i remember sitting on the floor

at one point with mike pence and he said sometimes we are presented with the president's bill no child left behind which for conservatives, think tank conservatives that was a federal intrusion into the local vegetation and that was anathema to conservatives and he said i feel sometimes like we are minutemen held up to the battlefront only to be told that the revolution is over. [laughter] so there we were and we had to vote on prescription drug benefits which added about $7 trillion in unfunded liabilities and we didn't think that was very conservative independent republicans just engaged in horrible types of spending as well in the earmarking it was fully underway 2001 to 2006. and we've lost our way because we couldn't claim we were fiscally conservative anymore. and that was out the window with all this spending than we had to

argue with things like flag burning and it delved into the issues. i think in some ways we've never gotten back. we had the majority in the house and senate and white house and we lost it. 2006 we lost the house and senate and the white house. so just because we have the majority is today doesn't mean that we will have them two years or a year and a half from now. >> after words airs every saturday 10 p.m. and sunday at 9 p.m. eastern. you can watch all previous "after words" programs on the website, booktv.org. former president bill clinton recently shared his thoughts on what he calls the most important political book of the last decade. >> the exhibit at the presidential center right now, extreme books.

you know what my staff gave me for christmas last year? not one but two and farms. [laughter] so i can have one on my desk at the presidential library and one in my office at home. because i'm always telling them the most important political book that nobody read or write for a political book written in the last ten years that would have made us all much healthier and citizens is the social conquest of earth which is i think within 250 pages long and is a double pulitzer prize winning microbiologist to talk the the combined weight of fans on earth is greater than the combined weight of all of the people on earth. that is quite a number of ants. [laughter] why am i telling you this? [laughter] because here is the conclusion of the book, if all thi the spes

that have ever inhabited our and we know there are hundreds of thousands, sadly disappearing at the most rapid rate in 10,000 years but he said the most successful species that ever lived if you define success as we have repeated chances to be wiped off that they failed and here we are. we are still around. the most successful species are ants, termites, bees and people. not the biggest, not the strongest. and he said what do they have in common? these are the species that ever lived are the greatest cooperators. they found ways to work together

to solve common problems and build futures. and he said the people are the greatest cooperators but their strength is our curse we have a conscience and consciousness, and we know it so it makes us arrogant and we think that we are smarter than we are so we tend to slice and dice ourselves in a way that in the end threatens our ability to escape on more existing and threatening challenge. this climate change thing gives me a kick. no one doubts the questions because it's been verifiable but no more than 90% say that this is an ex- essential threat to the planet. i'm not saying they are wrong but they might be wrong.

i'm just saying we had the coldest march in new york in 100 something years. i was pleading for global warming to come back. [laughter] i get it, we can make all these jokes. name one other threat and returned in this audience, name one threat you would take seriously if you thought the odds of doing this for more than 90% and the odds of doing that. the child in the back seat 100% chance your child will survive a crash unless the car completely collapses. 5% of people would say that's crazy. throw the kid in the back seat and let them roll around.

nobody would do that. that's what we are living on climate change, throwing kids in the backseat letting them roll around. >> you can watch the full discussion of the social conquest of earth on the website booktv.org. booktv, television for serious readers.

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>> >> thanks for being here we are pleased to local john