the washington taking on the caps. the caps lead by 2 after the 1st period. >> joe: and we are getting going with period 2. there the is air canada center. the home of the toronto mapleleafs. an early whistle and icing call, 12 seconds into the middle frame. alex ovechkin was on the board. the 2 minute mark of this contest for bruce boudreau. >> greg: his 3rd season as a capitals open. winning 67-plus percentage of his games. lost 3 regulation games. >> joe: and the capitals squaring off with the lead. next up, tuesday night at the pepsi center in denver. i am auction to see the colorado avalanche in the flesh. >> greg: yes. they have good young players. >> joe: and ovechkin just missed the mark there. wait until you see the young teenager, on top to have game. >> greg: i am looking forward to him. i think he has already nine goals. he can obviously put the puck in the net. a turn around that came around a lot quicker in colorado than was expected. the caps control that draw. and there is brendan morrison. the kaberle

a good bounce for washington. a nice pass beautifully done. >> phil: he made that pass just at the right moment which an opening occurred between two defenders. >> steve: 8 assists for gilbert. 18 points for antawn. wizards regain the lead by 1. it looked like hollins got away from a shove. how come we can that and the official, who is 5 feet away, can't see that? that's a pivotal play. >> phil: that's a shot >> steve: so the lead seesaws and minnesota by one. a nice screen and boykins cannot convert. hollins wants the basketball. down low with jamison. jefferson short jumper not there. but a good rebound by ellington that time. jefferson inside. gomes. his open jumper is not there. >> phil: the timberwolves were shooting a better percentage to cover the second half points that they had. they were shooting just slightly better. they would have a much larger lead based on the number of possessions. >> steve: again, the wizards regain the lead. a slam by hollins, that gets the crowd up and cheering at the >> phil: t

unfortunately ended up in the hospital in washington. he got a case of german measles, which killed many, many servicemembers on both sides of the war. he developed peritonitis from his measles infection, and he died in a washington hospital, was brought across the potomac river here to arlington as the first military aerial. things were so desperate at that time in the civil war, there were so many people dying, that there wasn't much time for ceremony or ritual at arlington. they would bring people over for burial day after day after day, and they went into the ground as william chrisman did with no flags flying, no bugles playing. all quiet off and not a chaplain to give them a cent of. so basically we're trying to keep up with the carnage from the civil war. when arlington began. during the war, things were so desperate that there wasn't any time for tombstones. they had headboards. they were made out of pine or walnut. painted white with black lettering. does, of course, had to be maintained or they fell apart. in the years after th

rebounding will be key for washington. washington only had twelve assists in the game against minnesota. that's a season low, they must do better for that. the grizzlies, their game is inside. number one in points and second chance points but they also have five starters that average ten or more and they get a lot of playing time. their bench has not been that productive, no one averages more than 17 minutes off of the bench. steve: lost to dallas, 107-101 snap ago three game winning streak against indiana denver and golden state and that was the 8th straight loss at dallas. jumpers still in play. picked up by conley. they won once in 15 tries at the american airlines center in dallas. buckner, good rebound. >>phil: this team likes to get out in front. steve: james ma son and hey wood on the offensive glass. >>phil: that will be important to win tonight. brendan haywood getting points on the second chances. steve: game tied at four. back to fill czar. wizards home tonight night in oklahoma city. gilbert wanted a foul and d

or anything that represented washington, and i don't think you can get any farther away from washington than andy warhol. so this actually was tremendously effective for carter in raising money. it actually was credited, he credited it himself as being one of the financial turn arounds of his entire presidential campaign, selling these andy warhol prints. >> now, your day job you're a political strategist. do you ever tell your clients to invoke a celebrity endorsement? >> no, i really stay away from that. but, you know, in -- we live sort of in the age where obama and oprah were a team, and mike huckabee and chuck norris were a team. so it doesn't matter whether you're democrat or republican, i think both sides are very involved with hollywood and celebrity. >> jason killian meath, thank you so much. >> i say my job at fox news is to keep company materials because it really is, and i say that to young people. every once in a while fox will send me out to talk to a college campus somewhere. i'd rather go to kandahar, quite frankly. [laughter] and i'll say to young people i keep company

washington a

washington national is closed. but one runway is open, and that's supposed to be open for complete traffic at 6:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. >> joe: skill scoreless at rexall place. to the center for o'sullivan. stone with shoulder to shoulder with urchina. >> craig: look he's the only one in the zone. all the other oilers behind the flu line. they are playing tough defense. that's the line struggling at home. you don't want to open it up. >> joe: every coach on the line has said it, you don't want to play run and gun with the guys in the white sweaters. backstrom angling through center, backstrom is there to defend. in the '80s i think they would have loved it. ovechkin blindly all the way back to point position. green, didn't keep that one in. >> craig: i didn't like playing in this facility, being a slow skater, and this facility, everyone was always faster than me. you end up taking penalty after penalty when you can't keep up. >> joe: what makes the ice so good? >> craig: the type of ice it is, joe. >> joe: off o

in a few moments, today's headlines and your calls, "washington journal live washington." the house is in session for legislative business at 10:00 eastern. .

or anything that represented washington. and i don't think that you can get any farther away from washington than andy warhol. so this actually was tremendously effective for carter in raising money. it actually was credited -- he credited it himself as being one of the financial turn arounds of his entire presidential campaign, selling these prints. >> your day job you're a political strategist. do you ever tell your clients to invoke a celebrity endorsement? >> no, i really stay away from that. but, you know, in -- we live sort of in the age where obama and oprah were a team and mike huckabee and chuck norris were a team. so it doesn't matter whether you're democrat or republican, i think both sides are very involved with hollywood and celebrity. >> jason killian, authority of hollywood -- author of hollywood on the potomac. thanks so much. >> senators are continuing their debate of the health care bill through the weekend. our regular booktv schedule will be preempted during these rare senate sessions with booktv programs

i am in washington -- a washington lawyer who was asked to assemble a coalition of companies like a day, amazon, google, others, stakeholders, consumer groups, civil rights organizations, people who use the internet to help advocate for the federal communications communication, policies that preserve and open the internet. >> yes. netcompetition.org was formed three years ago. it is pro-competition, free- market oriented, and it represents broadband interests. literally the entire sector. some include large companies people know, the two cable using your line to connect to them to inspect the kind of content that is traveling over that line and make decisions whether to discriminate and favors certain content over other as long as it is lawful. that is actually the norm and telecommunications policy for decades and decades. it started most recently in the 1970's when there was only one phone company and someone went up to someone and invented a mickey mouse on the phone and wanted to attach it to an at&t line, and at&t said, no, you cannot do anything like that, you need to have one sea

washington going to the power play. sam gagner is boxed in for two minutes for tripping, and now the capitals looking for their first lead on the opening statement. ovechkin coming over to the bench looking for a new set of gloves. >> craig: once they get too wet you don't have a grip on the composite stick. he always has a dry pair available on the bench to get the better feel when he gets the shot away. >> joe: washington the number one ranked power play in the league on the road, 25%. laich is excused. lowballing a fan 12 rows in the seats. >> craig: they were hoping for a delay of game. they were going to talk about it here. the caps were hoping it went directly from the stick and up. you have to love that. bruce boudreau saying give them another minor. five on three for a delay of game. they will talk it over and say if it was deflected up and over the bench or not. pat quinn watching anxiously. here's the last look. the puck, the shot, oh, man that's too tough to tell. he's giving the oilers a minor penalty here.

so, not much was going on in washington. what was coming on was in the rest of the country, and monroe, like washington remember there was no television, no e-mail camano communications. the only means of communications with these newspapers, weekly newspapers that would come out weeks, often months late with the news. like washington, monroe did not won the presidency to become a markey with a monarch's sitting in his castle in a cocoon away from the people. he went out to meet the people and that's why he was so loved because he became a people president. he went out there into farmland, shook their hands, walked with them over their fields and became one of them as washington had done. these other presidents had sat in philadelphia and then later in washington as they do today, as to the congress men and women today. they sit in washington. they are isolated from people, they are not in touch with the people. monroe wanted to be in touch with the people, and as a result he found out what they wanted and provided for them.

. >> steve: foul will be called on washington. they got it on brendan haywood. no, they will call it -- they can't call it jamison, they call it agiler, dominic mcguire makes the foul. corey brewer to the free-throw line. another sub par free throw shooter at 63%. he makes his first free throw. this is a minnesota team that ranked 23 in nba shooting coming in. they are shooting 58% from the night tonight. now 12-20. that hasn't been a problem. the problem has been offensive rebounding and second chance points. minnesota has 18 of them. that has been the big difference. that's the offensive rebounding. butler jumper is short. timberwolves by 4. they have only won 6 games on the year. three of them have been big. one at utah, one here against utah and one at denver. a lot of contact. another foul will be called. >> phil: the indeed play of inside play -- love tries to force it but dumps it off to his te >> steve: foul called on >> timeout font floor. another free throw is coming, 6:36 to play in regulation. the wiza >> steve: timberwolves lead the wizards by 5 now

change the way that washington worked. he was going to change the way that deals were made in order to get legislation passed and there's a lot of criticism saying that the price is right, that they were willing to give autopsy lot n particular, you saw with ben nelson, getting a lot for his state for the state of nebraska so that they could get the 60 democrats to line up on this. >> and the white house saying that, listen -- >> good evening, john. you make up an interesting point there. because i remember one of the earlier criticisms that stuck for a long time was that as a candidate, barack obama said that we'll have every meeting opened. people will be able to watch everything that we do and that simply has not been the case. >> they say it's been a lot of transparency. everything that has played out in all of the deal making, if you will, that has been going on, there's been a lot of transparency and they say that, listen, this is what happened, whether it's republicans or democrats, this is what takes place, the ame

so at that point i went into the washington bureau of the wall street journal. i had 10 glorious years covering politics and congress and the white house. >> and what'd you do after that? >> after that i ended up at "congressional quarterly" as managing editor. i spent two-and-a-half years in that job, and then seven years as executive editor, and then 12 years as ceo, president, and editor-in-chief of "congressional quarterly." >> and it was owned by a newspaper, the "st. petersburg times." >> correct. >> and it was sold recently to what organization? >> it was sold to the economist group of london, which also owns "roll call," which is a washington publishing company, focuses on congress, as did congressional quarterly primarily. and so the economist merged, the "roll call" and "cq," at which point they had two ceo's for one news organization. and i was the one standing when the music stopped. so on august 4 at 4:15, at the moment that the final papers were signed my job came to an end, and at 6:00 the next morning i was on an airplane to seattle to sort of de

here is the front page this morning in the washington -- "washington post." they also have the health care story, but they also have a story about the imminent strike yesterday. and they also of a map on the front page of the "washington post" next to the story about the location of yemen and wear those air strikes to place. this morning in the "baltimore sun" they also look at the story from a distance -- different aspect. our question for you, though, this half hour is your favorite political story of the year. we will go to our first call from manhattan, and as we do, the year in cartoons. instead, democrats line, go ahead, you are first. caller: their christmas. host: thank you. caller: this health care story, we got no moderate votes. i think the republicans are to have their heads handed to them politically when all was said and done. there was no public option. if we would've had more bipartisan support -- this bill nelson from nebraska cost a fortune, his negotiation for this date -- for his stake, the medicare expenses being picked up by the governme

"washington journal" is next. . >> we begin with a piece from the washington who writes after healthcare we need senate reform. you see the line for republicans, democrats and independents. host: 55 votes is not enough to win or anything close to it. it is enough to get five from 60. you need to shut down a filibuster. only then can a lobby pass. the modern senate is a radically different institution frómç the 1960's and the dysfunction over healthcare, absence of bipartisanship, useç of the filibuster to obstruct progress, the ability of any senator to hold theç bill hostage has convinced many inside and outside theç chamber that it needs to be fixed. from the weekly turnaround there is a piece byç two authors sayg a fine mess and they write the end game has unfolded and all eyes are on the unseamly process taking place in the halls of congress. rushed votes to minimize scrutiny and secret deals and outlandish vote buying using tax par funds. procedural maneuvers to shut off debate and the process has been ugly andç so ugly it is distracting both voters and legislators from

washington book. they have been talking about doing a book about how politics has changed in the 24/7 news cycle. the ones that you from a historian. i want to take a look at that, because i think it is really important how partisanship has become so strong, fueled by the 24 our feet -- 24 hour cable process. whether you're listening to the left or right, they jump on each other. that has a detrimental effect on politics. i recently listened to a wonderful lecture on the book on franklin roosevelt. he talked about changes in the news media. everything is moving to talk tv. fox news is just talk, talk, talk. in this nbc is talk, talk, talk. -- msnbc is talk, talk, talk. talk is cheap, investigative reporting is expensive. >> thank you very much. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2009] >> for a dvd copy of this program, call the number on your screen. for free transcripts or give us comments on the program, visit us at qanda.org. >

london had a limited capacity and which to disagree with washington because washington was in the lead. we had a relatively poor input into pentagon decision making about which you have heard from other witnesses. therefore, there was a sense of frustration in london that we could not always persuade the americans to do what might be our preference because they were in charge and they were going to do their own thing anyway and we had him try to make it work on the ground. there was a sense of frustration in both places some things were going reasonably well but the police area was not one of them. frankly, in 2009, it still isn't one of them. it never became right and we never got iraqis to create a police force of the strength of saddam's. the police training exercise was actually run by an extremely competent british former chief constable, douglas brand, who the americans accused respected. he had hardly any resources to do with. he had to invent a training program which we eventually did with jordan which produced a far lower number of recruits going through the system in for a sh

smith from the state of washington. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from washington is recognized for such time as he may consume. mr. smith: thank you, mr. speaker. i want to thank the speaker in this chamber for bringing this resolution so quickly to the floor. as we have now heard the tragic events of last sunday, we are here to offer our condolences to the families, also to honor the lives and the service of the four officers who were so brutally slain and to express our grief over their loss. they were ambushed early on sunday morning simply getting ready to go to work. it is a tragedy that has had a deep impact on our community. and i want to offer my condolences to all the people in lakewood, especially their police force and the city officials that have been so impacted by the tragic of this event. the four officers that were killed were part of the police force and all of the police officers in this country who so selflessly serve and protect all of us. they were sergeant mark renninger, who is a 13-year

washington battling for the ball. gilbert is doing better. >> phil: he is doing a great job from the guard position. >> steve: flynn the rebound. first of two meetings between these teams. last year the wizards swept them two straight for the second consecutive year. washington has won four straight games overall and the last two here in minneapolis. >> phil: we have antawn jamison in his 12th year, lover love in his second year. i think similar players, they are not the biggest at the power forward position but they both rebound the ball extremely well. kevin love is averaging five offensive rebounds during the game. >> steve: brendan haywood scores on the dunk. the last time the wizards loss to this team was in 1997 here. here is love, pulls up for the jumper and hits. he has been extremely productive lately. >> phil: active is a better word for it. he sat out all of october and november. >> steve: gilbert has the rebound. arenas looking for some space. jamison will takes a 3-pointer and hit it. >> phil: each one of

"washington journal" continues. host: we're joined by eamon javers. facing what else pressured to increase lending. in a meeting financiers will tell obama they're ready to step up to promote recovery in additional steps. what is the president going to tell them? guest: that they need to be lending to lend to credit- worthy businesses. these are the job creation engines of the u.s. economy. they can i give credit to expand and grow because the banks are so frightened by the global economic meltdown last year that they are unwilling to loosen standards. the banker is going into the meeting arcana caught in between. on the one hand, the white house is telling them to lend more, and on the other their bar regulators tell them to lend less. be careful you are not lending to those who cannot afford to pay back loans. that is what got us into all this trouble in the subprime mortgage meltdown. host: you said that white house political people like david axelrod are telling us to win more, but regulators say the opposite. t

contractors to washington for a trial for a crime allegedly commited in a war zone. and baghdad, people in iraq have really wanted to know how is this going to play out. how is the u.s. judicial system going to handle this case? are we going to get justice? >> so judge ricardo you arebina ruled today. what did he say. he was the he sense of the ruling and what reasons did he give for it? >> he threw out the entire case. he dismissed the indictment against all five member. and the reason was he basically said that prosecutors crossed the line. and they mishandled evidence. what happened is after the shooting, the state department came in and said to the contractors, we want to know what happened. tell us what happened. and as part of -- as part of their contract they have to tell the state department. but that is a -- in legal terms a coerced statement. they're required to give it and so as part of the deal, you give us a statement about what happens, we'll use it for our internal investigation and we won't use those statements in any criminal prosecution. but what ha

welcome to the "washington journal." caller: yes. thank you. first i think it's ironic that all the black people calling this morning are calling sailing they are for racial profiling. but the ma sod, we were attacked because of our support of israel and the palestinians. host: christine, do you have any evidence of that? caller: yes, look at the 9/11 commission reports. now it's they are writing bills right and left because they have a strangal hold on both parties of congress. host: we're going to leave it there. she is starting to go off the rail. on our line for independents. go ahead. caller: you can look at what motivated highjackers at american highjack.com. host: in o'needa our line for democrats. caller: good morning. we're talking on the subject of hometown grill off here and all the things -- home homeland security we've learned we really haven't done no such secure this country. now i wonder if you're aware of executive order 12425 signed by your president last week that to me, we're going in the wrong direction. this executive orde

this is the normal drill in washington. i think he'll be able to pull it off. >> brown: in fact, president obama had talked about this doing this as early as may and then there were reports that it was taking a while to fill the position or to figure out who the person would report to. >> there's a dispute in the white house and in the administration. i think that slowed things down. some people think it's best to leave the internet alone. let it be the wild west. let it continue to have a limited role for government and the internet community will find its way out of this problem. i don't happen to agree. i'm not sure where howard comes out on this. >> brown: why don't you agree? >> because we've tried letting the internet community solve this. we've tried seeing if it was a self-organizing global common. hasn't worked. it's just like the wild west. time to move in the marshals. >> brown: now you talked about the top tier, i think was what you said. governments. >> right. >> brown: you're talking about cyber spying? >> yea

these bureaucracies in washington impose upon all of us. the presiding officer: the senator's time has expired. mr. hatch: i yield the floor. mr. whitehouse: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from rhode island. mr. whitehouse: i know the senator from rhode island wishes to speak very shortly, and i will yield to him very shortly when he is present on the floor, but i did want to react to two points that were made by the very distinguished senator from utah, and i say that with true sincerity. he has been a friend to me since i have been in the senate. he sets a very valuable standard in this institution for collegiality and dignity and bipartisanship and scholarliness, and he comes from an extremely distinguished career prior to his distinguished career in the senate as a lawyer, a leader of the utah bar. so -- but i do think that as much -- as easy as it is to make fun of a 2,074-page bill, the house bill, which is not significantly different in scale from this bill, was reviewed, and if you look at the substantive language

the horse arrived as washington did. and i decided i will take out the ending of this book i was planning and write a whole book about that ending about washington going home for christmas. so they're came a second accidental book. i was working after that on a book on world war ii a triple biography of macarthur, marshall and eisenhower who were interconnected during world war ii. chapter 11 dealt with a battle of the bulge. it became so long that it was on balancing the book. and so i took out chapter 11 and wrote 11 days in december about the battle of the bulge which happened to end the day after christmas. it became in effect the third christmas book. writing about the war again i began a book which i am still working on on the reelection of abraham lincoln in 1864. lincoln didn't expect to get reelected. he fought with a war going badly he was going to be free place and he was very fatalistic about it. it turned out the soldier boat during the war the first time there was a soldier vote for the presidency in wartim

media off cliffs and "the washington times -- media outlets and "the washington times) has been a remarkable out in reporting in a number of countries around the world, so we see our approach as being a collaborative model on trying to stretch the available resources all of us have to reach new audiences and engage as many people as possible. i met him when he was a fellow at harvard almost two years ago, and we talk about profits we might do together, and the first project he did with us was looking at the eternal -- internal conflict in turkey as part of a project we did last year, and he went on from there to work for us on the student protest in greece. he covered that, and it developed into a profit for the pulitzer center. in the spring, we decided it would be good for him to go to iran to cover the he elections reagan -- elections. as a general rule, we are not about covering elections, because we see that as something the news media does do. there is a conventional media that still -- we still devote resources to those issues. we knew that he was extraordinarily well-versed in irania

oregon, frank lautenberg from new jersey, patty murray from washington -- the state of washington, arlen specter from pennsylvania, mary can't well and mary landrieu from louisiana. they recognized how important this was. they recognized we were trying to solve major problems for people, especially in rural amplest i think it would be worthwhile to reflect back on the 2003 debate and remember the reasons this issue inspired such strong bipartisan consensus. you don't hear it at all from that side now. after the program has proven its efficacy and has proven that it works. we supported the medicare advantage program six years ago because we knew it was the right thing to do for beneficiaries and the same logic holds true today. we owe it to beneficiaries to provide a strong, adequately funded program that provides them with high-quality health care choices. during the finance committee's consideration of -- and by the way, every medicare beneficiary can go into medicare advantage if they desire under current

barbara slater of "the washington times" an jonathan broder of g.q. weekly will be here to discuss foreign policy and then we will have steven hess from the brookings institution and dan thomasson of scripps howard news service to talk about president obama's first year in office. thank you for watching this edition of "the washington journal" and we will see you tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. eastern. coming up, the communictors, and at 10:30, a senate hearing on the backlog of d.n.a. evidence collected for unsolved rape cases, and later, a former c.i.a. intelligence officer on u.s. policy in afghanistan. tonight, on "america and the courts" encore presentations from c-span's supreme court week special. the supreme court jurn aferlist lyle denison an joan biskubic on covering the courts and appellate attorney maureen maloney on arguing before the court tonight at 7:30 p.m. eastern here on c-span. in the mid '90's, newsweek named omar wasow one of the 50 most influential people to watch in cyberspace and since then he has created the social networking sit

i wish everyone in washington d.c. would read it. host: here is a look at one of the authors. >> we make progress as a society where everybody pursuing their own interests as soon as possible. he believed that is almost my duty as a citizen to pursue interests and fight for them. he thought that is what everyone should do. one of the exceptions is, he was deeply patriotic. he had three sons. he named them after his heroes -- george washington was one. and so when the civil war came around, he tried to? a large steamship's and given to the union navy. they said no. he was prickly. they never thought the war would last that long. the ship was expensive. so he ended up being forced against his will to lease it for large sums to the war department. host: t.j. stiles. you confine all kinds of video on our website. your favor nonfiction book of 2009. here is dennis in michigan. caller: merry christmas. there are a lot of nonfiction books the came out. i think the very best this year was "end the debt." or heard discussion about the differe

these plans collapsed, especially in rural areas, because washington, our wonderful people here in washington, decided to set artificially low payment rates. in fact, in utah, all medicare h.m.o.'s eventually ceased operations because they were operating in the red. and i fear history could repeat itself if we are not careful here. during the medicare modernization act conference, we mixed the problem. we increased reimbursement rates so that all medicare beneficiaries, regardless of where they live, be it in fillmore, utah, or new york city, had choice in coverage. again, we did not want beneficiaries stuck with a one-size-fits-all government plan, which, by the way, this monstrosity is. today, medicare advantage works. every medicare beneficiary has access to a medicare advantage plan if they so choose. one-quarter of them have so chosen and it has worked amazingly well. and close to 95% of medicare beneficiaries participating in the program are satisfied with their health coverage. but that could all change should this health care reform legislation currently being considered become law. c

"washington journal" is next. guest: from the beginning we knew that the bill had to save lives, money and medicare. we did that, we knew we had to stabilize for americans who had it and stabilize for millions who didn't. tkw host: democrats say they reached the necessary 60 votes k to move forward on health care legislation. good morning on december 20, the legislation will continue this afternoon at 1 o'clock, and scheduled to work through the night and take a vote tomorrow morning to set a christmas eve vote on the bill. we will hear from the congressional quarterly reporter for a bit, but first our phones are open to you, we want to hear if you think that the health care bill is being rushed. with your numbers listed, and we are online and you can e-mail comments and twitter. let's look at yesterday's look on health care, and how "the washington post" looked at, seeing that they proposed ranks and ending months of division and clearing a path for passage. majority leader, harry reid, provided the 60th vote and

host: welcome to "washington journal." in 50 minutes, the senate will gaveling to session and in 30 minutes they will vote on final passage of their aid hundred $71 billion health care reform bill. this is a key milestone in a months-long health care debate that has dominated capitol hill. senate democrats are, they have the votes to pass this legislation, giving president barack obama an important victory on this christmas a pretty road to health care reform does not end here. the senate bill will need to be reconciled with the house version which was passed on november 7 and there are key differences between the two bills. you can watch the senate bill in its entirety on our sister network, cspan 2. this morning, we want to know what you think about congressional efforts to reform health care. the numbers are on your screen ]zqjoining us on the russell ofe building rotunda, walk us through what will happen to that. guest: this is final passage. they will get out there and bvote on the health care bill are when it comes t

the washington d.c. region was buried under nearly two feet of snow, forcing federal agencies to close today. and everywhere commuters had to brave icy roads and slick sidewalks this morning. those who opted for public transportation ran into delays in bus, commuter rail and subway service in several major cities. early holiday travelers were left struggling to salvage flight plans after thousands of flights were delayed or canceled. >> on a flight from boston yesterday at 3:00 and got here at 5:00 p.m. and have been here since trying to get to pittsburgh. right over there behind the christmas tree. >> we called up the airline last night. everything was totally fine. we arrived this morning. the flight was canceled. a lot of people confused not knowing what's going on. >> reporter: as the day went on, runways began to reopen and flight schedules slowly began returning to normal. >> brown: the blizzard also left shopping malls snow bound with merchants scrambling to recoup a critical weekend of lost busin

. >> the supreme court historical society hosted this discussion on tuesday in washington d.c.. you can watch this program again or other recent programs at c- span.org. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from arizona. mr. mccain: madam president, i -- i rise to speak on the bill -- the pending bill before us. one of the great pork barrel earmark-billed pieces of legislation that i seen come before this body. i'd like to quote from abc news by jonathan carl and def inn -- devin pryor, this is the season of pork, i quote -- "before returning to their -- excuse me. "just weeks before returning to their districts for christmas, congress is poised to give the gift of pork, roughly $4 billion of it. more than 5,000 earmarks were included in the $447 billion omnibus bill, funding pet projects of key members of congress from both parties in all regions of the country. senate will vote on the bill this weekend. independent analysis of the bill reveal a whopping 12% increase in government spending for 2010 while the inflation rate in the country remains near z

-- that you left washington? >> throughout 2002, it was not just my level, but other members of the staff, after saddam plannigng black spot, black hole, whatever you liket o say -- tliek toke tos say, it was possible for the american administration to say that they don't even agree on the concept of the aftermath. the most authoritative thing i can tell you is in the book. i found myself at a dinner in washington sitting next to vice- president cheney. and we hadn't had the crucial vote in the house of commons. he asked me what all this meant. i said, the prime minister has significant political difficulties in london, and it will be difficult to get over them. his reaction was quite dismissive. once you get by your political problem, and we get to baghdad, we will be greeted with cheers and flowers by the population, all this will be past history. you and the president will get the credit they deserve. there was a significant chunk of the administration that was not particularly concerned about the aftermath be

welcome to the "washington journal." caller: yes. thank you. first i think it's ironic that all the black people calling this morning are calling sailing they are for racial profiling. but the ma sod, we were attacked because of our support of israel and the palestinians. host: christine, do you have any evidence of that? caller: yes, look at the 9/11 commission reports. now it's they are writing bills right and left because they have a strangal hold on both parties of congress. host: we're going to leave it there. she is starting to go off the rail. on our line for independents. go ahead. caller: you can look at what motivated highjackers at american highjack.com. host: in o'needa our line for democrats. caller: good morning. we're talking on the subject of hometown grill off here and all the things -- home homeland security we've learned we really haven't done no such secure this country. now i wonder if you're aware of executive order 12425 signed by your president last week that to me, we're going in the wrong direction. this executive orde

i wish everybody in washington, d.c. would read it. >> host: one of the things recovered was a book called teaching styles book, the first tycoon. here is a look at what the author had to say during the book tv and we covered. >> he believed we make progress as a society by everybody pursuing their own interest as fiercely as possible and he firmly believed it is almost my duty as a citizen you pursue your interest and fight for them and he thought that is what everybody should do. but what of the exceptions of that is he was deeply patriotic. and he named it to a foot, three sons after his heroes, george washington, henry emmerson and cornelius vanderbilt. [laughter] and so when the civil war came around, he tried to give his largest steamship which cost nearly a million dollars. he tried to give it to the union navy and giddy and said no the secretary of the navy. he was a little prickly. nobody thought the war would last that long. never going to have this expensive ship it's going to be a white elephant for the navy.

here is the front page this morning in the washington -- "washington post." they also have the health care story, but they also have a story about the imminent strike yesterday. and they also of a map on the front page of the "washington post" next to the story about the location of yemen and wear those air strikes to place. this morning in the "baltimore sun" they also look at the story from a distance -- different aspect. our question for you, though, this half hour is your favorite political story of the year. we will go to our first call from manhattan, and as we do, the year in cartoons. instead, democrats line, go ahead, you are first. caller: their christmas. host: thank you. caller: this health care story, we got no moderate votes. i think the republicans are to have their heads handed to them politically when all was said and done. there was no public option. if we would've had more bipartisan support -- this bill nelson from nebraska cost a fortune, his negotiation for this date -- for his stake, the medicare expenses being picked up by the governme

"washington journal" is next. .

clay believe in the concentration of power in washington. whereas jackson believes that power should be diffuse and spread out among the people as much as possible. that would talk about street construction -- all the democrats were in favor of strict construction of the constitution does the republican race today. or small government, that is a to republican -- that is a republican phrase today. >> what was the moment that led you to write a book about james polk? >> it is an opportunity to note that this was not my idea. the idea came from my editor, simon and schuster, legendary publishing circles as someone who loves american history. she asked me during the discussion we were having, what i was coming up with some ideas for books which she was not particularly enamored of, she says, we will come up with something. what do you know about the mexican war? i said that i was not a military historian but it was a period of very intense politics. give me a couple of weeks to figure out how i would shake it. i did, i sent your memo, and that i

"washington journal" continues. host: senator byron dorgan from north dakota it says debates have stalled partly in an amendment that you offered to allow cheaper drugs to be imported from canada. what is the status of your amendment? will it be voted on? >> well, it is going on seven days but appears it will get a vote today. it's not just cheaper drugs but identical drugs sold in every other country for a fraction of the price it's sold to americans. you know, if this is a global economy how about giving the american people the freedom to access the identical drug, same pill put in the same bottle, fda-approved. the difference, american people get to pay two to three times the cost most other people in the world pay. i think it's unfair and they ought to be able to access these drugs from other countries. >> when he was running for president did you talk to him about these negotiation it's? and if so what did he tell you? >> yes. he was the co-sponsor of my legislation. my legislation has 30 co-responsers ranging

king and the march on washington initially, the initiative march on washington in, what, 1963? so this will definitely be a historical year. all the things that our president has encountered coming into office, i think he has done a remarkable job trying to meet those challenges and bring the country around to some sustainable success this year. so i think this year will absolutely go down as a historical year, given all the context of the things he had to deal with as the first african-american president. >> thanks for the call. on the republican line we'll listen to greg joining us from union, missouri. greg, are you with us? we'll go on to gilbert joining us from alabama. good morning. caller: i feel that this will notÑi only be remembered as a historical year, but i feel this will be the tipping point of the world. three things that point in that direction is the war in afghanistan and the war in iraq. the rising unemployment and the copenhagen climate meeting. if these are not handled professionally, it will change the whole direction of the world. and i'm looking forward

-- that you left washington? >> throughout 2002, it was not just my level, but other members of the staff, after saddam plannigng black spot, black hole, whatever you liket o say -- tliek toke tos say, it was possible for the american administration to say that they don't even agree on the concept of the aftermath. the most authoritative thing i can tell you is in the book. i found myself at a dinner in washington sitting next to vice- president cheney. and we hadn't had the crucial vote in the house of commons. he asked me what all this meant. i said, the prime minister has significant political difficulties in london, and it will be difficult to get over them. his reaction was quite dismissive. once you get by your political problem, and we get to baghdad, we will be greeted with cheers and flowers by the population, all this will be past history. you and the president will get the credit they deserve. there was a significant chunk of the administration that was not particularly concerned about the aftermath be

tomorrow on "washington journal," foreign-policy with the "washington times" and "cq weekly." after, a look at obama's first year. that is live at 7:00 a.m. eastern here on c-span. >> now available, abraham lincoln -- great american historians on our 16th president. a great read for any history buff. it is a unique contemporary perspective on lincoln, from journalists and writers from lincoln's early years to the flight at the white house and his relevance today. in hard cover and your favorite bookseller, and now in digital audio to listen to any time, available where downloads are sold. learn more apps c- span.org/lincolnbook. >> this week, an update on efforts by the federal communications commission to develop a plan to expand broadband in the united states. our guest is blair levin, leading up the initiative at the fcc. could you give us a status update on the report? >> sure. we have been doing status updates all along. september we laid out for the fcc kind of what we thought the state of broadband was in the united states. in november, we laid out the most significant

from this morning's "washington journal." it's an hour. >> host: senior fellow for the center for new american security. also, write as blog for foreign policy called, the best defense at, ricks.foreign policy.come. three things we need from obama on afghanistan. you write, most importantly, is his heart in it? can he bring along a good portion of the american people, especially part of his base or is he going to say we're giving it 12 months and then we're uotta here? what did you mean by this? explain a little more. >> guest: obama is a great speech maker. people expect him to be eloquent. the question will he also give the sense after this very long internal policy debate that lasted since the summer, does he really think this is something worth doing or is he kind of begrudging about it? is there is any sense he is not into this heart and soul, i think democratic base especially will run away from this. >> host: what words does he need to say tonight to the american people that indicate to you that his heart is in it? >>

do from washington. i heard the mulally and clearly. -- i heard them loudly and clearly. >> [unintelligible] >> it is up to one organization to negotiate the best deal they can. there will not be any effort to try to shave it does. they do not have the policy interest here. [unintelligible] >> i will be watching santa claus to come down my chimney here. i hope to be home as soon as i can be home. >> thank you. [unintelligible] >> what happened is that my chief of staff and that basically developed this idea. we wanted to offer a choice between this plan and that plan. we had already agreed on how to account for the money. [unintelligible] yes. >> did you sleep on it? >> we had the concept. [inaudible] [unintelligible] >> and democratic senator ben nelson of nebraska announcing his support for the democratic health care bill on the snow saturday. it should give the democrats the 60 votes they need to get the bill passed. as we go live to the senate floor where once again the senate is in session for the t

here in washington has backed this monstrosity. now, should i say the a.m.a. -- some people think that represents all of the doctors. it doesn't. it's a bunch of federal bureaucrats right here in washington who -- who basically -- basically are very liberal. the average doctor out there is incensed about this. now, adding more lives to this insolvent medicare program will only further limit their ability to see all medicare patients, not just the new ones. now, even more troubling is the impact of this expansion on the premiums of our medicare seniors from this ill-conceived policy. this expansion will encourage an influx of sick americans from private coverage into medicare that will simply raise premiums for seniors already enrolled in medicare. so seniors, expect your costs of medicare to go up. so why are democrats pushing this idea? congressman anthony wiener said it best. i think he was very honest, very upfront. he said this -- quote -- "extending this successful program to those between 55 and 64, a plan i proposed in july,

washington. you can watch that live on line and listen on c-span radio. today is the anniversary of the japanese attacks on pearl harbor. the national parks service has been collecting stories from survivors of that day. here is a brief look. >> of pennsylvania was the flagship of the is a big fleet. we were the flagship of the navy. it was admiral campbell's ship but he was not on it that day. >> when we used to go out on patrol, the saying used to be the japs are attacking, the japs are attacking and we would run into our battle stations. most of us knew we were going to have defied the japanese. where that trickle-down from, i have no idea. i maybe it was from the politicians to the officers and the officers to us. we expected to buy them eventually. we just did not know when. there was no need for radio communication. it was obvious to all of the ships that we were under attack. they had as carrying ammunition to the three and should 50. i had just been handed a shell -- a three inch 50. the