we can wait." How could you talk him down?

GINGRICH: I wouldn't. I mean, if the prime minister of Israel comes to the conclusion that the survival of his country's at stake, the idea that an American president's going to second guess him -- you know, two nuclear weapons is a second holocaust. You put a nuclear weapon over Jerusalem, a nuclear weapon over Tel Aviv, the total number of people you kill is the equivalent of a Holocaust.

And I don't think any American can ask Israelis to passively sit there and allow a mortal enemy who said publicly, Ahmadinejad said -- frankly, he said publicly that he wants to eliminate Israel. Now I think the lesson of history is people who say things like that you better believe.

KING: You're going to leave us and go speak to the Ronald Reagan dinner here in Iowa tonight. You're one of five candidates at the moment. Again you're, I think, in fourth place. So Romney, Cain, Ron Paul, then Newt Gingrich. Sixty nights from now, when we're counting the first votes that count, where will Newt Gingrich be in Iowa?

GINGRICH: I'll be in the top three, and I hope maybe to come in first. Definitely want to be in the top three.

KING: Mr. Speaker, we'll count the days.

GINGRICH: Good to see you again. Thanks.