heritage foundation in washington, d.c.. he's celebrating 30 years as a syndicated columnist, signing books and chatted with guests. [inaudible conversations] >> hey, my favorite guy so far, three of them, way to go. who is this for, or just sign it? >> ford and kay. >> thank you. well, how very nice. that's the way to headache points. where do they live? >> springfield, virginia. >> oh, yeah, down the road a bit. >> my girlfriend's from there. >> you'll bring her around. >> way about this one? >> pat and wayne. >> w-a-y-n-e? >> yes, sir. tell me what you do? >> i work in the didn't, a general liaison.

>> oh, great. wow. >> [inaudible] >> good, glad to hear that. you take responsibility. and this one? >> [inaudible] >> right. now the government's not paying for these, are they? >> no. >> well, i don't know, just thought i'd ask. >> thank you very much. >> thank you so much. >> good to meet you. >> thanks. >> hey, how are you? is is this for? >> that's for john. j-o-h-n? >> yes. >> i always ask the simpist names because if i don't, it's something else like smith, you'd think; right? >> yeah. how do you get money out of politics unless you take the power or reduce the power from the federal government? >> well, i think, you know, you're never going to get it out. the point is to bring it to some kind of control. i mean, look, look at the amount of the last election, all the

expenses, the primary conventions, the $7 billion now, come on, and you got really good people who don't want to run for office for all sorts of reason, they had a bad date in high school, she finds you and turns you into a stalker or something. we need good people. we need to give them reasons to lead, be a member of congress or run for president. the people who pitch things are not running, and for a bunch the reasons, and one of the major ones is the amount of money we have to raise, and you sell jr. soul for every dollar that's in it. >> thank you very much. all right, thank you very much, appreciate it. >> hi, fine, thanks. >> hi, yes, heather, how are you doing in thanks for the yesterday was it? all right. that was a will the of fun. >> yes, it was. >> we went from somehow tune -- show tunes to serious stuff. >> [inaudible] >> all right. >> that's my fiance there.

>> hey, jared, how you doing? >> [inaudible] >> oh, great station. thank you, heather, hope you end joy it. hey, oh, great, i think we're doing something on that -- there's a lot of competition. >> doing something. >> who is this for? >> for me. >> two of them, signatures, and give them away to the listeners. >> oh, very nice. >> i hope something feels this is valuable enough to call in and get one. >> i do trivia every couple weeks. >> do you. i hope my book never winds up in trivia. >> boy, you got -- >> my best friend's mother never spelled it right or wrong the same way two times in a row. >> that's follow-upny. you got a winner in heather from what i can see. >> yeah, i do. >> there you go. enjoy it. thank you very much. i appreciate it. all the best to you. >> thank you.

>> you're a fast reader. >> [inaudible] >> yeah. >> story in the daily mail is sad, the elder abuse thing, it's horrible. >> i only knew that -- >> you were there at the dinner where he spoke in 2008, weren't you? >> yeah, right. >> amazing. thanks, joe. >> thank you. >> hope you enjoy. thanks for coming out. appreciate it. >> mike! my goodness, of course, my cousin buys a book. all right. >> mom and dad would be very proud of you. >> well, that's sweet of you to say. thank you, thank you, very sleep. i have not forgotten your, you know, i'll get to it eventually, figure out how to do it without outing too many people. >> that's fine. >> that's what they all say.

[laughter] >> can i get a picture, if you could? >> yeah, well, i'm sure. thanks, mike. so good to see you. get something to eat and drink. thanks for coming over. yeah. >> hasn't seen you in 30 years. >> well, it's that or be homeless. i can't do anything else. >> well, i never miss your page. you do a great job over there. i personally research from it for the weekly bash on fox. very helpful. we love it. i think they want me back this year. standards are falling everywhere it's always fun. good to see you. tell brin i said hi.

oh, i love the people with multiple books. come on, now. hi. >> logan. >> that's a cool name, how did you get it? >> my dad picked it out for me. >> some say, well, i was watching a movie, and no organize yows student, inexcellent dependently wealth or what? >> i'm a student, at the american university. >> oh, yeah, good for you. >> and i go to -- >> oh, great, where in indiana? >> notre dame in indiana. >> oh, good, i hope you like the book and have time to read it. >> yeah. >> thank you for coming. >> thank you. >> hello, how are you? give me the names, and i'll sign one after another. >> mary lou. >> two names?

[inaudible conversations] this one is for? >> cora and glen. >> one "n" on glen? trying to trip me up here. that's why i always ask. [inaudible conversations] okay. >> bill. >> bill. that's it. that's a beautiful song. there you did. thank you very much. hello, my friend. i can't imagine what this is. so good to see you. you look fabulous. [laughter] i love that side.

that's a good one. [laughter] he's crazy. hey. sure. >> [inaudible] >> put linda here too? >> yeah, "l-y" or "l-i"? i can't remember. >> "i," she's been having health problems. >> i know, break an arm or something? a hand or something? >> yeah. >> is that healed or? >> yeah. >> but she has other things? >> [inaudible] >> well -- this one? >> lee edward. >> lee, of course. suspect it great?

>> the cover, wish i thought of it. [laughter] still hanging your hat here, lee? >> oh, yeah. still writeing. >> good for you. hey, thanks, good to see you. larry. bless you, thank you very much. i'm glad you came too, very honored. appreciate it. for you? >> for larry and jane. >> j-a-n-e? >> right. >> how long you in town for? >> three days. >> see the cherry blossoms? >> yeah, enjoyed those. >> they are gorgeous. >> i'm going to do lobbying in the next couple days. we have issues. >> good, this is the place to do it. >> ld. >> initials? >> yeah. >> who is that? >> he's the guy you met, we had

breakfast, remember that pastry? >> oh, yea. >> he was the general manager of the missouri athletic club. >> love that. >> just autograph this one, you know, give that to somebody to cherish it. >> i hope so. >> or burn it p on the phone: i'm going to hire a book burner, don't read this book, burn it. great publicity. >> yeah. >> i'd love to go to st. louis. >> good. >> you're the greatest. thanks for coming out. really appreciate it, thrangs, you're the best, thank you. >> thank you. >> well, my favorite two hon honduras. how are you? better now that you're here. >> that would be us. >> that would be you. she definitely wants to get together with us again, once more before she leaves to go

home in may. i toll her, i said she ought to talk to you guys, you know, -- >> yeah, we'll find something for her. >> she's a sweet person. >> we'll do dinner if we can. >> [inaudible] >> yes, he is. >> those ground hogs are nasty little critters. >> [inaudible] [inaudible conversations] >> for david and daniel. >> sell the other one. >> no, daniel. >> daniel. >> the little one.

>> could you imagine having your whole life open before the public? >> oh, i know. >> horrible thing. thought if i was running foreclosure president, crossed my mine, but i took two aspirin, laid down, and it went away. crazy. >> [inaudible] [inaudible conversations] >> grew up in that era. could you sign this to peter? he was, as a young man, campaigned for barry goldwater. >> oh, wow. >> lives in santa rosa, california. a he's a bit of an oddity. >> as a college student, i was begin "conscious of a conservative", and yipped know the labels well, but, boy, that turned me around and gave me a foundation that remains today.

>> peter's a wonderful man. he'd love to be here. sends my regards. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. >> bob brown. >> never thought i'd see this. >> hard to believe it was over 20 years ago. >> thank you so much for inviting us. >> great privilege to have you. >> [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> have they asked you to speak? >> have on occasions. >> good. >> always remember you have a winner here. >> so good to see you. >> will you sign it to my mom? >> oh, sure. what's her name?

>> janet. >> where does she live? >> she lives in denver. >> denver? >> yeah. >> good, delighted. >> she says so many wonderful things about you. >> that's nice. i think denver had less snow than we did this year. >> yeah, i believe that was the case. >> amazing. >> yeah. >> i tell people on the election circuit, we get snows from the politicians, and a little on the ground is not a big surprise. >> no. >> thanks for coming out. all the best. see you soon. take care. hi. how are you doing? hi, what's your name? >> robert. >> what is it? >> robert. >> robert, what do you do? >> nnl >> oh, my favorite fast food restaurant. i love chick-fil-a. >> it's a great place. >> the commentary, we had cal thomas. >> they run it, at ten o'clock at night, not a good time. i appreciate all the work you do. >> thank you, robert. >> i really do. >> thank you. >> keep it up, you know, working

on the commentary and writing books. >> i'm working on it. have to these days, i'm not going to retire, and i'm not cut out to be a wal-mart greeter so i have to keep going. >> i agree with that one. you talked about i mean and violence in the book, and on that page, the first paragraph, and increase of gun violence, and the book is a statistic, baby killing legalized, you talked about gun violence, gang violence, spousal abuse, all types of homicides, homelessness, and all those things actually began to skyrocket. once you look at your life at that point, from the moment of inception, every other thing is just, realm, gray. >> right on. i'm an unlikely conservative in the area of prison reform. if you're a nonviolent, nondangerous offender, in most cases, not all, but most you should have alternatives to incarceration. for example, i think forcing people to pay back the money or

the property loss is restitution. it makes the individual morally responsible to the person he or she has wronged. >> right. >> reducing the cost considerably to society of warehousing people in prison. that great line from "shawshank redemption" andy says to red, the morgan freeman character, i was honest on the outside, and came to jail to learn to be a criminal. that's a great line. >> it's true. i think in that case, in that situation, you're right, i mean, it is better for, you know, to be that than, you know, pay restitution opposed to prides. >> absolutely. >> makes them accountable to the individual. >> absolutely. >> as well as god. people involved in murder and other violent crimes. >> yeah. >> yeah. >> well, listen, so good to see you, thanks for coming out. i appreciate you're coming. >> thank you, absolutely. >> all the best to you. >> thank you. >> hey, james, appreciate it. >> really impressed. you have app armed guard at the door. when i speak at heritage,

nobody's guarding anything. >> that's to keep me in from running. [laughter] >> appreciate you making the effort. i know porking here is a pain. thanks, gene. thank you, brian. [inaudible conversations]

>> yes, i remember that. you found out my parents lived in lynchberg and i went for a visit, you found out when, and i walk in the door, and there you were. >> now you know. >> sign this book to my mother, who is 91. >> that is amazing. >> still living there? >> in the same house where you had those cookies. >> that is awesome. >> she's josephine and goes by jo. >> like j-lo. >> no, no, j-o. >> j-o? >> j-o. [inaudible conversations] >> well if i'd seen you and known you were coming in, i would have introduced you with

jim. >> you would have embarrassed me to death. you have no sense of shame. >> you connect the with him; right? >> yeah. >> we have at least a couple of the great ones here. [inaudible conversations] >> i speak highly of you wherever i go. >> i have to come up and fix the record. if you want to tell a lie, go ahead. >> we'll talk. >> i hope so. >> thank you very much. >> come on, jim-bo. >> favorite? >> all right. absolutely. thank you very much. appreciate it. all right. >> lovely wife. >> all right. >> thank you so much.

>> jim, you're leaving, i can tell. >> a moment on telephone. is there any chance to get after hours back? [inaudible] >> aarp starts a network, you know. >> that was fun. >> i do have the distinction of blazing a trail, you know, when the show started, and kevin said, they are going to work on a news channel. it will work, it will, and now there's show business people on all the time. well, anyway, you note history i'm sure. [inaudible conversations] >> glad you could comb, always a pleasure. thank you so much. great to come, i appreciate it. >> [inaudible] >> [inaudible] >> you have a wish bone?

i have not seen one of those in years.

>> father was a con artist, an at the age of 11. he worked 13 hours in a stretch, and they both just climb the out of the horrible bkdz, and an abusive family situation, and decided that they wanted to have power, and theymentsed to have freedom, and they just pursued it with the kind of pursuit that others, certainly women, and

they were very beautiful, and they were great self-promoters, and the first thing they had to do was to get known before they could run for president of congress, and so first of the much firsts is they were the first one to own a brokerage firm on wall street. they were bankrolled, and did not happen for another hundred years, i might add. bankrolled by a vanderbilt, the richest man in america known to be the lover of the books they've had, and i don't want to abuse anybody of that. i think it's a good idea. anyways, they got to him because he believed in spiritualism, and they were flamboyant, and, you know, decided they could -- i think there was a genuine force in what they could do, but also a lot of fake involvement, and they kept convincing him that they would be sure to get his long dead mother talking to

them. i don't know that that ever happened, but they managed to get the stock brokerage firm, and it was so amazing that more than 2,000 stockbrokers came out just to see them on opening day. you know, they came in, and they dressed alike, they were seven years apart in age, but had it mapped. they had two gold pins behind each ear, tucked their hair short, they were just audacious in everything they did. >> watch this and other programs online at booktv.org. >> he was interested in the science, and the story is that he knew it did not freeze in fort myers, so the loft of the interests they had here in the area were based on his love the plants. by the 1920s, the united states was relying on foreign rubber,

and we were headed into war, and so at that point, they decided that the plant material and the crawfish should be done in this country. eddison ford and firestone traveled all over the world collecting plants, and, in fact, had hundreds of thousands of people all over this country collecting plants and sending them back here to fort myers to his laboratory to find a source of plant materials that could produce rubber first timely, effectively, commercially, and so the laboratory was perkier because of that reason, because they could grow the plants here on-site and actually do the preliminary research on-site. it's a really exciting project. the laboratory was interested for many reasons. one of them was that at that point in american history, there was no patent process to have a

law, which then said that if you invented something with plants, and it was a worthy of patenting, it was issued a patent. >> we are meeting the professors who have also written books. joining us now is professor matthew green who wrote this

book "speaker of the house: the study of leadership if the" professor green, what's the speaker of the house responsible for? >> guest: a number of responsibilities. he or she is the top oifers of the house of representatives, and the only one named in the institution. there's an exception that speakers are there to represent the house of representatives with the tenant as the american people. the practical matter the speaker is responsible for ensuring that the house operates correctly, ensuring that legislation is enacted, helping to develop the agenda, interacting with the president, interacting with the american people, and ensuring that generals that the house is working the will of the people. >> host: could anyone be the speaker of the house? do you have to be a member of the house? >> guest: technically, you do not. all the constitution says is the house shall choose its speaker, so, in