c-span: and where was the ku klux klan meeting with tom robb? >> guest: that was in harrison, arkansas, in the ozarks, the kind of foothills of the arkansas ozarks. c-span: where was the bilderberg meeting? >> guest: oh, at the caesar park hotel and golfing resort in central portugal. see, the bilderberg, as the conspiracy theorists always told me, always meet once a year in a five-star hotel with golfing facilities. but there -- they may play golf when they're there, but they're not there to play golf, i was told. c-span: you spent some time with ian paisley. who is he? >> guest: ian paisley is the man who -- many people say, is the man who you could pinpoint as being most responsible for keeping the troubles in northern ireland going these past 30 years. he's a fiery, brimstone preacher and politician. he leads the dup, the democratic unionist party, in northern ireland. "say no. say no to" -- he's the -- he's the man who says no. and when the good friday agreement was being mooted around the table at stormont castle, ian paisley showed his op

one called her the equivalent of the head of the ku klux klan. another call her a bigot. the one thing dead gives me consolation is republican senators have resisted that. a 300 million americans, the president is making the nomination, and 100 senators voted on it. any questions? >> [inaudible] >> thank you. normally, i will not talk about what a nominee says to me. i think a vote on everything since chief justice rehnquist was chief. i never talk about it, though i did raise that question. it would probably according to her answer, none whatsoever. but life experience ships where you are. but ultimately and completely, as a judge, she follows along with the law. there is not one law, one race or another, one color or another, for richer or poorer. there is only one wall -- lock -- law, and she says ultimately and completely, a judge must follow it. i had to make up my mind as a prosecutor based on what the law wanted. what's ahead on, not their background. >> [inaudible] >> she told me her philosophy. she has probably given hundreds of speeches, written hundreds of opin

it's not fair for critics to be calling her racist, one even equating her with the head of the ku klux klan, an outrageous comment both republicans and democrats have said outrageous. i'll ignore how outrageous it is, but she can't speak to it until she's in the hearing. in 2005 when president bush made his first nomination to the supreme court, senator mcconnell who was in the majority whip asserted that the senate should consider and confirm the nominations within 60-70 days. we've worked hard to achieve that. the nomination of judge sotomayor should more easily be considered within that time frame. we were still able to complete senate consideration, and the senate confirmed john roberts to be the chief justice of the united states 72 days after he was initially designated to be an associate justice. we did this despite the fact his initial nomination was withdrawn and only shortly before his hearing he was renominated to serve as the chief justice of the united states. and we did this despite the terrible aftermath of hurricane katrina that where everybody, republicans and democrat

when i hear one of the leaders of the other party on his radio show compare her to the head of the ku klux klan. this is shameless. this is wrong. this goes beyond rhetoric. i think about looking back over the history of justice marshall's confirmation hearing. again, he won 29 out of 32 cases. and the kinds of questions like are you prejudiced against the white people of the south? give me a break. let's not go back to those kind of days. i would hope that the senate republicans would remember the proud history of the party of lincoln and the civil rights act of 1960, and as a party that eventually voted unanimously for thurgood marshall to the united states supreme court. justice marshall was not only the first to face adversity, when justice brandeis, he had to overcome severe anti-semitism and significant opposition. the commentary at the time was questions about the jewish mind and how it is accomplished by altruism. does that sound a little bit like an attack on empathy? [laughter] i mentioned that the opposite of empathy is indifference. do we really want that in a justice? the

almost immediately after seize nominated and one of them calling her the equivalent of the head of the ku klux klan, another one calling her, in effect, a bigot. come on. let's let her be heardment and as preparedness, those republican critics were prepared, prepared to air their grievances and concerns and to discuss her record and to say why they're against her three weeks before we even have the hearing. apparently they don't need anymore time to prepare. so one would assume they're prepared for a hearing that will not be until the middle of next month. now, i would say, speaking both as the senator from vermont buts as chairman of the senate judiciary committee, i don't agree with their characterization of her distinguished record on the federal bench. and i don't agree with their mischaracterization, her manner of judging. judge sonia sotomayor's approach to the law should be clear to all after a 17-year record of fairly applying the law on the federal bench. i -- when i asked judge sonia sotomayor about her approach to judging she told me that of course one's life experiences shape

almost immediately after she is nominated and one of them calling her the equivalent of the head of the ku klux klan. one of them calling her a bigot. come on. let's let her be heard. in preparedness, those republican critics were prepared -- they were not prepared to air their grievances and concerns and to discuss her record and to say why they are against her. three weeks before even having the hearing. apparently they don't need any more time to prepare. so one would assume they are prepared to -- for a hearing that is not going to be until next month. the middle of next month. now, i would say both the senator from vermont and the senate judiciary committee i don't agree with their ackizeation -- with their characterization or with their mischaracterization of her manner of judging. judge sotomayor's approach to the law should be clear to all. after a 17-year record of fairly applying the law on the federal bench. i would ask judge sotomayor about her approach to judging, she told anyway of course, one's life experiences shape who you are. it does for all 100 members of this body. she

when i hear one of the leaders of the other parties on his radio show compare her to the head of the ku klux klan. this is shameless. this is wrong. this goes beyond rhetoric, and i think about reading back over history of justice marshall's confirmation hearing in the supreme court, again, a man who won 29 of the 32 cases, and the kinds of questions like, are you prejudiced since the white people of the south? come on, give me a break. let's not go back to those kinds of days. i would hope the senate republicans remember the proud history of the party of lincoln and the civil rights act of 1968 and as a party that eventually voted unanimously who for thurgood marshall to the united states supreme court, but justice marshall was not the first to face of adversity. when one of the giants of the supreme court was nominated to the supreme court, he had overcome severe anti-semitism, significant opposition. the commentary at the time was questions about the jewish mind, how its operations are complicated by altruism. this about some little bit like an attack on empathy -- does that sound a

so here was the white citizens council, the ku klux klan trying to discredit king, and all they were doing was promoting communist. .. >> you could go to an oil rig and find five workers sitting round trying to read, trying to write their own stories. what an exciting kind of extraordinary thing. i think learning should go from okayed toll grave. i think it's one of the crazy things about our educational system, it's considered for the young, like the young learn and then what, go on automatic pilot? that's nutty. so i did admire that and i do admire that. so, yeah. i don't find that objectionable. >> host: we have way from the odd generals. >> i'm from cleveland, and me question is on the educational line which piggybacks on the question the gentleman asked previously. you sort of answered it but you may want to ewill be braid on it. g. the importance of teachers and schools are only as good as teachers, what are your thoughts on how we can recruit, retain and support good teachers and the other side of the coin, teachers teachers teachers who don't believe children can learn or are

it is not fair for people to call her a racist and equate her with people from the ku klux klan, an outrageous zamente from republicans and democrats, but she can't speak to it until she's in the hearing. in 2005 senator mcconnell whorks is in the -- who is in the majority whip, said the senate should confirm the non nominations within 60 to 70 days. we worked hard to achieve that. the nomination of judge sotomayor should be more easily completed within that time frame. we were able to complete the senate confirmation, and john roberts was confirmed 72 days after his initially designated to be the associate justice. we did this despite the fact the initial nomination was withdrawn, and only shortly before his hearing it was renominated to serve as the chief justice of the united states. and we did this despite the terrible aftermath of hurricane katrina when everybody, republicans and democrats alike, agreed we should hold back the hearings for a week so we could all concentrate the nation's resources on hurricane katrina. so that required a week's delay, and then 72 days after we followed the

first met add add event in independence, missouri and they were being screamed and yelled at by the ku klux klan who were opposed to al smith running for president. harry truman was also widely believed to be a part of machine politics but he too with someone who she saw greatness then and she became a friend and ally of his as well so even when fdr died she went to work in the civil service commission and did. many things for truman on the review board, including rooting out communists in the federal government and convincing them to quit their jobs before they got into trouble. this is a woman obviously who had, who did many things. at the end of her life, she looked back at her life and the thing she was produce was the creation of social security. and indeed that really is remarkable. 50 million people now get social security. the latest figures that came out on unemployment insurance at a record 5 million people are on unemployment insurance. if we didn't have that 55 million people getting that income now we would be in a much more serious, that place that we are now as we face a

so you'd think here was the white citizens council, the ku klux klan trying to discredit king, and all they were doing was promoting communism. that's the kind of feeling i had there. in terms of hugo chavez and what's going on in venezuela. there's a lot to say about what's interesting about it, and, you know, i was there several times. my son chess saw lived there and worked there, but i did find when i visited these, you know, venezuela's a place that has not had education for all, and it now does. and education in an interesting way, what i really admire about what they're trying to do is education goes from preschool through life. and so there are learning circles, literacy circles in communities, in