offering an unpaid position does nothing to exonerate bill clinton or white house chief of staff rahm emanuel. sestak would not be able to accept the position and remain in congress, which cast doubt about whether this was the job the white house offered. the memo claims multiple conversations between clinton and setstastak in june and july. the congressman insisted there was only one conversation. who is lying? the president alleges that president obama new nothing about any of these conversations. why would the white house unless a high-profile surrogate like former president bill clinton on multiple occasions without the knowledge of president obama for month-long negotiations about a low profile on page position -- unpaid position to a congressman who could not accept the job anyway? this is only part of a long tradition. andrew romanov was charging the democratic incumbent for a nomination. he was offered one of three jobs if he would drop out of the primary. the white house first denied the allegations when they came from anonymous administration whistle-blowers, but once the ac

so, offering the congressman an unpaid position does nothing to exonerate bill clinton or white house chief of staff rahm emanuel. second, sestak wouldn't be able to accept a position on a presidential advisory board and remain in congress anyway, which casts doubt about whether this was really the job the white house offered. third, the memo claims multiple conversations between president clinton and mr. sestak during june and july of 2009. but congressman sestak insisted four times, just on tuesday, that there was only one brief conversation. so who's lying? fourth, the memo alleges that president obama knew nothing of all of these conversations. now, why would the white house enlist the help of such a high- profile surrogate like former president bill clinton -- on "multiple" occasions, without the knowledge of president obama -- for months-long negotiations over such a low- profile, unpaid position, and all with a congressman who couldn't even accept the job anyway? and now we know that this is only part of a larger pattern of backroom, chicago-style politics. andrew romanoff, who

nobody in this room was alive when another president had four years of surplus other than bill clinton. is that totally attributable to his policies? it is not. we had extraordinary growth in the economy. in the '80s, we were worried about the world going past as a very quickly. in the '90s, we can't -- we went past the world pretty quickly because of our entrepreneurial growth. the president is the only person who can stop spending. i cannot stop spending in its tracks. if i have to hundred 17 people boating with me i can do that. no senator can do that unless they have 49, or in the case of the senate, 59 other senators voting for them. but the president can stop spending in its tracks. no president from the time i have served, which is a little longer than you may have been born -- pretty close. no president in the 30 years i have been in congress has had a veto overridden on an appropriation bill to spend more money. the only bill i remember being overridden was ronald reagan, when he sent back a bill to us which said you are not spending enough on defense. that was overridden pret

clinton won over the first president bush, two years after they electeded bill clinton for chan change, they threw the democrats out of congress and elected republicans. republicans thought they would use that to capture the white house, bill clinton made a comeback in 1996. you have seen that in the last couple of years with the swings. first, the people outraged by president bush, put the democrats in control of congress and white house within months after president obama takes office and the democrats have complete control of the federal government. there is this wave back. so you have a base party about a third of the electorate each then the group in the middle called independents not affiliated with either party but within that group there are a number who are either mainly republican voters or mainly democratic voters and once in a while they will split the tickets. then you have a constituency it is hard to gauge but 10% to 15% that is truly unaffiliated and they basically don't like either party. they don't think either party is working in their personal interests. and they ha

it was during bill clinton's election. back then, a bunch of senior reporters said do not major in journalism. they said if you want to cover medicine, go to medical school. if you want to cover science, be a biology major. if you want to cover washington, major in economics or history or political science. their advice was not to major in journalism. >> what did you major in and when ddid you graduate? >> i majored in economics and graduated in 1996. >> you worked for "communications daily" and "congress daily." when did you go to work for "the wall street journal"? >> 2005. >> why did they hire you? >> at roll call, i tried to write about the intersection to business and politics, what companies want in washington and how they get it. most reporters in washington cover capitol hill and politics, and what lawmakers do, without looking at the influence they are receiving from business. my job is to cover that business influence. those who read "the wall street journal," a business newspaper, are attracted to that. >> i am

bill clinton has comments about elena kagan and his service during her administration. that does it for today's "washington journal." we will be back tomorrow morning and next we will have the interview with senator patrick leahy. thank you for watching. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] . . >> mr. chairman, i wonder if you can comment on elana kagen's writings about 20 years ago abthe con23ir78ation process about how she talked about nominees avoiding substantive questions. do you think it would be appropriate for her to respond about whether row v wade was correctly decided? >> you actually asked several questions. one, how i feel about her writing. i thought she was right. she probably may have second thoughts about that now being a nominee. i told hers that one of the areas she is going to be asked, the question about how forts coming. it's been my experience that nominees to the supreme court shouldn't be less than less forth coming. i think she will be asked a number of questions. on ro

clinton won over the first president bush, two years after they electeded bill clinton for chan change, they threw the democrats out of congress and elected publicans. republicans thought they would use that to capture the white house, bill clinton made a comeback in 1996. you have seen that in the last couple of years with the swings. first, the people outraged by president bush, put the democrats in control of congress and white house within months after presidt obama takes office and the democrats have complete control of the federal government. there is this wave back. so you have a base party about a third of the electorate each then the group in the middle called independents not affiliated with either party but within that group there are a number who are either mainly republican voters or mainly democratic voters and once in a while they will split the tickets. then you have a constituency it is hard to gauge but 10% to 15% that is truly unaffiliated and they basically don't like either party. they don't think either party is working in their personal interests. and they have b

. >> he was appointed by bill clinton in 2000. i say that only because they do not do that like they used to. they used to have some members appointed by the company itself and some by politicians. what did you see? what is the lesson from this story? >> i think the lesson to me was that there are more and more people giving money to campaigns, to presidential campaigns and regular campaigns. the amount of money donated to politics just goes up and up and up every year. there is a lot of wrongdoing. this was one of hillary clinton's top campaign fund- raisers. hillary clinton was no unknown presidential candidate. at the time, she was the presumptive democratic nominee running against some guy named barack obama. she had a guy breaking the law right at the top of a campaign. mrs. clinton's fund-raisers and staff said they did not know that this fund raiser was breaking the law, and i agree with them. the point is, someone can flout the campaign finance laws right up in one of the most important campaigns and most important candida

the president has adopted his campaign mode of predecessor bill clinton. i would have liked to have heard, bringing in norwegian, dutch ships, people of the navy, people all over the world bring in scoopers and this concrete step. i don't like his appointing commissions and proposing energy legislation along with it. let's stop the spill and scoop it up right now. then we can debate energy legislation in the future. >> larry: stephanie, are you surprised at the poll results? >> i am, larry. but i also think it takes some time in the sense that, i have to say, the president often times, the rest of us are playing checkers and heap is playing chess. i think that this deal that was just announced is pretty huge. i mean it's pretty huge to get a private company to agree to this. it was not seized, as ben said. it was not forced. they agreed to it. and, you know, i think that's -- money talks. so, i don't think it is the best speech of his life. but i think that this was really action. i think that speaks louder than words. >> larry: dana, how do you explain on

. >> i am the one that told bill clinton not to run for president. >> i would do more listening than talking. what are you hearing? you listen to a lot of people. >> people are still concerned about the economy and their jobs. i think the president has done a good job of putting together a package of things that will eventually turn the economy around. i think the stimulus was good for jobs. and i think that we can do something with immigration, it will be a very successful first two years. i know a lot of those issues are hurting, but i think he has done well to support a broad package. >> what are you hearing? [inaudible] deficits as far as the eye can see. what of the long-term consequences of that? and what is going to turn things around for some marc -- turned things around? where would have a serious problem. [inaudible] >> on debt and deficits it is extraordinary to make that and the last 10 years, we've added seven trillion dollars to our national deficit. one is certainly don't want to a contraction marry in your fiscal policy why you are in a recession, the early part of th

in the inauguration of bill clinton, i was here. rahm emanuel had his own car with his own name on the side in the parade. i am not criticizing him. that is impressive. it is very bold. he instinctively calls attention to himself. it is amazing he can get away with that. his job is to serve the president. he is a servant. yet he is on the front page of politico today. you wonder if the president looking back thinks this is a wise choice to pick someone who would divert the attention to himself. he has been saying this for quite some time. he has made it very clear through the press where reporters go out of his way to keep those ties. he is a great source for workers. he is liked by a lot of reporters. he lost his middle finger in a meet slicing incident when he was 12. the president said he would meet at that time. if i were the president, i would call rahm emanuel in my office and say shut up. they have not done that. host: is this the first wave we will see people leaving after the midterm elections? guest: it is a little odd. pe

there's no question that former president bill clinton had an important role to play, and i think president obama played a more important role than a lot of people haddive goen him credit for, particularly in the african american community. and she ran a very effective primary. i talked to some labor people today and they gave her credit and said she got the jump on them during runoff and in the end they weren't able to overtake her. >> woodruff: and in the fall, amy, she's facing a tough opponent. >> she is facing a tough opponent. she's facing another person with a d.c. mailing address which in some ways is good news for her. he can't say he's part of the establishment and can't attack her for the vote on the bank bailout, the so-called tarp program, because he voted for it too. what he is going to tie her to is the obama administration rjs her votes that were in step with the obama administration . this is what's interesting about this primary week. we talked about this the other day, the fact that she is setting herself up as the centrist. she did that in that package piece saying my vo

clinton. >> he came to moscow at the right time. the police at home are going out their way putting people in prison. that's their job. i'm counting on the fact that the trend in the relationship will not be harmed by these events. >> brown: average russians reacted to the news. >> this is the way it always was during the cold war. thanks to mr. putin this is all still being continued now as it suits our country. that's what i think. as far as our mutual relations are concerned, this can only be bad news. it's not nice for anyone to discover a stranger in their own backyard and naturally the owner isn't pleased. >> brown: detention hearings for most of the suspects are scheduled to begin thursday at various locations around the u.s. what might this new twist mean for relations between russia and the united states? for that we get two views. david kramer is a senior fellow at the german marshal fund. he served as a state department official during the george w. bush administration where he focused on russia and eastern europe. anna v

. >> so did bill clinton by calling them the national union. >> lehrer: do you agree, the labor could have stayed out of this or should have stayed out of it? >> i think they want add tension. i think they didn't feel they were getting the attention from the democrats. they didn't feel they were getting the attention from the white house. you don't do it unless you're going to win. i mean i don't think you're going to spend that kind of money and time, effort and energy and put that kind of spotlight unless you deliver, you come back with it. >> okay. thank you both very much . >> woodruff: again, the major developments of the day. there were warnings of much greater environmental damage in the gulf of mexico oil spill. that's after scientists issued sharply higher estimates of how much oil has spilled. flash floods in southwestern arkansas killed at least 16 people. 40 others were missing. at least 45 people were killed and more than 600 others hurt in ethnic violence in kyrgyzstan. and play began in the world cup of soccer. the u.s. team plays its first match tomorrow. >> lehrer: th

and when bill clinton, former president, went down to campaign for blanche lincoln he said that the labor unions are trying to make an example of her. which is exactly what they are trying to do. they are trying to show that those democrats who don't advance the issues that they want and in their estimation aren't working for average working families, ought to pay a price. and they're trying to make an example of blanche lincoln in this campaign. >> woodruff: dan let's pick up on this outsider theme and talk about california. you have got two races for the senate and for governor, both instances a woman, former corporate ceo in the senate race, carlee fiorina who was the head of hewlett-packard up against two more familiar figures in politics in california. >> yes. in this race at that point carlee fiorini is the favorite to win the republican nomination to go against barbara boxer the incumbent democrat in november. this las been an interesting race in part because it has been a test of what people think is the best profile to go against barbara boxer in the fall. carlee fiorina is conse

is hat a trail will slowly to -- solely to bill clinton? it is not. we had grooth. in the 1990's we went past the world pretty quickly. we have our entrepreneurs private-sector growth. if we'll look at a president, the only person who can stop spending in its tracks, only the president. i cannot stop spending in the track. people voting with me, i can do it. in the case of the senate, you need 60, 59 other centers -- senators but n with him. but the president and stop spending and its track. no president and that 30 years i have been in congress has had veto overridden on an appropriation bill to spend more money. if the bill -- the only bill i remember being overridden was ronald reagan, when he sent back in 1983 of bills it -- which it you're not spenddng enough on defense. that was overridden pretty handily. >> let's take one my question back here. -- one last question back here. >> good to address [unintelligible] raising the retirement age? >> how did you preface that? [unintelligible] >> lower income people? thank you, i'm sorry. as i said, in my speech, i hop

last summer bill clinton was a keynote speaker. he was in the middle of a speech about how everyone there should support the health care bill regardless of what was in it because it was so important to the obama presidency. in the middle of the speech when he was saying we should not be picky at the tails, someone stood up in the crowd and demanded that he answer a question about "do not ask, do not tell." his response was to say that the reason he had made "do not ask, do not tell" the policy was because progresses had not been there to pressure him to do the right thing. he was getting so much pressure from the right and no pressure from a left that he felt like he did not have any choice because he did not have the back of he needed from the movement caught -- back up he needed from the movement. our country was founded on the radical proposition of a government by the people. one of the underlying assumptions is that we will have an adversarial system in which you will have an aggressive advocates from both side of any debate f

bill clinton got us out of that mess, and bush jr., $200 billion in a rat hole. i am not saying obama is doing everything right, but i do note the republican house, the republican administration left the car in a deep ditch. i do not know about a man who is supposedly a democrat, why you are railing againss obama when we should be trying to come -ptogether. it feeds the republicans and as the republican whom it has kind of seen the light, i am trying to understand where you are coming from. guest: ccming together is good, but not money policies hat are escalating the war in afghanistan, costing us a tremendous amount of national treasure and allies of plunge -- the lives of young people and making us less secure in afghanistan and around the world. coming together is not a great policy when its failure of basic regulatory functions hat lead to allowing outfit slight bp to do whatever they want. instead of addressing the problem aggressively, we have these nickel-and-dimed approaches and subsidies through tax breaks to businesses. it all makes the question of how

last summer bill clinton was a keynote speaker. he was in the middle of a speech about how everyone there should support the health care bill regardless of what was in it because it was so important to the obama presidency. in the middle of the speech when he was saying we should not be picky at the details, someone stood up in the crowd and demanded that he answer a question about "do not ask, do not tell." his response was to say that the reason he had made "do not ask, do not tell" the policy was because progresses had not been there to pressure him to do the right thing. he was getting so much pressure from the right and no pressure from a left that he felt like he did not have any choice because he did not have the back of he needed from the movement caught -- back up he needed from the movement. our country was founded on the radical proposition of a government by the people. one of the underlying assumptions is that we will have an adversarial system in which you will have an aggressive advocates from both side of any debate

bill clinton left this country with a surplus. i'm sure you have people here on c-span talking about how we would do with this terrible problem of a surplus -- we should only have such problems again. george bush did run two very expensive wars which i would have been happy to do without, as your caller was. so, i think he is right. host: the last phone call, the republican line. caller: of like to comment also on the tea party and the election of ron paul. people have said democrats are not coming out this year. if you look to the actual numbers, -- the one that lost had more votes than wrong paul. there were many democrats involved with that election. i believe as we get closer to november that you will see

and i think they never recovered from the election of bill clinton. and certainly didn't recover from the second re-election of bill clinton. and i think their entire focus is not unon doing their job but on regaining the leadership of the country. more than anything else, they want that presidentsi, and they are willing to fight the president on any issue at all or on all issues, because -- and to oppose him just so that they can -- defeat him on one issue, crack the success he has had. and finally, get re-elected themselves. >> edward, thanks for the call. about 10 minutes, tony is a contribute roosevelt room. ron, i'm sorry. ross who is with the economic policy substitute the vice president of that substitute of that institute. both will join us in a couple minutes. the "new york times" sunday magazine has a look at some of the books many of you may be reading. number three is laura bush's book spoken from the heart. michael lewis' book. christoffer hitchen's hitch 22 is number nine and malcolm glad welle's the outliners is number 10. good morning.

bill clinton left this country with a surplus. i'm sure you have people here on c-span talking about how we would do with this terrible problem of a surplus -- we should only have such problems again. george bush did run two very expensive wars which i would have been happy to do without, as your caller was. so, i think he is right. host: the last phone call, the republican line. caller: of like to comment also on the tea pay and the election of ron paul. people have said democrats are not coming out this year. if you look to the actual nuubers, -- the one that lost had more votes than wrong paul. there were many democrats involved with that election. i believe as we get closer to november that you will see regardless of how much attention the tea party members get, the numbers are not there. he really did receive fewer votes than the losing democrats in that election. guest: that is a good point, and i should brought that up when you asked me about what made me think the democrats will do better than expected. rand paul is a very

when bill clinton left office, we were in a surplus. george bush, with the help of richard burr, has taken us to two wars without any way to pay for it and given as a prescription drug program without paying for. at the same time, giving tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy. our priorities are out of order. the very first thing we have got to do is to let those tax breaks expire. then we have to stimulate the economy and create jobs. we have to build that tax base. we talked about small businesses. we need to grow our way out of the problems that we are in with the deficit. it is a serious problem, and we need to address it. hard question, but we have to address it. >> it will certainly not be solved overnight. any rebuttals? arizona made national headlines for beefing up its illegal immigration law at the state level. president obama ordered 1200 national guard troops to arizona and is calling for $500 million to beef up border patrols. what are your thoughts on this new state law for arizona and the federal government's latest move? >> i u

bill clinton is in south africa making the case for the united states did. a lot of other figures from corporate america and political america have gotten behind the bid. michael bloomberg is playing a big role. host: do you think the u.s. has a shot? guest: i do. the u.s. is the market soccer is trying to crack. they figure the world cup is the best way. it worked in 1994, the last world cup that we hosted. one of the pre conditions was that we would launch a domestic soccer league. it has been tremendously valuable to the game. it has produced some of our best players. host: calif., drew. caller: soccer is a great+ game, but your guest has failed to mention that south africa has a serious problem with child sex slavery. it is a significant issue. it is true that this opportunity for the world cup in south africa is a moment to reflect on all of the progress south africa has made in getting rid of apartheid, but my comment is that while it has great political implications, the guest is missing the larger picture. south africa's leadership, largely, middle c

my husband was rehired under bill clinton's administration. guest: i think you make an excellent point. there is something to say for optics. but at the end of the day, results matter. and i think of harry truman as a great example. when he left office, he had polling results of 22%. but the long-term benefits of his policies lingrd and i think that presidents can get too absorbed with the optics. that was a common complaint about clinton, by the way, so how do you balance, as a voter, whether someone is making you feel they're successful or if they're actually successful? the caller suggests that it's your own personal economic situation that you should use to judge a presidency. but again, that isn't all that fair. it isn't obama's fault that someone loses a job tomorrow. is it? but that family may believe that it was the obama years in which my family experienced terrible turmoil. host: looking at the idea of being transformational president. president obama's dream of being a trons formational figure may be slipping from his grasp. and he

, bill clinton is a very dangerous dive. it is the job outsourcing, not the labor unions. host: some other headlines -- plans would allow abortions at military hospitals. it says legislation to repeal don't ask, don't tell, takes on another emotionally charged issue. making abortion easier for him -- women in war zones. also in "usa today" is the headline -- 9/11 settlement is located. it is about time, a quote from the volunteer who got sick working in the toxic rubble. new jersey, democratic line. francis, good morning. go ahead. caller: i am a retired career and that and also a retired pipefitter from the united association. all of these people who are against unions never belonged to one. right? they always beat up unions, but it is the best thing that happened to the united states of america. hello? host: all right. we will move on to new jersey. independent line. craig, good morning. what are your thoughts? caller: i am calling because i think that these unions are really trying to help people out. and i feel like it i

last summer bill clinton was a keynote speaker. he was in the middle of a speech about how everyone there should support the health care bill regardless of what was in it because it was so important to the obama presidency. in the middle of the speech when he was saying we should not be picky at the details, someone stood up in the crowd and demanded that he answer a question about "do not ask, do not tell." his response was to say that the reason he had made "do not ask, do not tell" the policy was because progresses had not been there to pressure him to do the right thing. he was getting so much pressure from the right and no pressure from a left that he felt like he did not have any choice because he did not have the back of he needed from the movement caught -- back up he needed from the movement. our country was founded on the radical proposition of a government by the people. one of the underlying assumptions is that we will have an adversarial system in which you will have an aggressive advocates from both side of any debate

clinton wants. i think he was genuinely surprised by the republican wall of opposition he faced. maybe that is to his discredit, but it is a jet -- different situation than johnson faced in 1965. nearly half of the republicans voted to support the medicare bill. host: michael tomasky is the editor of "than democracy" as well as "the guarrian" of london. let us go to phone calls. barbara in grand rapids. caller: i have a comment and then a question. i do not know if it was you, but last week there was someone named daniel white, and they asked how he got his money for his organization. it turns out george soros, the billionaire socialist, is the one that sponsors him. host: who? caller: moveon.org. he lied on the air. george soros paid for his job. you did not go into it. host: who is the guest you are talking about? caller: daniel white. he pretended he was from another organization. host: i am not sure i was even on the program that day. tricia from alabama. independent line. caller: good morning.

deliver her a that was bill clinton. theelle obama has been on trail.n some democrats did not want him. not popular in tteir district. a democrat who was a former aide of john murtha said he voted against health care reform. he has shunned the policies of mantrand grant a local %%d said he can deliver or the withict as did another many air march, and he won. -- earmarks, and he won. host: north carolina. caller: i enjoy the show. to thank the callers before me. we seem to be collected in one point. cannot be thea president of everybody. that are just not going to work him. want him to fail. they could like%if something to impeach him with, they will. what did the former buss do. we have a war that is really, really senseless. everybody is just going along saying, we need to keep -- to keee the kids of letting them get killed, for what? what's happened to the monny they were supposed to build their own country back? >> a lot of the voters will w. bussesident george the policies and the warsaw, the deficit. republicans on

many broken her direction in the and. >> was bill clinton and many factory in this? he endorsed and campaigned for blanche lincoln. >> you have to give him some credit. i would not give him all of the credit. you can see the dial move in the polls after his visit. but he is a presence in arkansas today, even though he does not live there. they brought a very powerful message. they cannot afford to give up an incumbent, especially one that is the chairwoman of the agriculture committee. that is a very important position. especially for arkansas, who produces a lot of rice. you do not want to throw it away lightly. >> senator herb blanche lincoln has won in the democratic primary. -- senator blanche lincoln has won in the democratic primary. they say that plans link is down about 20 points. >> you will realize that the situation is still very grim for senator lincoln. i do not see any polls that show her head. when the republicans were picking their nominee, she lost to virtually all of them when he matched them up one by one. the environment does not change. the envir

>> when bill clinton left office hakodate -- what office? the obvious part of the answer and chip -- bob can finish up. the war happened. >> you go on from there. and the books -- and the tax cut. >> the bush tax cut kicked in at the same time that the war spending went up board. >> can i take two minutes to tell the store which we have not told until today? and that is -- we keep wanting to know the future, and in fact we do not we never get the future right. when that did the second story on bullish about how he decided to go to war -- on bush about how he decided to go to war in iraq? i asked him, how do you think history will judge the iraq war? and he takes his hands out and shrubs like only bush can and says, history? we will not know. we will all be dead. [laughter] >> and for it -- and with that we want thank you for having us. [applause] >> i really knew that we weren't done. >> real quick -- that was the tension. we got to get you home to your war newspaper. [laughter] and so i go home and my wife asked me how was the interview, an

clinton was in support of. guest: he was, and he made a mistake on that. he also made a mistake on the telecommunications bill. it is where the money is. wherever the money is, you can follow the decision making pattern. i am a true staunch liberal. i am a progressive. i believe it has got to be about the people. i believe that the people's vote has to count, that the people's priority has to take precedent in washington and not the big money. this is where seriously, in my opinion, we are harnessing the country to the true great as we can achieve. host: we will go to sunny politicians, florida. barry, go ahead. caller: i am a longtime democrat and iberal. i agree with everything you said, but what i do not understand is why the middle class and the lower middle class vote reeublican. i can understand that the rich and the millionaires vote republican because that is their interest and they do not care about anyone else. but why does the middle class and the lower middle class, the people that work onprofit vot

i think bill network, i think prosperity continued in the clinton years and we had a balanced budget. those are the kinds of ideals we have to get back to. i pray president o'ballet sees the wrongness of his debt policies an we get this budget under control and start putting america back to work. that has to be priority number one. >> president o'bama is going to clums, ohio to launch the 10,000th stim lineups funded road project. $15 million in federal funds. 325 jobs. >> i this i the fallacy that government creates jobs. no question if the government spends money, it depoff -- guest: what i think the democrats have left out of thet equation is what milton friedman, one of my favorite economists of all time used to tell us. there's no such thing as a free lunch. if the government spends a dollar, peter, the dollar has to come from somewhere. so when the government spends $800 million that may create jobs on those projects, by the private sector shrinks by $800 million. that's the reason with -- comes from highland's new jersey. foe just listen to this. the station is, like, giving me

former executive director of the democratic caucus and bill clinton's interior department and whose father was a congressman and former staffers, but there is no truth tore democratic betrayals of the oil company as an arm of the g.o.p. reading the last paragraph. two patterns have emerged during obama's presidency. one, big business increasingly seeks profits through big government and two, obama pains opponents of his intervention as industry shields. b.p. is just the latest example of this slight of hand. once the government pet, b.p. -- so i would like yield time to my friend and ask that makes sense now that you know the full story and explains why the president was so slow to get after british petroleum, i yield. mr. carter: thank you for yielding. and i thank my friend from texas for yielding and let me say there is a real eye opener. i knew from seeing some of the things that b.p.'s claiming -- ads on television and other places and i do remember reading the "national journal," activities on behalf of climate change. but when you read this to me -- and i'm going to bring this up, b

so did bill clinton. this is nothing unique to president obama. i think that he is just dealing with the strains of government in a time of crisis. host: the financial regulations bill, there is word that the white house wants to get it done before upcoming g-20 meanings -- meetings. what is the timeline that the white house is looking at? the spokeswoman said that the president was looking forward to discussing the financial overhaul. is that at all practical? guest: democrats really want to get this done. they have got the votes and they feel that this is the one big thing, speaking of big things on the president's agenda, they can campaign on that they think will " pay off. host: you say that the thing to watch tomorrow in arkansas is if she loses that runoff there in arkansas that the derivatives to the financial regulation bill goes out. host: i -- guest: that is a real good chance, i think. yes. host: independent caller. florida, good morning. caller: technology as far as drilling down, we would like to propose that someone really rethink ge

clinton left office he left the republicans and george bush a record surplus. there was no deficit. we were paying down the debt. they took that surplus and turned it around and drove this economy into a ditch. president obama gets elected to office, he inherits the worst economy since the great depression. my friends on the other side don't take any responsibility for that. in one year under president obama we have created more jobs in this country than george bush did while eight years in office. the american people want us to focus on jobs and job creation. and i would just make another suggestion since we're talking about how we protect the taxpayers. i'd urge my friends on the other side of the aisle to stop apologizing for the way the federal government is treating b.p. to stop apologizing for the fact that this administration wants british petroleum to live up to its responsibility and pay for the cleanup of that mess in the gulf. i wish my friends on the other side of the aisle would stop trying to defend big oil from taking its responsibility. b.p. sho

clinton. i understand he is also meeting with the eu by rep. i wonder if he believes that between us if we can actually encouraged the quartet to now take more firm action with israel which still today seems not to understand the gravity of the situation? >> there is a real international focus on these matters. that is true in the u.s. and with the you high rep. she certainly has the same focus on these issues. many other -- in the margins of that, many of the foreign ministers had discussed this issue. i think one of the results of this action is to really bring this to center stage. and it has shown a spotlight on the problems of gossip to which so many right hon. members have heard. i think it is important for us to take the momentum from that and make sure the necessary work continues over the coming weeks and months to improve the situation. >> with the foreign secretary not accept that what he said today it really amounts to saying that the united states, britain, and europe will continu

bush and bill clinton. mr. coleman, please go ahead, sir. >> thank you, chairman leahy, ranking member sessions and members of the committee. it's a pleasure to be here. i retired about a year ago after 27 years working for the federal government, the last six years in the house of representatives. during that time, most of my work has been in the area of offshore oil and gas. but here on the hill, it was also more energy and minerals generally. prior to working as senior attorney for royalty and offshore minerals, i also served for 3 1/2 years as the senior attorney for environmental protection for the department of interior. prior to that i was special assistant to the associate administrator of noaa for 3 1/2 years. and i served four years on active duty in the army, active duty as a judge advocate general corps officer. native of mississippi. went to ole miss, undergraduate in law school. the focus of the hearing is, of course, on a variety of liability issues related to offshore oil and gas production. if

ever since bill clinton passed this as a guarantee to better jobs, there are not. the u.s. itself is becoming a third world country. host: anthony, thanks for the call. if not nafta, then what? guest: there are any number of alternatives. the majority of house democrats have signed onto a biparsan bill, the trade act. it would better balance manufacturing job creation, environmental concerns, and other public interest concerns. it would bounce them with a worthy goal of export expaion. there are many alternatives on th table. host: we are joined from middletown, new jersey. guescaller: nafta is part of the problem. but we have the most insane trade arrangement. i don't know what the gentleman from the cato institute is talking about as far as exporting manufacturing goods except for products of destruction, but the only thing we produce now is mang money from other people's money. it protects large corporations and their bottom line, but it has not created or sustained jobs. the most successful corporations top to bottom have gone overseas. hershey's now says they have to m

i did respect him but i did lose respect for him during the bill clinton white house sexual affair. he came out very strongly condemning at first, and i kind of felt light -- felt like he bowed toward partisan pressure again. host: what do you think the governor will do? any word on west virginia media -- has the governor made a statement? caller: no, i heard earlier may be on your program or another newscast, they had a meeting in the past year or two. senator byrd was not doing very well. maybe came up with some kind of plan. if you ask mr. public in west virginia, they really believe governor mansion -- mancin may appoint himself. host: what do you think of that? caller: par for the courts. the governor -- we are a liberal state of our politics, but i believe he is maybe a little more toward the middle. i would probably be ok with it. host: republican, shelby township, michigan. you are on the air. caller: i just have a question for you this morning. did we have this type of -- sense i am a long time listener and watching person of c-span program -- i'm wondering, did we have a s

it helped blanche lincoln having bill clinton, former governor and former president, come back to his home state and make the pitch basically on that message. outside groups tried to tell us an arkansas what to do. he helped her very much there. i think he also helped turn out african american voters for blanche lincoln in little rock. turnout was much more significant there for her. she won that county by a much bigger margin than she did in the may election. quite frankly, we did not have that much david to go on. there was only one polling outfit that did any polling and the runoff, at least publicly. it showed bill halter ahead. but that is only one poll. so, we really just or basing this -- when we said bill halter have the advantage -- on the fact of the money and the historical trend that ultimately was going to put him over the top. in the end, blanche lincoln showed why we like to watch politics because these things can turn very quickly, especially when you have a low- turnout affairs like to do in a runoff. host: mary on the democratic line from louisville, ky. caller: i th

. >> i am the one that told bill clinton not to rufor president. >> i would do more listening than talking. what are you hearing? you listen to a lot of people. >> people are still concerned about the economy and tir jobs. i think the president has done a good job of puing together a package of things that will eventually turn the economy around. i think the stimulus was good for jobs. and i think that we can do something with immigrati, it will be a very successful first two years. i know a lot of those issues are hurting,ut i think he has done well to support a broapackage. >> what are you hearing? [inaudible] deficits as far as the eye can see. what of the long-term consequences of that and what is going to turn things around for some marc -- turned things around? where would have a serious problem. [inaudible] >> on debt and deficits it is extraordinary to make that and the last 10 years, w've added seven trillion dollars to our national deficit. one is certainly don't want to a contraction marry in your fiscal picy y you are in a recession, the early part of that when we should havbee

host: it was signed by a democratic president, bill clinton, and tune out a democratic president, president obama. was president -- you now have a democratic president, president obama. was president bush's support of this? guest: every administration and congress was supportive of this. we now have our renewed for this -- a renewed focus. shortly, a month or two after coming into office, president obama crated a white house counsel for women and girls -- created a white house counsel for women and girls. the needs have not been addressed. this council takes a look at all the actions are not the federal government to make sure that we are addressing the needs of women and girls -- around the federal government to make sure that we are addressing the needs of women and girls. another thing was to place a special adviser in the white house, who had formerly been the national director of the network on domestic violence, appointed by vice-presi -- appointed by president obama. president obama and vice president biden have been working very closely on this to elevate the importance of sexual as

ever since bill clinton passed this as a guarantee to better jobs, there are not. the u.s. itself is becoming a third world country. host: anthony, thanks for the call. if not nafta, then what? guest: there are any number of alternatives. the majority of house democrats have signed onto a bipartisan bill, the trade act. it would better balance manufacturing job creation, environmental concerns, and other public interest concerns. it would bounce them with a worthy goal of export expansion. there are many alternatives on the table. host: we are joined from middletown, new jersey. guescaller: nafta is part of the problem. but we have the most insane trade arrangement. i don't know what the gentleman from the cato institute is talking about as far as exporting manufacturing goods except for products of destruction, but the only thing we produce now is making money from other people's money. it protects large corporations and their bottom line, but it has not created or sustained jobs. the most successful corporations top to bottom have gone overseas. hershey's now says they ha