on your screen is john podesta, the ceo of the center for american progress. live coverage on c-span. >> this event is expected to begin shortly. president obama will be at the radio and tv correspondents association dinner tonight delivering remarks. that begins and caught 25 eastern time. but the associated press writes that president obama is describing the overall health care plan put forward by house democrats today as a major step toward the goal of fixing what is broken and building on what works. house republicans are sharpening their criticism. they say it would cost tens of millions of people to lose the current health care coverage. the participants are getting ready to start. it should begin momentarily. [crowd murmurs] >> a little bit of background on the american constitution society that is hosting this event. it is called the american constitution society for law and policy. the group calls itself a progressive legal organization. it was founded in 2001. the numbers include lawyers, law students, and policy advocates. >> good evening everyone.

this included john podesta and clust discussed ways to advance the progressive movement with the obama administration. this is an hour. >> good morning. my name is roger hickey. this is the take back america conference. in this last historic election we did take back america. we took it back from the edge of disaster. so the people in this room deserve a lot of credit. i'd like you all to give yourselves and president barack obama a big round of applause. [applause] >> for progress siffs taking back -- for progressives, taking america back was just the first step. during our years in the wilderness, progressives kept our eyes on the prize. we worked creatively to build strong new coalitions to advance bold economic vend agendas for prosperity and democracy. and in the process, we built a strong progressive movement. in 2006 and 2007, candidate barack obama came here and spoke at take back america, and after putting his own stamp on what we were talking about here, candidate obama took our progressive change agenda into the election contest, and with your help, he won a powerful man dat

i'm john podesta. it's a great honor for me to be here with this great panel and on behalf of the american constitution society, i'd like to welcome all of you to tonight's plenary panel, which is entitled the levers of change, how progress -- i like that term -- how progress is made in today's policy environment. i'd also like to extend a special thanks to all of our panelists who had been generous enough to donate their valuable time to participate in this discussion. this discussion. we have several members of the administration up here, and given the pace of the new administration, i think spending a friday evening doing anything but being in a catatonic state is really an heroic effort. i know that the panel will be lively, and it just by way of one housekeeping business, you will get to ask most of the questions tonight. you need to reach into your back in right -- pullout a card and write your question on the card. people will collect them and give them to me. if you do not have a card, just wri

it is also exciting to be here with my friend john podesta. for those of you who share anywhere near the level of pride and joy i do with what the obama administration has been able to do in his first 125 days, an extraordinary amount of credit for that goes to john. it is also great to be here with lisa, given her contribution to acs. after four times of debating administration officials, it is nice to be an administration official. [applause] i have had the unique role of working for two vice presidents and a very different vice- president in between. with all of them, the role of a vice-president starts and ends with his relationship with the president and what the president asked him to do. al gore said the vice president has one other do you which is to cast a vote in the senate when there is a tie vote. as he is fond of saying, every time i vote, we win. in the case of vice-president biden, president obama has asked him to be a counselor at large and take on special projects as they come up. right now we are spending a lot of time implem

speakers include white house counsel greg greg and john podesta. this lasts about an hour and a half. >> it was like the perfect foil for all of us. >> good evening, everyone. if i could quiet the crowd,

in fact john podesta i think basically said, look, the c.i.a. spoke the truth. it is -- the consequences, madam speaker, are so serious to this nation. . and indeed to the world that it is important. if you ask any citizen of this country and you said, who do you think you depend on most to tell the truth? would it be the speaker of the house or the director of the central intelligence agency? i'm not sure how most people would respond, madam speaker. i'm not sure how i would respond. you expect both of them at that level of government to be honest. and truthful. so it is disturbing to me as a member of the house of representatives, it's disturbing to me as a citizen of this country, as a dad, as a granddad, as a husband, as a father, to find out that maybe the central intelligent agency -- intelligence agency is not telling the truth. and even worse than that, madam speaker, that possibly that there's a pattern of the central intelligence agency not telling the truth. that is just about as frightening a concept as you can possibly imagine. what can we rely on?

i am john podesta, the center -- president of the center for american progress. it is a great honor to be hearing this panel. on behalf of the american constitution society, i would like to welcome all of you to tonight's plenary panel, which is entitled the levers of change, how progress is made in today's policy environment. i would also like to extend special thanks to all of our panelists who have been generous enough to donate their arrival time to participate in this discussion. we have several members of the administration up here, and given the pace of the new administration, i think spending a friday evening doing anything but being in a catatonic state is really an heroic effort. i know that the panel will be lively,