>> we've seen a the statistics

where 92 people believe in going, but beyond that it's actually a curious thing because it may be a very religious society but it's often an incredibly secular society and that's partly what accounts for the dynamism of our country, but it's, you know -- the question is, can you -- can you count on religious once it's been stripped of its institutional, you know, force and authority and legitimate? the churches in a sense don't matter how much as they used to. >> when you fly to san francisco you hear this hmmm in the background. [laughter] >> which i never quite understood. this will have to be the last question and then we will stay seated -- the people who are

standing may come down and find a seat and we'll move directly to the next panel. last question. >> this is a question for the whole panel. how many people have you seen convert from liberalism to conservatism? and if you have seen this miracle occur, what was the trigger? did the person come to the faith first and then gain conservativem? did they become pro-life? did they read a great book? did they hear a speaker at their university or elsewhere? i would be very curious because i'd like to replicate this cathartic moment? >> you're asking how many people have i seen come from liberalism to conservatism. >> yes. >> this one right here and her husband and jean kirkpatrick and for a while pat moynihan. >> a brief moment. >> ah, but we've seen a lot of it. but it did stop, however, and

that's kind of interesting. it stopped, what i call in this new book of mine, the good -- the good liberals. they had a civil war in liberalism in '48. and arthur schlesinger and people like that rid liberalism of its radicalism and, boy, they sounded pretty good for me for a while, even arthur. and then again -- it happened again about '68, something like that, '72, with midge and er. husband and irving crystal and the whole gang of neocons. but the interesting thing is at some point it stopped. and the battle lines were drawn. and that's something for some serious meditation.

why did the movement of liberalisms -- liberals from liberalism to conservatism stop? i don't know. >> well, it's partly -- the one i am familiar with -- [laughter] >> it was -- it was made up of many things. the world had gone through a cataclysm and now everybody was very cheerful in america and so there was a big radical sense of, hooray, we won and we can do it all. we can make this country just and pure perfect and rich and everything. easily. and then we saw our children, how they were being educated, how they were growing up and by the time they reached adolescence -- and we were also

praising ourselves because we were, of course, far superior parents. i mean, my goodness, those benit knighted old people who brought us up, woo, we were simply wonderful and we saw our children and they were not thriving. and let me tell you something, you bring up a kid and you can't understand why in the world he's not thriving. he's got a good life. he's got a nice home. he's got parents who love them and then you know there's something foul in the air. and by the '60s that something foul erupted in universities, into -- this is a very sloppy and hasty history. and it needs a lot more going into than that, but the country was taken over by a disease of ingratitude and some kind of

phony notion of perfection. and this what our kids were suffering from, and i mean suffering. and suddenly -- there they were leading the best of lives, going to the best of places, going to the best of schools, drowning themselves in drugs, demanding crazy things and doing crazy things and insisting that somehow or other all pains be lifted from them and they were not thriving. and, boy, that -- that was scary. that was really scary and that was the beginning of that. plus, the fact that people who were known as neocons -- one

thing they always were was anti-soviet, antisocialists and anticommunists and there was a whole new revival of this stuff going on in places where it shouldn't have been, universities, publishing houses, and serious magazines. and it was a very, very, very serious lesson. anybody who wants to -- you don't need to be a neocon now. you can just go and be a plain con. [laughter] [applause] >> yes. anything but an ex con. [laughter] >> thank you, panelists, thank you, ladies and gentlemen, stay seated, please. the next panel is going to begin immediately. thank you. >> is there a nonfiction author or book you'd like to see featured on booktv? send us an email at

booktv@c-span.org. or tweet us at twitter.com/booktv. >> well, on your screen is the newest book by long-time washington foreign correspondent georgy ann geyer, what is this book is about? >> this book is a culmination of my parents since the family and i have for many years what we have to do, those of us in the foreign field we have to anticipate and predict them and ann predicted death very easily. and that's what this book is trying to show. >> throughout your years as a foreign correspondent, where have your travels taken you? what are two or three of the most exciting places you've been and situations you've been in?

>> i've been all over the world. egypt, israel, all over america, vietnam. that's very exciting. >> cuba. >> i've met castro and met him several times. i can't think of places right now. >> if people sit down to predicting the unpredictable. what would you like them to take away from that book? >> the in all parts of the world and it's about the method of thinking of different people. so if they can anticipate what is coming and predict it, we have great diplomats and military men and journalists who have predicted, but it never sort of gets to the upper region it is of the white house and the

state department. >> so if you were to travel today, where do you see a future problem or future situation that we should be aware of thinking about now? >> well, certainly, syria. i think the rest of the middle east is going to come out of this quite well but syria is such a violent place. and such a nasty place that it would have to be an all-out revolution to overthrow that. russia is just going to be -- they're not doing much of anything. china, of course, is going full speed ahead but they depend upon us for borrowing so everybody place you look including our own country have their own problems to look into. >> now, we're here at the national press club. it is author's night here at the national press club and we're talking with georgie ann geyer who's newest book is on your

screen. regular viewers from news shows, m nbc, c-span, fox have seen georgie ann geyer on the program commenting. but ms. geyer it sounds like you have a bit of a speech impediment, what happened to you. >> i do. four years ago i had tongue cancer which i didn't even know existed and i never smoke, never drank too much and never smoked at all and it let it go too long until it was phase 4 so now i'm postal service i survived but now i'm trying to go a little beyond surviving. >> it has impeded your travel plans? >> oh, yes. oh, yes. because, you know, i can talk to you and you understand it. but in germany or france or egypt, they won't understand it. so i'm rearranged my life.

i can still write. that's important. >> georgie ann geyer's new book, predicting the unthinkable, and the impossible. >> edwin edwards was actually investigated some two dozen times. he had never been invested before, never, in all his life and public life starting in 1954 all the way up till about 1972. and by the time -- by the time he was taking the oath of office, there was a grand jury already investigating him, i mean, on the first day. edwin edwards is louisiana's only four-term governor. he was governor for sectarian years, not consecutively but the state constitution only allows to you serve two consecutive terms so he served in the 1970s from '72 to '80 and, again, from '80 to '88 and his last term was '92 to '96. so he was a record-setter just

in years alone. and i think that the way that the political system is set up now, that's -- we'll probably never see that again. >> what kind of governor was he? >> well, it depends who you talk to and i talked to a lot of people about that, but i think on balance, he was probably one of the best, if not the best administrator that louisiana ever had as far as administrative state government. he had a very quick mind and he could keep his -- he knew -- he knew what all 144 legislators were thinking, how they were voting, what their political persuasion was. he kept all that in his head so consequently he knew before they got to his office what it is that they wanted and so he would have a ready answer for almost all of them. he always knew, yes, what was politically expedient, at the same time, he did move the state ahead but he was a fiscal legislator and he forced the legislature to balance the budget at the end of the year and not let it get out of

control and to that extent he was also able to change the severance tax on oil and gas. and when he did that, he changed it from 25 cents a barrel, for instance, on 25% when opec was beginning to take over the price of oil and oil began to shoot up. so when he did that, tens of millions of dollars suddenly flowed into the state coffers. in fact, by the end of the 1970s, the headlines read, we were suffering an embarrassment of riches and even the politicians couldn't figure out where to throw out the money so by the 1970s we were the most cash-rich state in the nation. louisiana was leading the nation as far as programs, highway construction, everything at a time when new york city was on the brink of bankruptcy. i mean, it got the eye of a lot of people. it got the eye of ted kennedy, for instance, when he was -- ted kennedy was basically trying to overthrow jimmy carter at the

1980 convention for the nomination of -- the democratic nomination for president. and kennedy contacted through some friends -- contacted edwin edwards to see if he was interested as going on the ticket as vp in the hopes he could make some sense out of the federal budget and try to get america back of a position of balancing the budget year-to-year. so he became quite well-known for that. edwin edwards was first indicted in a federal dietment and he had the first trial in 1985 and there was a retrial in 1986. and he was acquitted in the second trial. charges back then were -- he was supposed to be bid-rigging hospital certificates. at the time the federal government had a program to where -- in order to serve rural counties, rural parishes, rural areas, the federal government would, according to the states,

how the states saw they needed out medical care out in the countryside, they would issue these issues of need. and those certificates would wind up being very valuable because health care -- health care corporations would take those certificates and then they would get federal money to help build these facilities. so it became very lucrative. anyway, so he was charged with helping his friends out when he did that kind of thing. but the -- but the problem with that was is that the jury, the final jury, that acquitted him said these guys did not do anything different than what any other business person did. and what happened to the first candidate who was appointed by jimmy carter, john bolts got him on the witness stand and say didn't you do that that to enrich your family and friends? and edwards said, no, you really help out your friends, that's true. but you help out everybody

'cause that's what you're there to do. he said, as a matter of fact, i remember one time when you wanted -- you called me up for some help. and john stopped that line of questioning and took a whole other turn but there were other reporters that were in the gallery who followed up on that and they found out that john bolts had actually called edwin edwards to try to get him to put pressure on the two ranking senators from louisiana to put pressure on the federal justice to get am federal judgeship and, of course, it didn't work. but it's funny that he was being accused of that so the dynamic in the bolts trial was the federal judge overseeing the trial was the guy who had gotten the job overseeing the guy who had wanted his job prosecuting the guy that he had -- that he had tried to use to get that job. so anyway, bolts went down in flames. and i was convinced that at that point, especially, in 1986, when edwards was acquitted, he came

out of the courthouse steps and he railed against the federal government. he called them just about everything else in the book you could think of, the fbi, the federal prosecutor, the agents that were on the case, and he said far more than he should have. in fact, his wife -- there's a famous picture of his wife putting her hand over his mouth. that was the beginning of the end for him. he had always been a smart aleck, and people in power don't like that. and so he always was very quick with a quip, you know, quitia joke. he said in the '83, his political opponent was so slow that it takes him an hour and a half to watch 60 minutes. i mean, things like that, he could have been a stand-up comedian, you know, and then he gets to the david duke race in

1991, and he says, david duke, a reporter said is there any place for you two possibly could be alike because you're ultra liberal, he's ultra conservative. is there any place you could be like. without thinking he said both of us are wizards under the sheets. not many politicians get away with sayings like that. i remember this guy has been profiled three times by 60 minutes. so i always had something on the ball upstairs but there was always that little sinister flow in there where people just -- as time went on, didn't really trust him. and there was a lot of times when he probably could have defended himself, but he insisted that defending himself always made it worse. he saw people -- other politicians and powerful people who were always trying to defend themselves against charges and the reality was is that the more they defended themselves, the

worse off they became. so he would pass it off with a joke and move on. he never was bothered by things like that. the second major indictments were the most recent ones where he was indicted for extortion. 26 counts and he wound up being convicted on 17. and it was -- where he was supposed to be rigging river boat licenses. and the story is -- the truth of the story is that there was only one license left by the time he became cover for the fourth term and that was the 15th river boat license. louisiana had mandated that only 15 river boats could be in louisiana so the 15th license was still up for grabs. all the others had been distributed under buddy romer. and so he was indicted -- he was investigated and indicted for allegedly extorting money out of eddie de-bartel, jr., the san

francisco 49ers to get that 15th license. then let's see. there was robert gidry who already owned a river boat and to keep his license he allegedly was stored. and then there was ricky shelter who worked for players casino in lake charles who said that he was extorted for keeping the edwardses, meaning edwards and his son, steven, from i don't know harming them in lake charles. anyway, they never really believed it and their testimony proved that to begin with. so the real charge came down to de-bartelo, he and i had gotten together years ago. his father built malls of america. well, eddie, jr. for his 30th birthday -- his father gave him the san francisco 49ers. so he spent -- lavished all

kinds of money on the 49ers. eddie is the reason for the salary cap that we have today in the nfl but the nfl had bylaws and he wants a casino and he begins to use edwin ed cards to do all the legal work, the paperwork to get a casino and the only space that was opened was in northwest let's see, near shreveport and so eddie and edwards gets together but edwards continues to send him retainer agreements. eddie turns signs them, never returns them or pays him and did edwards continues to fill out everything to put them together and he puts them together with hollywood producers out of dallas and so they do a proposal that's far and away the best proposal of any of them that's out on the table so he knows

he's going to win. well, he goes to eddie and he says, look, getting the license is the easy part. had hard part will be to sell it to the voters, we need money, a quarter of a millions to begin a tv blitz, a campaign up in northwest louisiana so people will vote for it because it has to be passed by referendum so eddie says just do it right. just blitz it and we'll give you a half million dollars. i don't need a half million dollars. we only need about 250 and he says here, just take 400,000 and i'll get you a check for 400,000. but eddie never delivered he never delivered the check because he had a guy in his office and say you need to stay away from edwards because they're bad news. i don't want you to associate them. so eddie forces edwards to apply to it san francisco and pick up cash so edwards goes in and he picks up the cash, well, of course, that instantly looks wrong.

and edwards knows that. and he's -- you know, he was -- he was dumb from making that move. but the reality was that eddie stayed on the defense team after the charging were filed. he stayed on the defense team right up until and eddie jordan, the u.s. prosecutor out of new orleans and the assistant prosecutor, jim letton go to the owner of the san francisco 49ers and says if we met you in court, not only are you going to lose the 49ers. you're going to lose your fortune and you're going to spend a lot of time in prison so are you sure your story's straight? and so eddie flipped. and he comes back and he says, okay, now that 400,000 was extortion. so he flies here to baton rouge and he says -- he says, i was a victim.

now, the fbi had recorded some 100, 200 conversations where eddie had continually called edwards and said, what do you hear? what do we need to do? we'll do whatever we need to do. only edwards had only initiated three of those calls. so it's really hard to balance out who was the real victim here, based on that. when he was convicted of 17 counts in -- in may of 2000, he goes to prison in october of 2002 and stay there is for eight years and three months. he got a 10-year sentence which was double the prescription. at that time they had prescription on sentences and the federal judge -- because he has the description just doubled the sentence. so he could have gotten out in less than 5 years under the prescription, but he gave him a 10-year sentence and so he got out in eight years and three months. but he came out and he said, you know, they gave me life and i came back with a wife. i mean, he's just unsinkable. this guy is unsinkable.

he's one of the greatest politicians of all times because he actually did do something as far as -- as far as administering state business. and at the same time, he was great theater and everybody likes their great theater, you know, they can only take facts and figures to a point. they know have to have a gut feeling on whether they liked the leader and edwards was a master on that. >> what made you decided to write this book and how long did it take you to put it together? >> well, actually edwards came to me through a friend and said, would you like to -- write my biography? and i told the print, i really don't want to write the biography because there's a lot about him i don't like. i covered him for the better part of 25 years, he was always too much of a smart aleck for me and he just didn't really like his politics. back room deals. i mean, all the stuff that you

hear about and you think about and so the friend said it's nice to know you're still an objective reporter, that you can see both sides of a story. and, you know, i said, you know, what? i'll go over and talk to him just out of morbid curiosity. i want to see what he's thinking. i went over and we talked to him and we struck an agreement and he would tell me what he thinks is the truth and then i will go back and follow up -- i do an incredible amount of research and tracking back down these leads and these stories and indeed at the end of five years i had 2,000 pages and 3,000 footnotes. and so it took me two years just to cut it down to 621 pages. but i mean -- in custody it. it's a lot of work. it's very tedious, in custody it, though, it really showed me the greater picture, not just the man's life in the picture bubs it showed what created that life and what he created as a result of being part of that

picture. i wish everybody if they could have an understanding of politics to go back to the players and tell who they are and where they came from because that will give you an idea sort of where we're headed. if you're a student of history you can sometimes figure out the direction of where things are -- how everything is going to finish. and right down it didn't look too good. >> did your perception of him change after writing this book? >> it did to a certain extent. it didn't completely changed. i would like to believe i held my objectivity. yes, i did like him as a person. when you're spending five years with somebody, every week or so, then you do develop a sympathy. but that's -- you know, that's the temptation of all biographies is to develop a sympathy of the person you're writing about. and he did have good reasons for doing some of the things that he did. but the other part of that is, is what every person whoever

aspires to and grabs a high office, and that is the power that goes along with it, thus, compromise a person. i don't care how strong they are morally. it just does because people look at you and they project that power onto you. and the ego begins to feet into that and before long, a person at the extreme end of that feels like they're above the law such as a president richard nixon. when you start to look at it in that perspective, i don't care how strong you are, how strong the moral fiber you think you are, there's enough money and power heaped on you, it will change you, unless you quit while you're ahead and most politicians cannot do that. they cannot walk away from it. >> what's edwin edwards doing right now? >> edwin edwards is 84 years old, enjoying his life. he has a wife who is 51 years

his junior. he says that he's in courageable as ever. this guy is unsinkable. and he knows he's going to die one day and, you know, he says, i've had more good luck than most people have had and i've had more good luck than i deserve so spending eight years in prison for me was really a very small price to pay. and, you know, did he finish out being a multimillionaire, not what i've seen. so i can't really say he stole the bank and stole the treasury and he says that is one of the few things he was accused of was that he never took any money from the taxpayers. his trial back in 2000 was questionable.