and on behalf of the auto dealers marchant small across this country, the people who depend upon these businesses, depend upon the making of these automobiles, the selling of these automobiles, i would ask my colleagues to please give the opportunity for a short-term stimulus. this is a matter of a few months. it's less than 1% of this entire bill which is an important bill for the country, defense, the troops. this is a small piece of what is but for small business people, and americans working hard every day across this country and it is a chance to help. mr. president, i hope we will. thank you. the senate voted 60 - 36 to keep the $1 billion for the so-called cash for clunkers program and the war spending bill. >>> syndicated columnist george will was the guest on washington journal thursday morning. this is one hour. >> host: and on this thursday morning washington journal is pleased to welcome columnist george will to spend the last hour with us. thanks for being here. >> guest: glad to be here. >> host: so much to talk about i thought i would start with your column. the column a

the erie canal is a tin pan alley songs written in 1905 author of that work began on the second and marchant into the current canal for motorized barges pulled by real history and very quickly folklore. as i researched more deeply i began to find many tales about the erie canal that were just that, story is how long tradition and unknown origin that had iran is so big, erie canal fax or to fax so i'm going to talk about some of those but i first want to set the stage by reading a couple of pages from the book's opening if i can find it and just to set the stage for the background that led to the erie canal. morning came on coolican bright, in recent frost could just began to color the chorus autumn, the blue sky and chill air mingled the past of the future experience with the expectation. on the frontier village of buffalo, there was no more expectant time than wednesday october 8th, 1985, the population of over 2500 had been swelled by dozens of this is political and merchant leaders and hundreds of settler families from the surrounding countryside, all eager to celebrate the completion of