publishing. this event is 45 minutes. >> the panel topic today is the future of conservatism, brighter than we think. and it is a very serious and important question especially now that republicans are out of power and every level in the federal government, and we have seen significant losses in states across the united states and obama won in a very decisive victory not only winning electorally with a larger mandate, but carrying a very significant to allow the plaster -- filibuster and a strong majority in the congress. these are serious time for conservatives and republicans

that want to have a two-party system and see that important for the future of the nation, important foundation for our republican form of government. ..

i would use the word powerhouses to describe the people on the panel table today. some of them are not household names but their names that carry significant weight in the conservative movement. at the far left is richard viguere. use considered the godfather of conservative direct mail and has created really the modern conservative movement by helping dozens and dozens of many of the leading conservative groups in the nation. bypass the media and machek to give donors to support cause that advocate for conservative principles. next to him is thomas phillips. thomas is a heavyweight conservative media. he is the founder of eagle international, which started with the 1,000-dollar investment newsletter business in 1974 and

grew that to a newsletter business in the hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues. he is best known as the owner of the eagle publishing, which produces human events which rodham reagan said was his most favorite publication and tom has kept a true to the traditions of ronald reagan. at regnery books, which publishes bestseller rafter bestseller that many of you are very familiar with the books that they publish. next to tom is, fuentes. , fuentes is a leading republican in the state of california. he was the longtime chairman of the orange county republican committee. he is one of the nation's leading and most successful hispanic republicans and businessmen. also joining us is jon utley. jon is a longtime conservative activist. hughes the soucy publisher of the american conservative, a

monthly that many of you know, pat buchanan writes for the publication and a number of other conservatives so i want to thank all of them for joining us and i think what lou like to do is ask each of the panelists to start with a three to five minute response about what they think about the future of conservatism and if it is truly brighter than we see it now. many people have a pessimistic view about things, but i am hoping that we will get a silver lining today in this cloud of obama and the overcast and washington. so when we start with richard and then moved down the row. >> thank you chris. i do believe that conservatives will govern america in the future. in my lifetime i have been involved three times at the national level of helping conservatives capture the

republican party. in 1964 with goldwater, haiti with reagan and in 1994 the gingrich evolution so i think that we can do it again but this time to a very different and not just the control of the republican party but take control of all of american politics and win the gop. and again as americans. it will not be led by washington d.c. insiders, the people who caused the problem cannot cure the problem. they cannot fix it and we have as conservatives been betrayed. i wrote a book a few years ago called conservatives betrayed. george w. bush and other republicans hijacked the conservative cause. of all of our problems, with the problems obviously with the unions and mainstream media and this and that but that is not the real problem. we 13 landslide presidential

elections in the 1980's with the same opponents. the problem quite frankly is the government republicans, george bush, karl rove, tom delay, denny hastert, inceptor, sector. our leaders have betrayed us and we have got to we are not going to get to the political promised land in my opinion until we get new leaders. kellyanne conway, conservative pollster, conducted an exit polls on election day this past election, for words as the people of the phelps about the word republican, democrat, conservative liberal and the most unpopular word was the word republican. the most popular word was the word conservative. our philosophy is well and we have been betrayed by the big government republicans. we didn't lose these recent elections. it was the big government republicans that lost the elections.

the number one mistake we have made over these years is we became conservatives, too many times became a in the appendage of the republican party, the number one need we have going forward is we need new leadership and we just have to have new leadership, mostly younger leadership. in many ways we are like the biblical have had to wander through the desert until the generation of flawed leaders had passed on the scene and we are not going to get to the political promised land until we get new leaders. people's made a conscious decision, they do not like republican leaders. whether dissed con delay, denny hastert, jon boehner, roy blunt, mitch mcconnell you name it, they have made a conscious decision they do not like these people. they feel republicans have, ari incompetent, think ire brac, thinketh trina and they think they are crook. do you think jack abramoff comment do, him, mark foley,

there is a long list there. until the republican party is open under new management and it is clear, nothing is going to change. that is the bad news. the good news is that leadership change is going to come from us, those of us here the grassroots level. nothing is going to change until people at the grassroots level assumed the role of leadership does not start with the governor, or a senator of an organization. it starts with each and every one of us. >> i am going to have to the bar after hearing that one. >> i am getting to the good stuff. >> tom. >> thank you. can you hear me? i would like to endorse would richard said. in fact, for three years of my life i endorsed everything there richard said because i was working for him, and richard with that wonderful boss and a great teacher and i learned more

about business and politics from him than anyone else, so let me again thank you for what you have done for the movement but also thank you on a personal basis. i do endorse with richard says. one of the things we are all familiar with is there is a difference between being conservative than being republican. those people who put the word republican first unfortunately often sacrifice the conservative part and don't stand for anything that really matters. they think of a party label. these are the party elders if you might call them, richard indeed they really don't add much to the a mix. there's also a fair return of mine, rhinos, republican in name only and unfortunately a lot of their leaders don't have this philosophical belief that those of us in this room pretty much share. one of the of the things i keep

hearing about how the republican party needs to modernize and reflect the voters' views and therefore we have got to compromise between liberalism and conservatism or between left and right or between republican and democrat and become more like the democrats to attract more votes. that never works, has worked and that was not the way that ronald reagan came to power, is he also put it. if you hold up the highest standard, articulate your position the voters will come to you and the voters will come to us. we don't have to run, chasing them for leadership. finally, yes, washington is mostly the problem, not the solution and i certainly hope that from the states and cities throughout the country we do get some of our young leaders coming up and looking different from the tired old leaders the republican party has now. >> thank you tom billups.

tom fuentes. >> thank you chris. it is a joy to be with you today as republican county chairman for 20 years. let me tell you it kills me to be in a group this large and did not be a fund-raiser. [laughter] i think-- >> we could pass the hat. >> i think there's great hope for the republican, for the conservative movement and i think it is a republican party and for those who see it differently, i really do think if we are going to be a movement of hope, that hope has to be placed in a party that is the vehicle of this great two-party system that has proven itself to be the best of a system in this world. you know, we have values principles and ideals as conservatives that have been in times best well enunciated by our party and they have to be well enunciated again.

fate, family and freedom are the reasons that i consider myself a conservative and why i have worked in the party as a volunteer for these many years to accomplish something, to achieve those goals, those targets, the state, the family and freedom as ideals. we did that in my community to a point where we became the most, the most republican county in america and i think that that is doable in other places. i think that it is, a means by which we recognize that indeed all politics is local and that we of the to start at the grassroots, much as richard had said and there has to be a place at the table for one and all. there has to be a place all elements of the conservative movement at the table.

at one time, with those of us to begin walking precincts for barry goldwater in '64, we realized we were in a battle with the eastern liberal establishment that control their party. they weren't limousine liberals, they were bored republicans and we the people took it away from that element. in the questek thing today we have a new western liberals keldish man's, money rhinos will attempt to run our party today. we have a need for people of money at our table but we also have the need for all other segments, for libertarians in for the christian right and four ethnic communities and hispanics. in california were soon becoming once again, and they do emphasize once again because california started out a hispanic state and hispanics are coming back in great numbers. unfortunately we look around this dimension here and there are not enough people of color here. we need to be including them with us because they are our

neighbors. we build all of those elements into the party and then we can recapture power and we need to turn to the think-tanks that are available to us today to stimulate and encourage the message of our movement in our party and then we need to invite in people of value from all segments of our movement to be a part of that leadership. >> thank you tom. jon utley. >> thank you chris. i am jon utley, the magazine the american conservative is in your packets. my background is not describe their but i have been active since i was 18 with republicans, but i live 15 years in south america, in business. we have another viewpoint, many of us whose have spent many years in foreign countries, especially the third world, and what happened partly in

washington republican establishment, deborah very few people with much knowledge of the outside world and i will go into the war in a minute. it was something that i even said that the number of webpages. one i did neoconservative biography is that is on the internet. those who were running the foreign policy, their foreign international experience with this semester in england or maybe if they were real sophisticated in paris. they were supposedly the knowledgeable people the of international affairs. you have washington run by policy wonks that think in the think-tanks and the congressional staffers and news media and they go back and forth. those of the ones with credentials to get posted in high positions. i am a little not quite as sanguine as richard. i think the system in washington is what corrupts both parties. one of the wars we were against

was the wire with kosovo. and interesting side pointed that was the republican congressman there were freshmen and sophomores opposed those wars but the republicans who have been in washington longer supported it. i will get in later some of the reasons. in talking about conservative as some. we might say to our c-span audience, since bush and the republican leadership people have forgotten perhaps just to define what we mean by conservatives. it is the tradition of edmund burke and russell kirk, preserving and building upon successful traditions of our civilization, limited government, maintaining values, maintaining fiscal britain's, and government structure which allows for freedom and economic prosperity, a decent respect for the opinions of mankind. this is what i hope, i think we would all agree.

but we got with the republicans was something quite different. >> jon, do you think the consensus it seems here that the panel is come conservatism is not dead. deangelo pauls showed in kellyanne conway postal but the gallup poll showed by a factor to the one chose conservative over liberal and it seems that bush during the bush years got labeled conservative but he wasn't a conservative. he was, up until a bomb of the largest social spender in history. ying gates the united states and cornett venture-- adventure esam that i don't think had great support within the party itself, and i want to throw out the question, do we think that the republican party is no longer the vehicle for conservatism or is it salvageable and maybe i will ask tom phillips to start on that. >> i advised unskeptical of

third party organizations who were trying to instruct something from scratch. i think is going to be easier to go back and turn it around rather than scrap it. just the structure of politics and the structure makes it very difficult to be a third-party to become the second party. i will say this, one of the things that we don't hear enough about on our side, we don't use the word enough and we don't think about it enough is what tom brought up, the word freedom and the concept of freedom. all of these debates that are going on in washington have been going on for decades. < < hear about freedom for the citizenry. freedom for business to build, freedom for all of us to reach our best possible, the best possible contribution to america but we hear about safety nets. we hear about opportunities to

level the country, but i don't think we are hearing much about freedom and i think we ought to go back and talk about freedom. that is what the country was founded on and that is what drove the founding fathers and that is what drove many patriots. we lost it in the well, we should never expect to get ahold of the leadership of the country if we can't talk about freedom and what it means to each and every individual. >> richard, do you think that the party is salvageable, the republican party? >> it has to be, chris, because i second what tom said and to be a little more blunt perhaps, and i'm not a big fan of the leadership of the their political party. they have done, what if tom and i in you did them business we would all go to jail. they have read the rules to keep out competition and because the rules are designed to make sure

that republicans and democrats day in office, it is almost impossible to think about a successful third party. all you are going to do is select more liberal democrats. i think chris it is entirely possible-- what is bad for america is good for the conservative movement. there is much out there that is good. some of this, tom, myself others have been here and we have seen how the conservative movement does come together and grow and expand and add new members and eventually come back to power when the other side is in office, overextends, overreaches them that opportunity is there now. i have said many times this year that if you are running a conservative organization, a conservative publication, whatever it might be and you don't double the size of your organization you probably should consider resigning in letting somebody else from your organization. is the mass of opportunity for the conservative movement to

grow and expand this year and double next year. >> touching on something that, fuentes said, we might have a rebound of activism but are we facing a demographic time bomb from the people that tend to vote conservative, vote republican or anglo american's and that were not reaching out to people of color and two latinos and blacks. blacks voted 98% for obama, understandably because obama was the first african-american serious contender for the presidency. the latinos voted in record numbers for obama and much higher percentage than they did in 2000 for when they voted about 44% for bush. how do we get the latinos, the blacks, asians, indians to come over and start, because most of them have conservative values. >> quail, chris i think california has a tragic as is the condition of our state

today, virtually bankrupt, it is joining iou's this week with the governor that does not know he is a republican. we have, had in recent months the passage of proposition 8, proposition mate, an issue to secure that marriage be between one man and one woman and to help this past that? it was the latino and the black community. we need to pick the right issues and we need to carry the right banner to wofford to the people something that they can relate to. the community of hispanics the believe in hardware, believe in family values. does the republican values. those are conservative values a we need to enunciate those and welcome them aboard. ronald reagan had plenty of hispanics voting for him. so did george bush the first have plenty of hispanics voting for him and for the help this with hispanics, the first around

so it is not a matter of the demographics as much as what are we offering to the people? >> obama has made it clear that he wants to legalize a large number of illegal aliens. there's approximately 12 million in the country and even if he legalizes 1 million would that be very decisive in the international elections in key states in growing at least for the foreseeable future perhaps regeneration power at the federal level in the hands of the democratic party? before that happens when need to carry our message to the people. you will find it think all of the polls show that legal hispanic immigrants present illegal immigrants just as much as anybody else does. we need to take that to the people. >> taking it to the people, good point. it seems like we have the message of people want to hear a message but there is a little thing blocking us, the big media, the abc news's, the

cnn's. we have i think fox news's fair and give both points of view. how do we bypass, how do we-- richard you invented the idea of direct mail to bypass the media. it is that's the working? tom, is newspapers and books the way to do it? is there some other route? are weiss missing something in the state of twitter in facebook? what do you think we need to do to get our message out? >> the problem with their message was that we didn't have access to the microphones of the country in the last eight years. when your people are perceived to be empowered and conservatives were perceived to be in power, they were not in power of course, the government establishment republicans were in power and they have access to the microphones, so we were you know, out in the wilderness that during that period of time.

now, that is why it is so important that all of us, those of us here, our friends and colleagues to run the country, that we assume the mantle of leadership because, and we did that in the '70s, chris. i mentioned yesterday, some of the perhaps warned here maybe but conservatives used to meet regularly in the '70s and '80s. many times every wednesday for seven great years at my home for breakfast. we said, we were the alternatives to the democrats. jimmy carter etc.. we have got to go back to those days again, that we are the leaders and we will have access to the media, to the new alternative media. i wrote a book a few years ago called the new alternative media. it is the first and only book that chronicled how conservatives finally got access to the microphones in the country. it is an exciting time to be involved because we do have access to the media in a way that was unthinkable 40 years

ago. >> tom, do you want to add to that? tom phillips? >> i would add to that. in addition to what he said, we have more business people who were on our side to invest in media. this conference includes a lot of investments of professionals, a lot of investors and do they look at there, at their portfolio, oil, gas, manufacturing, whatever the portfolio is. itson when looking at media? one of my friends in washington for instance has bought small portions of organizations such as general electric and other corporations that are doing bad things public policywise or media wise and they get up in protest against that at stockholder meetings. they basically make a lot of noise for a very small organization but i think we need to move more into the business

community, more to the media ourselves. why did i start building a company? because i had some business talent and i thought were was really needed was in the media world. i think more people on their side need to do that, not this chase after what stock is doing better than another stock. i think about long-term investing in the media. >> i think we would like to take a few questions if anybody wants to go to the microphones. that is the easiest way. this is being broadcast on c-span so you'll get your voice heard, not this year but all across america. >> is it on? thank you. you have not mentioned the constitution, and i know that we all, well, maybe not we all. there are people who want to destroy our constitution because it is the last big barrier to world government, and the

constitution has enumerated powers. the republicans as well as the democrats have far-- they are just way away from their enumerated powers. they have done everything in order to control laws in every which way. we don't have the legislature that is making our laws. we have sars now and apartments that are making rules, regulations, laws, unconstitutional. >> jon, do you want to tackle that question? do think the constitution has been the eviscerated, undermined? >> i think that it's a good point but from another angle, i would say it is being subverted very much in key aspects that we don't often talk about, gerrymandering has made the congress 90% loss proofed four congressman. that comes out of communist countries. it is unbelievable. a real focus on gerrymandering,

those are the kinds of reasons why the constitution is attacked and also a major reason for the corruption in washington. because these congressman are so secure in their districts. there things like that. secondly, you have to publicize this very little known, something called the military commission that put him by the republican, the last republican congress. jim beauford if written extensively on it. that allow the president to declare a national law by himself. it used to have to be the congress, and takeover the national guard in any state and send it to another state. that is the structure for a dictatorial system. this is being done under our noses selee is very much focusing on these kinds of issues but they come from the structure in washington and you come back to the change in washington itself is where we need some changes and the term limits by the way would be one

way around it. >> there has been a lot of talk, we keep talking about washington, there has been a lot of talk that the republican party doesn't have a leader or that it needs a leader. your its leaders, rush limbaugh, michael steele, newt gingrich. is it really important that the party or the movement of conservatives have a leader as the findable or is it sort of an open sores that there could be multiple leaders and moldable groups and they will have a ultimately the same effect and turn the country around that would take back the white house and congress over the next few years? who wants to grab that? the in the case of leadership i think there is plenty of time. this time four years ago few americans knew barack obama. there is plenty of time for us to evolve a leader for the next presidential cycle. in the meantime we all is volunteers, we all is that the

vista movement have to take a role. we have tulane gates, have to build with tomorrow communities. the problem that i think it's happened in our own movement through the years is that a lot of conservatives went to washington to do good and they did very well. and they stayed and they bought into the system, and they bought into the benefits of the system and of power. we need to return to a movement of activists each of our own community. >> some people's said reaganism is dead. and number of conservative leaders, tom delay said, we don't need reagan enimark. we need a new path for goeth think all of us have lived for the past 40, 50 years hearing about jon kennedy. nobody ever says the democrats should get rid of jon kennedy and his memory, so do you think reagan is important for the future?

>> certainly he is important. we should keep his memory alive and his vision and go for america but let me use perhaps a baseball example, chris. the great movie, at least i thought it was great, bill the then they will come. right now if ronald reagan showed up his air we would not be prepared to support it. the infrastructure is not there now. we don't have the organizations right now at the grassroots level, the state level, the national level. when and ran for president in 1976 and again in 1980 we had something called the new right up there, the old right and we headed big movement out there that could support him. he could come in to oshkosh said 11:00 at night and it would be hundreds of people there that of gone together in a few hours to welcome him to oshkosh, so the first thing that's happened is we have to let the grassroots level reedville the movement and then the next leader will

appear. >> i think of someone that is on the scene right now the control of those types of crowds. she is very controversial. we know the name is sarah palin for code to you see her as someone who potentially can help build that grassroots movement now that she is leaving the governorship of glass that? >> sarah did not call me before she made the announcement so i don't have much to share with you. i don't know what that agenda is. >> do you have a question? the i just want to steer this a little bit in the direction of the average age of everybody at this conference and i realize there's a lot of young people here and really appreciate that come up but i know that i became a conservative from reading george will one day. it was enough to get me going in a different direction. the william f. buckley's, the george will's, where they? timiny if you want to comment on the intellectual writings the people that might influence in

the people to become a part of this, because right now i think we are running out of those kinds of people, or least that is my impression and i don't know if anybody wants to comment on that. >> i would love to take on the one and maybe it is an opportunity for a commercial. i am a senior fellow at the claremont institute. claremont institute publishes the claremont review of books under the directorship of dr. charles fessler. i think of a quarterly basis the claremont review of books is publishing bill buckley quality cummins and commentary on our society, on a moment in the politics of the day. we have inherited in cato and then claremont an abundance of conservative intellectuals today offering contemporary address, addressing the issues of our day.

that is available, and i think we need to turn to fellows like my colleague, tom phillips ear with regnery books, with red state, with human events.com. it is out there, it is available. we need to plug into it and we need to encourage others to read it. >> richard you and i have a conversation about a month ago on the train coming down from dc to nurick and you said you thought obama was the most serious after the republican party had ever faced in you said what was different about this fellow, unlike other democrats that oppose the republican party in political opposition but that obama's incent sams to be to put the republican party out of business. how do we can't do that? we know there is a demographic problem with the republican party, there is an age problem in a culture gap with young people. and could it be jon fund has made the point that he would like america to be like chicago.

we have the republican party but it is just there as an appendix for show and you have that one party city. is that something that we, is a potential threat? >> it should frighten all of us. this is the most serious opponent that we have ever faced. in justice side note this to say we need to moderate here or move to the center, whatever democrats nominated the most left-wing candidate ever nominated by a major political party. he has done nothing but select the government's, socialist types for the people say sometimes this is obama socialism. for me, speaking for myself, this is not a serious question. of course he is a socialist. the question is, is the marxist? what me just say there are two institutions designed to keep politicians and government on the straight and narrow. one, the media and we all know

they have left the sidelines as the referees and joined the other side. that leaves the nonprofit communities. they are in serious danger of being totally silenced or co-opt by this penetration and it is very serious. they know what to do with power. five to $10 billion of the stimulus money is designated directly for non-profit organizations. the day the stimulus bill passed the american heart association put at a press release praising the stimulus package, talking about what a wonderful thing this is and now we are going to be able to repair schools that have fallen into disrepair. clear going to beat-- they are going to start getting checks again. x-band think you bum agenda and this is going to happen with the cancer society, the arthritis. viewer going to see the entire nonprofit community wanting some of this federal money and they are either born to be silence or cola. that is one of 100 things that they are going to do to use our

money to make this a one-party country. >> jon, do you want to add something to that? the our topic is it is not as bleak as it might appear in believe me it isn't because they, the democrats are starting to make a lot of mistakes and they will be coming on fast, so it is not so bad for roston navcent. just let me mention a few. one is the oil. they have curtailed drilling for oil in america. they have some crazy hatred if you will almost that no drilling offshore although it was approved by the congress. there are incredible amounts of oil up there, all over. we have oil. oil is abundant. natural gas is there. natural guest is a potential new technology. you to that the expense. obama is already dropping in the

polls in today's newspapers. the expense of the health care program is not directed at cutting costs. they have got to cut the waste and the cost. the weisel spending, general motors taking that over, it said the president, very great damage to the bond market that in the future could be an airline because the government says it is a national emergency. >> i think we have a pretty good picture that it is radically changing the structure. >> that whole bunch of issues. >> in america. this lady who has been waiting patiently. >> i think it is pretty obvious we have an old guard of conservative people who are successful in business, which our government is a business and people forget that. we need someone of experience but we also need the under people to form a plan. i read where last week obama sent out 13 million e-mails to people in support of this health

care initiatives and ideas, to get that passed into. it is not so much the 13 million e-mails or what they said. i don't know because i did not get one, but it is the campaigning and that is i think something that the conservative party is missing, is if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. our current president has never stopped campaigning, whether it is for his next election or whether it is for his liberal agenda. there is a plan behind it, so long with the wisdom and knowledge that our party, our conservative party carries, we need to get a plan together and it is not too soon to start that. we need to start it now, before all of this roles over the top of us. >> there is a wonderful pamphlet that david horowitz wrote and i'm sure many of you are

familiar with that in los angeles, called the political warfare. i everly suggest it. it is about strategy. basically david makes the point, the side that has the strategy will almost always win against the side that doesn't have a strategy. so your point is very well taken. there needs to be a strategy. i would emphasize that i think conservatives, it is not enough to say you are against obama and maybe there will be a backlash, maybe not. roosevelt 14 elections and the economy got worse and worse and worse during the '30's. so, what republicans that things need to do is have a strategy that also has a positive future and a positive image, talk about with the free enterprise system does. there is a reason why america represents less than 5% of the world population but about 25 or 27% of the world's gdp. there is something going on here that we have been doing right. socialism is going to hurt that.

>> i wanted to ask the speakers that they saw detention nordkye interdiction within the conservative movement between on the one hand libertarian to stress freedom, liberty, individual choice and the sort of moral majority, family values side of the conservative movement you tanker headed off in a somewhat different direction. and if you do see a tension or a contradiction there, how to conservatives work to resolve that or overcome it? >> let me start with richard on that and i might say that this last question because our time is up and i am sure the panel will take some questions after he wants to come up to the podium. richard, and then bounce that around. >> chris, let me quickly comment on the lady you ask the question, made a comment about the plan. i personally have my own eight phase plan. i have had it for a while and that colleagues and friends who have plans and their working and

were meeting regularly quite frankly in washington and around the country, so don't count on those national conservatives to save us all, but i wanted to know that things are happening. plans are being developed and meetings are happening. there is perhaps some light at the end of the tunnel. in terms of tension, of course there's tension. there is tension on the left side. roosevelt put together a coalition of groups of people who hated each other. you had southern farmers with blacks and union leaders and jewish and college professors and intellectuals. these people hated each other but this one got 70% of the action, this one got 78%. imf frank meyer fusion this disciple. frank meyer was the great anti-communist leader in the '50s and '60s and early '70s and he talked about using the some, wrote about it, and that is the

only way we are going to come to power is bring this all together as ronald reagan did and we are going to have to try to square the circle. traditional conservatives would never ever-- libertarians were never know totally agree with this group for that group. we detected tried to do the best we can and move forward. >> tom. >> i'm going to endorse richard's comments. i was about ready to mention frank meyer, it was a pillar of the foundation conservative movement who wrote for national review and he showed how we could bridge the gap between the libertarians and the traditional conservatives. frankly we have to realize that you are a liberal-- excuse me, a libertarian you have got more in common with the fuddy-duddy old conservative than you do with the left. in the reverse is true. we need to help libertarians as

well as conservative traditionalists to have any chance of providing leadership for this country. i am a big fusion nist myself. >> i wanted thank our distinguished panel for a very insightful time and offering their time. i know tom came in from california. the two tom's came in from southern california to be with us. i appreciate all of you for spending the time to listen hopefully we will all work for building a better and stronger and freer america. [applause] thank you. [applause] >> richard viguere is a pioneer of direct mail fund-raising and chairman of conservativehq.com. is books include america's right turn, how conservatives use new an alternative media to take power and the new right. john at lisa cizik publisher of the american conservative magazine and rights for antiwar the outcome. he was previously with mike whitter at voice of america.

thomas phillips founded eagle publishing the parent company of regnery publishing in 1993. he is also the chairman and president of phillips international corp. braded. thomas fuentes is a senior fellow at the claremont institution for the study of statesmanship and political philosophy and former chairman of the republican party orange county california. this talk was part of freedomfest 2009. to find up more visit freedomfest.com. >> we are at the 2009 bookexpo america, booksellers commission of the java center new york city. with the booth of bloombury walker books, the family books and i'm here with peter miller. what you have coming out this fall? >> the most ambitious an exciting book is the one that is over my shoulder which is logicomix homographic velvel. we don't normally published a graphic novels but we decided to do this one because it is a historical biography of bertrand russell and as crazy as that sounds it is an interesting

novel of ideas than the two people who were behind it are mathematicians and computer science experts so they decided to sort of approach the idea of the foundation of mathematics and the life of burton dressel as told in comic-book form because for them a big idea of what bertrand russell was pursuing was actually as heroic and as life and death as anything you find in a super hero tale, so it is a book that has been getting a lot of attention before this convention and a lot here. we have been getting a lot of the gallie and everybody seemed excited to embrace this medium for that particular subject. >> what else do you have coming out? >> the other interesting work of nonfiction in default is this book called the to comfort by joan dejean. she is a scholar who has sort of

, and it takes a look at the period in the late 17th century, when public life became sort of interior rise and places like versailles, louis the 14th great creation was not built for comfort at all. dispell for enormous splendor and public events in grandeur but these are not private spaces at all. this was meant to be lived in the open end after louis the 14th dies and his son takes over, lead the 15th there is a movement, because new technologies are coming in in domestic life is changing, that suddenly things are starting to be designed to run the idea of comfort and everything starts to get turned into a sort of a secondary private area and versailles is the perfect metaphor because the because it is all retrofitted by louie the 15th and his mistresses and women in his court, who create two worlds, the world that the

public sees in the world behind. things were introduce such as the sofa and a flush toilet, the private bedroom. so they with that comes the idea of having a private lifers is the public one. this is a really important work of scholarship that tells a completely new way. does not just a book about designed by davenport moment in european history. >> this is the tenth anniversary of bloombury usa and bloombury book was based in the u.k.. when was the decision to start up an imprint here in the u.s.? >> i think at that point that they were growing significantly in the u.k. and felt like they needed an american presence and we didn't want to just sell the rights to publishers in the u.s.. the u.s. is one of the largest markets in the world for book publishing so they were taking that next that. they were the publisher of harry

potter and the u.k. so they took that opportunity and establishing a foothold here. ines walway ten years the go unnoticed grown considerably in george gibson who is the publisher can talk about the various, how this has expanded in those ten years and all the different divisions that it now encompasses. >> also joining us, peter ginna, what is the difference between bloomsbury press and bloombury usa? >> bloombury press is a small inprint that is devoted entirely to serious nonfiction. we have a lot of history, politics, biography, the current events, economics and finance an icon of things otis much less general and more focused than the bloombury list which is a general audience. >> would you have coming out this fall that you are excited about? >> this one called half moon. henry hudson redrew the map of the new world. this september's the 14th

anniversary of hudson's discovery of the river that bears his name and his exploration of new york harbor and that was an adventure that really change the course of history in north america. plausive varied daring bush for a lot of reasons. the first one being that he was supposed to be going completely in the other direction, commission to sell to china over the northern coast of russia and he sort of took a left turn and came to north america instead which led him to his discoveries here and his exploration of the river. the author, dead hunter is a terrific writer and researcher and also is a sailors soapiest on his own for rancic navigation and redrawn the map, the plots of hudson's bush to give us new insights into what that trip was really about. >> finally we are joined by jorde kitson publisher director of walker books. walker book sisson celebrating its 50th anniversary. >> walker company is a division of bloombury usa.

was founded in 1959 by salmon beth walker. it was completely independent company until january 1 of 2005 when we were acquired by bloombury so we are now a division along with klemz ray press hound victims terry division, the three adult divisions of bloombury. >> how long have you been with walker books? >> i have been with wachter since 1993 as the publisher of walker and a beacon of publishing director of bloombury usa less summers so that is a much more recent development but i have been involved with walker for the past, what is that now, about 15, 16 years. >> what blogs are you excited about this all? >> a couple of walker books. book called who wrote measuring america. there was a pretty big success and it is the story of the greatest trainer of american history, but it wonderfully complex man it was a revolutionary war hero, general

communist general in the continental army and became the leading general in the american army 15 years later at the same time as the became meacham 13 the spanish secret service and was a spy for spain for the next 20 years at the same time is to let the american army but the amazing thing was every president you work four, washington, adams, jefferson, madison all knew he was a traitor and the kicked him in this position for strategic reason. is a fascinating untold story and the unknown life. that, and then another biography of an unknown but fascinating figure in history, to win a queen of naples, sicily in jerusalem. deal nei, the only woman to rule in your own name in the 14th century. she was every bit as dynamic a ruler as elizabeth the first of england, rogol break glittering court in naples and an incredibly turbulent time and is a very revealing look at the 14th century to the lands of

bearlike. >> you of something of a new catalog that he wanted to show is coming up this fall. >> a book called meltdown iceland. that i think it's going to be a fascinating way into the economic crisis that hit us last year. this is the story of the meltdown of eichlin, the economic collapse of the country and we will publish it on the one-year anniversary of the collapse, and it is a fascinating inside story of greed, overreach of all the things that happened in this country happened in iceland, but they are understandable in microcosm and i think that is what is fun to make the stories of bethany. >> you said you have been with walker since 1993. how is the publishing industry change since then? >> it is changed in almost every way and yet it as an. i would make, that sounds contradictory but in 1993 even the trains were not as dominant as there. amazon had not even been

invented so and the price clubs and warehouse clubs and the airport shop that sells the many books the is still practically nance of the number of outlets for books as multiplied geometrically in the last 15 years. in terms of publishing it is still all about getting good writers to do good work and then finding media outlets for them for good the media has changed a lot particularly in the last five years as there are fewer outlets for print reviews for the classical with promoting books everly declined, but now there also to barberton's on the edge that. it is a brave new world for publishers send we are all that's having to be used to it. >> with the walkers recognize the publishing company today? >> walker is still very much alive and sam has to wait a number of years. i think he would have had trouble in this world and i think it is a very different world than the one he inhabited

but that actually is quite fluent in the new technologies and so actually think she is rather enjoying it. >> were joined by peter mallach, peter ginna and george gibson from the walker family of books. thanks. >> thanks very much. >> this summer booktv is asking, what are you reading? >> right now i am reading my kindle which i have given up paper, to save trees and also for convenience when i'm traveling. i am reading my candle which is electronic books that i can download fury wireless connection. i am reading the soul of the age which is a new biography about william shakespeare. years ago i had the chance to visit england, the world shakespeare theatre at and i have become a shakespeare than in my old age. which i felt as strongly about studying shakespeare when i was in school. maybe i would have gotten better grades, but that is what i'm reading now.

usually but i do if i get a big long list of books and a stack them up on my night table and i don't seem to make very much progress. i like all sorts of books, ranging from books about lincoln. there is one that i have read recently had i really liked the look call lincoln's sword. it is not about the military prowess or fighting the civil war. is about his use of words, which they called the sword and it is really well done. he was an extraordinary writer and speaker and this is about how he honed the skills. >> to see more summer reading list another program information visit our web site at booktv.org.

up next, the first three programs from book tv's coverage from the 2009 key west literary seminar. this history panel includes jill laporte, david levering lewis and patricia o'toole. it is moderated by eric foner. this is 45 minutes. >> well, the title of this discussion panel is, how can we know and tell what happened in the past? i am not going to introduce the panelists, except by name, david levering lewis, pietrusza o'toole. you know them or will know them certainly by the end of this weekend. i think the way we will work, i'm going to put a couple of questions out on the floor and

ask each to justice fund in a few minutes and we will then have they little discussion among ourselves and then since there isn't really been any time this morning for questions from the audience we will leave some time for you to pose questions to us. when you do so, there will be microphones best thing around, so please with until you get a microphone when you are called upon. and, for want of any other better principle of organization we will go in alphabetical order. wittes ackley-- actually how we are sitting. curiae couple of questions and the panels can respond to any number of them that they wish. one, talk about a surprise that you found in your research, some documents, some argue that, something you found that really changed your mind or lead to any different direction or really open your eyes to some aspect of the past the really had occurred to you because much of what we do as