well, that's it for this holiday edition of "reliable sources." merry christmas and happy hanukkah. join us next sunday at 11:00 a.m. for another edition of "reliable sources." "state of the union" with candy crowley begins right now. congress limps out of town with an 11% approval rating, and the president jets off to vacation with 49% approval. next stop, 2012. today, congressional gridlock, tea party politics, and the new north korea with republican senator dick lugar. our political anpanel, a.b. stoddard and ron brownstein. then condoleezza rice and her relationship with dick cheney. >> i think the vice president was disappointed that in the second term we did a number of things of which he didn't agree. >> and a holiday special. the best of our "getting to know" series.

>> i didn't want to be a nun and i didn't want to be a congress wam. >> i'm candy crowley. and this is "state of the union." the politician of the battle over the extension of the payroll tax goes something like this -- the president, one, republicans lost. >> may not have been politically the smartest thing in the world, but let me tell you what, i think our members waged a good fight. we were able to come to an agreement. >> some democrats suggest the payroll tax cut battle was a turning point for the president they feared had lost his magic and his chance for re-election. republicans worry their tea party win, which wanted to fight this one out, has become a weight. earlier, i spoke to one of the longest serving republicans in the senate, dick lugar of indiana, who faces a tea party challenge in his re-election bid. let me talk a little bit about this new deal that has been made for a two-month extension of the payroll tax cut.

here's something that kevin brady, who is a congressman from texas, had to say. "in the end, house republicans felt like they were re-enacting the alamo with no reinforcements and our friends shooting at us." you were among the friends shooting saying pass this two-month team. we need it done. do you feel as though you undercat particularly house tea party members who wanted to have this fight? >> no, i don't think so. i think that mitch mcconnell, our senate leader, offered an avenue approach that said this is a serious business. we ought to talk about a year of solution. but this is not likely to be resolved in the next few days. in the meanwhile, wage earns all over america will see the tax holiday go apart from chose unemployed or on unemployment consideration or the doctors and

medicare or the implications of this. so why don't we, as a matter of fact, talk for a period of time but do so after the 1st of january? >> most people look and say, good heavens, you've been talking about this for months. and nothing got resolved. in fact, it was apps a three-or four-week discussion where nobody could come together on anything other than a two-month temporary fix. what makes you think about the end of february you can get some kind of deal going? i think it will be very difficult. just as the committee of 12 found it very difficult, even if the objective was to reduce the deficits and the problems of your balance of payments. we just simply find this difficult to do in this context. but not impossible. one factor that led the senate to come to a conclusion was the keystone pipeline. i offered legislation -- >> which is, just for our viewers, the pipeline from

canada down to texas that would be built through indiana among other places, should create some jobs as they build it. >> at least 20,000 new jobs, $6.5 billion in investment by the canadians, and much more oil independence for the united states, a real winner, but president obama, because of environmentalists surrounding the white house apparently had literally said we won't do anything until 2013. and i said that's unsatisfactory. you've got to make a decision in the next 60 days. and we attached that then to this holiday, tax holiday. well, that did light up some republicans who said by golly we do need to do this. and as a matter of fact, democrats said we need it, too. in other words, there are ways sometimes where the thing that's incitable but you inject other elements and they're good for the country. >> let me ask you, though, about the pipeline. just a quick question. there is concern that a lot of this oil, though it sounds

great, oh, good, we'd be more oil independent, but a lot of it will get shipped overseas. is there a legislative fix for that? do you worry about that? >> no, i don't worry about it. as a matter of fact, we're already sending refined oil overseas, and we are getting a balance -- >> one of the selling points is is independence. >> yes. >> seems counterproductive to send it overseas. >> well, not exactly because we still have the canadian oil. in other words, that's our option as to whether we need it in the united states or whether we can make a sale in terms of our balance of payments. the other option is that canadians will ship it to china. we won't have that option. we're back into the stew again. >> you have -- let me switch you a little bit to politics here. you have, among other challengers, tea party candidate who would like to go into the primary and to be the u.s. senator from indiana. what do you think in general of the tea party and its effect first on legislation and then

its effect on politics? >> well, the tea party groups have been very effective. in indiana, they are separate groups usually by communities as opposed to one large situation. they're very conservative republicans. they believe in less government spending, less government, period, and they are hopeful of finding candidates who are going to be on that ticket. >> i think that's not you. >> well, i would say to them respectfully it is me, that i have a very conservative voting record over the course of time i've served. i'm certainly unique in the senate of having been a farmer, a small business man, a naval officer, a mayor, a school board member. these are grassroots functions in -- >> but this is something you should have to be selling to republicans in indiana at this point? >> it's not my option. >> right. i know it's probably not your preference, but, i mean, you've been in congress more than 30 years. >> yeah. >> and something has changed in the atmospherics i think of

politics that makes you -- i think it was the "washington times" called you one of the most vulnerable republicans. how did that happen? >> well, i'm not certain i'm most vulnerable and i'm not certain it's happened. in other words, i would say that our campaign has already enlisted hundreds of volunteers from all the backgrounds that i've talked about. we've made a 517,000 calls already just to the spectrum of people who might vote in the republican primary. they've put about $4 million in the bank for me through very good fund raising at the grassroots level. i have visited with many tea party groups. they have not pledged my support, but they understand my position and some are even going to be voting for me. the point i'm trying to make is i think it's useful to understand a republican majority in the senate is very important. and republicans who are running for re-election ought to be supported by people who want to see that majority. and so i think the majority of

tea party people understand that, too. what they're hopeful is -- >> just so i know what you mean, you think that you have the best chance of keeping this seat republican. >> yes. >> and that's what you're arguing. >> no doubt from all of our polling and understanding that that is the case and that, as a matter of fact, if i was not the nominee, it might be lost. that, i think, is important, whether it's tea party or anybody else to understand, because republicans lost the seats before in nevada and new jerse jersey, for example, and colorado. there were people who claimed they wanted somebody who was more of their tea party aspect, but in doing so, they killed off the republican chances for a majority. this is one reason why we have a minority in the senate right now. >> senator lugar, i want to ask you to stand by here. coming up, the future of north korea. has the death of kim jong-il changed anything? our conversation with senator lugar continues. in america, we believe in a future

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we are back with republican senator dick lugar. senator, i want to play you something from congressman ron paul, who, as you know, is is member of the republican party and is kurptdly leading in the polls in iowa. this is specifically on foreign policy. >> i think we concentrate too much on -- on the borders between afghanistan and pakistan than we do on our own borders. i think it's time we worried about our own borders and not so much overseas. every year we spend more and more money overseas. we spend it on foreign aid, intervention, propping up dictators, fighting wars that we don't need to be fighting, and they drain these reserve funds. there's no authority in the constitution to be the policeman of the world and no nation building. >> is that a republican party message? >> well, it's one republican's message. >> is that the bulk of the

republican party message, do you think? >> no, of course not, and it's not a message which really a president of the united states could ever afford to extend. in other words, we're a party and a president of leadership, leadership in the world. we have a fleet that covers all the seas. as a matter of fact, this makes foreign trade possible, trade of all sorts. we're the only country that can go everywhere, all over the world and therefore indispensable to our lives as well as to our own interests. these are very, very important parts of our national strength. and they involve foreign policy. they involve armed forces and a combination of these. now, some are more skillful than others in utilizing these. some congresses may be more skillful in determines which conflicts or what kind of aid we ought to have. but still, to roundly condemn foreign aid for the fact that we are concerned about borders in

afghanistan, pakistan, and what have you seems to me is really uncalled for. >> before we leave politics, are you a romney guy? >> i've not made a commitment to any of the candidates. >> are you leaning one or the other? >> i favor mitch daniels, governor of indiana. >> he says no. i understand, but nevertheless, i think he would have been a great president. >> let me move you on, because so much has happened. first of all, the death of kim jong-il, president of north korea. what does that mean for the u.s.? make that important to a viewer. >> it means that we're going to have a different relationship, probably weather china -- >> worse or -- >> it all depends. and the chinese will have to make a determination whether they are going to treat north korea as a province of china or whether, as a matter of fact, they're going to be concerned about the drain upon oir ththei

sources, potential really of north koreans passing the border. and the same with the south koreans. the chinese policy has been to keep two koreas. but at the same time this doesn't work out for them, we may have a difference in which north koreans want to come into south korea. in any event, north korea is a dramatically difficult state because of the deficit to the economy, quite apart from the transition of leadership. >> what worries you about this transitional period? what do you fear most while we try to figure out and they try to figure out really what's going on in north korea? >> that something might happen to their nuclear material or their nuclear weapons, the loose nuke problem. some in the country might try to sell this to others because of the economic crisis that they have. >> anything new about that? >> there better be, and that would certainly be one of the missions i would be most concerned about, tracking as

best we can precisely what happens with regard to the nuclear element while we're trying to negotiate with them to get rid of all of it. but now you ask me the thing that could occur, it's in the chaos of anarchy in north korea. it's the same thing on a smaller level. we're trying to track down missiles in libya with -- >> not doing very well. right. >> well, we better do better because all of us are in jeopardy. everybody who flies an aircraft anywhere in the world with a man pad situation. >> and finally, let me just ask you quickly about iraq. since the u.s. left, there have been numerous bomb blasts, particularly in the baghdad area. do you think al maliki is capable of keeping this country together? you fear that it falls apart under iranian influence? >> i don't think it will fall apart, but i fear that there will be continued clashes between shiites and sunnis and that the kurds, the northern

parts, will be less and less affiliated with the other two. that is not good news for iraq. it's not good news for the whole neighborhood. we don't know what the ties might be with iran, for example. if i depart from other fallout that might come from this. so for the moment, we're hopeful that the maliki government will hold together. they were duly elected, free and fair elections, but democracy doesn't always bring about a situation where people know how to govern the country or giving up of old wars between the shiites and the sunnis. >> in fact, the shiites and sunnis in conflict is kind of where we started in this war. >> going on for decades. >> that's one thing that hasn't changed. senator richard liu gar, we wish you a merry christmas. >> merry christmas, candy. thank you. >> thanks for joining us. after the break, our political panel. and i toog nyguil bud i'm stild stubbed up. [ male announcer ] sorry, buddy. truth is, nyquil doesn't un-stuff your nose.

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here to prepare us for the upcoming campaign here, a.b. stoddard, columnist for "the hill" newspaper, and ron brownstein, cnn political analyst and editorial director of the "national journal" group. i'm getting excited now because the polls are so -- a little bit

everywhere in iowa, so much so that i want to play you something newt gingrich said a little earlier in the week. >> hi goal is to be in the top three or four. i'd love to win, but to be in the top three or four. >> is the top three or four good enough for newt gingrich? >> i don't think so, candy. i think newt gingrich has to make a very strong showing in iowa to build momentum to get the money behind him, to get the bodies on the ground for the fibl fights in the early states that follow. he needs the boost from iowa. right now if ron paul were to win and gingrich were to come in second, he could call that a n win, write off ron paul. but he needs to consolidate the anti-romney vote. he needs -- every vote he loses to the others is a vote lost and slows him down for the long run. >> i agree. in politics things are true until they're no longer true. having said that, since south

carolina moved up its primary in 1980, every contested republican race has followed the same pattern. one won iowa, a different won new hampshire, two win south carolina and a different one wins the nomination. >> a fire wall. >> a fire wall. if gingrich or michele bachmann or rick perry, someone with the potential to grow beyond what ron paul has, if one doesn't win iowa, given romney's strength in new hampshire, anybody else in the field could be looking at an uphill climb. that has been the pattern. you need one of those two to get the launch to carry you forward. >> i was going to say, i've seen a lot of columnists and articles, people saying this could be a really long campaign for the gop. it could be like the democrats last time, they'll be in june still deciding. i think boy, if mitt romney comes in, pulls off a surprise in iowa and new hampshire, isn't it kind of done? >> it probably is. ron is probably right. he could probably win south carolina and move on and be done. but he is prepared for the long race, not only organizationally,

but he has the money. he also knows that the rules changes that provided for a longer campaign this time by the end of february, fewer than 20% of the delegates would have been allotted. this is going to be a long fight. if gingrich has a great january, romney can still hang on in this fight. >> you know, no one has won the republican race iowa and new hampshire in the same year since gerald ford in '76, and the reason is they're myriad constituents. iowa is socially conservative, new hampshire more libertarian and upscale. if iowa does not provide a boost to someone who has a broader po ten rl than paul, as i said, it's a very difficult situation for anyone to overcome romney. iron ix, romney only won 20% of iowa evangelicals in 2008. he's probably not going to do that much bet they are time. if they don't coalesce behind a candidate with a capacity to stop him, they may in effect give him the pathway to the nomination if they continue to fragment. >> you know, it seems to me that one of the strange things about

this then is what you're saying in a nutshell is a ron paul win in iowa is great for romney. >> i think it is, because ron paul has a floor and he has a ceiling. and the two look very much alike. there's a little space between them, but there is a limit on how much he can grow. and i think unless iowa propels forward one or the other candidates with the potential to build a broader coalition, and what we saw with newt gingrich when he was doing well, he was attracting from both sides. if one like that can't get a launch, it becomes more difficult. you'd have to go into south carolina without winning iowa and new hampshire and make a stand there and beat romney at that point. >> if a candidate coming out of iowa is not in the top three, which of those candidates are done? santorum? >> oh, yes. i think so. and i think michele bachmann probably as well. i don't think rick perry is going to do well in iowa.

i think it is his final curtain call. he has to come in and do well. i think it's really going to come down to a gingrich/romney race. but i think, you know, ron's right, it's so muddled that any strong showing by ron paul weakens gingrich and helps mitt romney. >> we should add polls don't necessarily tell us what's going to happen on caucus sites. it's hard to translate a poll into a caucus. >> given the presence of evangelicals in south carolina, 68% of the electorate in '08, same as iowa, likely perry, bachmann, santorum even if they lose poorly in iowa, will try to struggle on to south carolina. the history is those candidates don't have the viability. i compared them to bruce willis in "the sixth sense." they're dead, but they're the only wungs who don't know it. they keep going through the motions in south carolina. likely to see that, but it won't have much impact. >> any surprises in iowa or just a surprise, period? >> i think rick santorum could surprise. he's put in the work on the

ground that it takes, and he would be my guess for a surprise. voters who appreciate socially conservative voer who is appreciate the endorsement of bob van der platsen says he has a better view on the -- a conservative leader who gave him a benefit endorsing him. >> trying to get everybody else out of the race. >> right. >> the surprise in iowa will be if the big evangelical, socially conservative bloc dubious of romney can consolidate to a greater extent than they are now. if they don't, they have the risk of elevating with the candidate they are most speculative about. >> in iowa, that could happen. there's a number one and number two. your candidate is going to win and you pick somebody else dp snoosh it's a straw poll. >> that's right. democrats. >> but you have that phenomenon really going on in this last two weeks. i think people will be looking in the mirror and saying, you know -- >> do we want to do this? >> do we want to do this,

because they have the potential to make this a lot easier for romney if they don't consolidate behind one candidate with a realistic chance of building a broad enough coalition to stop them. >> let me broaden out the subject to whoever's going to run against president obama. there was a new cnn/orc poll out this week. registered voters, choice in 2012, pitting president obama against mitt romney. 52%, barack obama, 45%, mitt romney. that's a seven-point difference. and the exact same difference when you pit barack obama against ron paul. you and i had the same reaction to this poll, is it almost doesn't matter that ron paul and mitt romney appear to have the same chance. what matters is where the president is. >> look, this is the best scenario for the president as well as essentially a replay of 2008, where he was at 52.8% of the vote, the most since johnson in '64. it is an unusually good poll for him. i think the approval rating is

probably the best indicator of where an incumbent president actually stands. generally he's been stuck around 45%, 46%, which indicates a tough race. he has seen an uptick, though, as he's framed this contrast with the republicans over the payroll tax fight, if he can stay in that range he's in a better position. the question is whether he gets enough economic growth to hover around 50% or whether his dissats tax pushes him down a little bit and makes him tougher. >> we are now seeing some democrats thinking that the battle over the payroll tax deduction was a turning point. they see that as -- you know, like -- >> shut down -- >> shut down the government in '96. so this is where the or the democrats turned it around and everything is going to be great. >> well, first of all, he's going to be running for re-election, president obama, is, in a terrible economy, and he's trying to break with history to get re-elected.

in the unemployment we expect next august, september, october, november. the democrats are right. this could be the beginning. if john boehner and his house republicans continue a record of brinksmanship and chaos and not a record of governing throughout 2012, this could be the beginning of when the tide turns. the president has won his base back. that's why his numbers are coming back. if mitt romney is the nominee and runs against the congressional republicans in washington and the do-nothing dysfunction and the economy is in the tank, still hard for president obama to hold that -- >> he got over 50% in approval after the shutdown, never went below it, never trailed bob dole. we veal to see whether obama gets that extra boost to help clinton of an improving economy. >> ron brownstein, a.b. stoddard, thank you so much. happen my new year. >> merry christmas. >> see you in des moines. >> yes, you will, next week. skwhoo when we come back, condoleezza rice.

it is over, and after almost nine years with e no the cost of iraq -- nearly 4,500 u.s. militamill deaths, more than 32,000 u.s. wounded and more than 130,000 iraqi and civilian deaths, $8 billion plus, and still counting. now with american troops out and

violence in iraq up, what we don't know is whether the u.s. ever should have gone there in the first place. do not look for second guessing on that point within the bush administration. former secretary of state condoleezza rice was on book tour recently when we sat down to discuss iraq policy and the people who made it. let me ask you, there's so much frustration, i think, among reporters and some of the public that when a former bush administration official comes out, there's nothing that they see that was done that they think was the wrong thing to do or for a reason that didn't exist, but it was still a good thing to conduct. you did what you thought was right at the time and you haven't changed it. >> right. >> and i understand that. the question, i think, though is if you look back, would you like a do-over on anything? >> i'd love do-overs on several things, but on iraq i would like

to look differently as how we tried to rebuild the country. i think the overthrow of saddam hussein was done brilliantly, but frankly looking back, i don't think we thought enough about how to build the provinces and the tribal network -- >> once saddam hussein was gone. >> correct. and ultimately there weren't enough troops there, which was why the surge was important. but interestingly, i think thing i'd most like do over so is some of the aspects of relationship with mexico. i think one of the casualties of the preoccupation that was a necessary preoccupation after 9/11 on securing ourselves in afghanistan and iraq, the relationship with mexico, which had great promise, given the two governors, vicente fox and george w. bush, who came to power together, to do something maybe earlier about the terrible border trouble wes no know are in mexico with the drug cartels, to do something about immigration reform. it was 2007 when we finally got

to immigration reform. jon kyl, john mccain, teddy kennedy, george bush wanted a bill. they couldn't get it through. i think immigration reform is still one of our really great problems, and now the states are doing a patchwork of immigration laws. so that's probably the one i'd do over most quickly if i could. >> has there ever been a night or is there a night now -- i know i don't have to tell you how many americans have been kimmed in the iraq invasion, in the afghanistan effort, hundreds of billions of dollars, so many young men and women coming back either physically or mentally challenged. do you ever think, i don't know, was it worth it? did we get enough for what we gave? >> clearly one never gets over the lives that were lost and the lives that were changed. and i talk about that some in the book. but nothing of value's ever won

without sacrifice either. and from the day that you walk into a course in international politics you're told the middle east is the most volatile region in the world. and saddam hussein was a cancer in that most volatile region. he was implacable -- >> still volatile. >> well, it's volatile but it doesn't have us sitting here, candy, talking about an armses race between ahmadinejad's iran and saddam hussein's iraq. >> no. we're just talking about iran having a nuclear bomb. >> no. but just imagine, if iran were moving towards its nuclear weapon and saddam hussein with all that infrastructure in place and his insatiable desire to have weapons of mass destruction, i think we would be talking about a very different situation in the middle east. >> you know, i think what i'm trying to get to here -- and i know you've heard it and felt it, at least -- is that there was always a feeling among the critics of the bush administration and the policy of the bush administration in iraq in particular that you all were

so convinced you should do that that you didn't care about the price was going to be. >> simply not true, candy. anybody who is president of the united states does not want to send men and women into war. >> it was a high price, you would agree with that. >> we paid a high price, but when you have a security threat -- and saddam hussein had been a security threat since the late 1980s. we had been to or with against him in 1991. we tried to contain him. the containment was indeed breaking down including through the oil-for-food program, which turned out to be one big scandal that was helping him, we didn't see another option. i write in the book about other things that we tried. the egyptians said he'll take a billion dollars to leave. the president said, done. now, that would have been another problem, but we were prepared to do it. we tried to kill him at dorr farms the night before the war began to prevent a war. so the idea that somehow people want to go to war is frankly

insulting. and so you go to war when you think about is there a security threat that is materializing, where you have the experience of 9/11 where you let a security threat materialize in afghanistan that then came back to haunt you. that's why we went to war. and i believe that iraq is a better place without saddam hussein and the middle east is a bert place. >> let me just ask you a couple personnel questions, personal personnel questions. you've had well-documented disagreements between -- with both vice president cheney and secretary of defense rumsfeld. it's interesting to me that in the book and in all the interviews you've done since you don't ever look at this and think it might have been a gender problem or a race problem. you honestly think that they weren't dismissing you in any way because of race or jendser. you think this was a flatout policy. >> well, remember, i'd worked with both of these people before. don rumsfeld had been a major champion of my career. i'd worked with dick cheney when

he was defense secretary and i was on the national security council. and i would say to people, look, when i was national security advisor, it's a position in which you are coordinating, you are the honest broker, you're put forth the views of others so the president can decide. when i became secretary of state, i carried a different kind of weight. >> you were more powerful. >> i had no trouble playing that role because i was female and black. i'd been the same female and black person as national security advisor. and so if you do the controlled experiment, i don't think race and gender are much of an explanation here. i think what you're dealing with is people with strong views, with differences, policy differences, not personal ones, and to the degree that when people are under pressure, personalities are a little bit more than they otherwise might be, maybe there was a little bit of that, too. >> you have described donald rumsfeld, the former defense secretary, as a grumpy friend. >> right. >> how would you describe your relationship with vice president

cheney? >> well, i think it was respectful, and -- >> difficult? >> not really. we disagreed, but we were able to disagree in a respectful way. i think the vice president was disappointed that in the second term we did a number of things with which he didn't agreeagree. the president really decided to give diplomacy an all-out try. yeah, sometimes you don't win in using the diplomacy in that way. but, for instance, on north korea, we didn't really have a military option with north korea. we needed the chinese and the south koreans and the russians and the japanese. and so diplomacy was the course that we chose. i think the vice president didn't always agree. >> coming up, childhood dreams, catfish noodling and elvis. the other side of some of our biggest newsmakers. a stolen vehicle locator. roadside assistance. and something that could help save your life -

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we've got a sack filled with the best of our series, "getting to know." we've been mispronouncing your name all these years. >> i was baptized colin. my parents were british subjects originally, so that was the british pronunciation of the name correctly they thought. as a young boy growing up in the south section of the broncos, new york, in the early days of world war ii, there was a famous hero, colin kelly, and that's how they pronounced it. i lived on kelly street as well. as i grew up, the kids on the block started calling me colin, and i grew up using both names, collin in the family, colin with my friends. nobody cared until i became national security advisor, and then you guys, the media, insisted i pick one or the other. >> my wife is from southern oklahoma, and down there in southern oklahoma they have a sport where during spawning season for catfish, you go along the riverbanks -- we do this

down this on the oklahoma/texas border -- and you put your hand in a hole where the catfish is spawning. they bite down on your hand, then you pull the catfish out of the hole. you're basically catching catfish by hand. it's exhilarating, actually quite fun. >> i had been less than a diligent student after two years, i was asked to leave yale, went out and build power line transmission line, and twice within a year i ended up arrested for driving under the influence. second time was rock spring, and it was a wake-up moment, obviously. i decided if i stayed on the road i was on i was going to come to a bad end. out of that experience i decided to go back to school, see what i could do by way of grades and so forth, got married a year later, and shaped up, basically. >> from shaping up to growing up, in this year's presidential race and every campaign before it, there is always talk about the disconnect between politicians and real people. still, even people living inside the washington bubble or a

governor's mansion were kids once, and like any kid, they had dreams. >> as a young child, i wanted to be a minister. i wanted to preach the gospel. so from time to time, we would gather of owl you are a chickens together in the chicken yard, and my brothers and sisters and cousins would line the outside around the chicken yard. i would start speaking and preaching. i tell young people today, some of those chicken bow their head, some of those chicken shake their head, they never quite say amen. >> i wanted to be a dentist because when i was young i grew up in modest circumstance, but my dentist used to park i think a buick riviera in his reserve parking spot. i remember going to the dentist and looking at that car, and going, wow, that must be the path to the american dream, bag dentist. >> i also read, tell me if this is true or not, your mother wanted you to be a nun. >> definitely. >> i want to know from your perspective if that was ever a true consideration of yours. >> no. no, it wasn't. i didn't want to be a nun, and i

didn't want to be a congresswoman. >> we also found with our newsmakers that no matter where they came from or how high they've climbed, meeting royalty of one kind or another leaves lasting impressions. >> william and kate were here. you greeted them. >> i did. >> you also, three decades ago, greeted prince charles. >> i did. i received him in sacramento and i went later to buckingham palace. >> who's it easier to hold a conversation with? >> well, i would say conversing with royalty is an experience all its own. so i'd say they're charming, they're proper, and they're british royalty. i enjoy meeting with them. >> when elvis was coming to the houston rodeo, i asked my news director to cover elvis because i just thought that was the greatest thing that i could ever cover. and i got to do it. >> you met elvis when you both

were serving in the military. >> 1959. he was a sergeant in the 3rd armored division and i was a lieutenant in the 3rd armored division. i got to meet him in the field once or twice. and he was just an average soldier. he did his job. he was drafted. and he was seen as an excellent soldier. >> he was already a big deal when he went in. >> he was a big deal. he was at the height of his success when he was drafted. and he went and he did his two years. he lived very well when he wasn't in the barracks, i might add, or germany. but then he came back and took up his career again and became even more famous. >> did he ever sing for you? >> no. >> sorry. had to ask. when we come back, more snippets from our "getting to know" series including what gave a general civil rights hero the strength to keep fighting.

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look for the healing seal. gold bond medicated lotion. stop itching. start healing. lots of the stories we hear in "getting no know" make us laugh and some are surprising and others wow us with their power. the first black president sits in the white house, some prominent news mareks share experiences that reminded us of just how recent and how personal the struggle for equality was. we read that you cut your own hair. >> yes. >> is that still true?

>> candy, that is still true. it goes back to when i first started working for the department of the navy as a ballistics analyst. i drove the ferry to virginia, found the barbershop, went into the barbershop. they had all black barbers. i'm going, eureka, i found me a barbershop. i sat there because in the south the tradition is wait until the barber says request next." and it was first come first serve. i sat there and sat there there, and they kept calling the other customers, who were white. finally, i walked up to one of the other barbers and said, excuse me, sir, wasn't i next? he said, i'm sorry, but we don't cut black hair in here. i said, you have all black barbers. if we cut your hair, we will not have a job. i said, okay. i'm in fredericksburg, virginia, 70 miles south of washington, d.c., and that was somewhat of a shock. then he said, but there's a black barbershop over on the other side of the tracks past sears and roebuck.

i went to sears and roebuck, bought me a set of clippers, and i have been cutting my own hair since. >> my dad went down to boat with my mother. they were not yet married, but they went down to vote. my mother was fair skinned, very pretty, and there was something called a poll test in those days. the poll tester said, so, who's the president of the united states? the first president of the united states? and my mother said george washington. he said, fine, you can vote. then he turned to my father, big man, rather dark skinned, and he said, how many beans are in this jar? and it was obviously impossible to count. so my father went back to talk to an old man in his church and mr. frank hunter said, oh, reverend, he said, don't worry. i'll show you how to get r regist registered. there's a clerk down there, she's a republican, she's trying to build the party. she'll register anybody who will say they're a republican. in the days of few republicans. he registered, became a member

of the grand old party -- >> and here you are. >> here i am. >> during your time as a civil rights leader, i thought this was a great question, you were beaten, you received death threats. what kept you going? was there ever a moment when you thought, this is too much for one person to bear? >> i think part of my reason for keep moving is my faith in the future, that it's going to get bert. it's all going to work out. and i never, ever thought about giving up or quitting. i just couldn't do that. it's not part of me. it's not part of my dna. i feel like i must continue to be in the arena, to be out there, to be pushing, and try to inspire other young people. >> put us down as inspired. enjoy your christmas day, and happy holidays to everyone from all of us at "state of the

union." i'm candy crowley in washington. join us next week when we'll be live from iowa to give you an in-depth preview of the january 3rd caucuses. up next for our viewers here in the united states, a check of the top stories, then "fareed zakaria: gps." ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] everyone deserves the gift of a pain free holiday.

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i'm alina cho at the cnn world headquarters in atlanta. merry christmas. at least three churches in nigeria have been bombed during christmas day services. the first took place in madella, west of the country's capital, where at least 17 bodies were recovered. officials are still trying to confirm the total number of casualties. police have arrested four people in connection with the attacks and have recovered four devices that did not detonate. in the race for the gop presidential nomination, mitt romney maintains a solid lead in new hampshire. according to the latest boston globe poll, he's ahead with 39%. newt gingrich and ron paul are tied with 17% and jon huntsman has 11%. the new hampshire primary is january 10th. meanwhile, the newt gingrich campaign says it's evaluating its options after it failed to get on the virginia primary ballot. the team announced late