and obama care that was put together by the hearings and special interest relationship between the chairman and the speaker and the president and how that's all brought together. like abortion did you get that through to the house of representatives? is also about management and also purpose that is what we have seen over the past few years there is a sense of what they wanted to achieve and they got together. that is what may come in the time of years ahead you are watching the tv on c-span two.

. >> thank you for coming. when you get a chance i hope you will pick up the book and see why he is one of my heroes. the battle he is fought with the speaker o'neill in the congressman and to bring down newt gingrich.

[applause] over the years if you look at these successful battles to be left of center another political hero the president of afl-cio and also former lieutenant governor and our friend shelley's husband. [applause] . >> hello. has anybody told you yet to buy a book? that's very important. thank you to warren for coming over and allowing me to join him to open my doors so if you don't know the hallmark of tip

o'neill is he cared about the man on the street and the focus he did not have a voice that there is a story of david back in the late seventies asking my dad to go to his home district to campaign for him. but then to get that and they thought it would help but and then i'm talking about race tracks. [laughter] but one race and my father

said remember exactly. and then he says i don't know anything about horseracing but then to say you are right. he became an everlasting friend. [laughter] . >> yes. but to be a successful legacy. but nobody in congress today

feels more of the people on the street don't have a meal nobody cares about what needs to be done he really did care about the people and he was in washington so please let's have some applies. [applause] . >> thank you for that very generous introduction and for his friendship over the years and i want to thank you for your friendship and hosting this from a good friend. i think about those especially now because washington is an ugly place.

there was no personal ambition but making a difference and so i tell people on the loan - - all the time on the ballot this year with all the other issues is decency. we need to get back to making politics good and clean and decent and honorable again. that is why i wrote the book this particular moment. i woke one - - worked with oakley as a member of congress and the campaign manager? would you ran for whip? i asked why you supported him and he said he is the real deal. he's a good man.

so on the side of working families and talking about the trade deals he stood up against one is fair trade one is the trade agreement that didn't stick it to american workers and on issues of human rights and central america i did a lot of human rights work. he investigated the murders of the police in el salvador but before that if we should be spending on wars and he was the leader and trying to fight for justice in el salvador and i look back at those times and i am in awe of both of them

but they take on these issues because it is the right thing to do if this country stands for anything that should be human rights and that it was offensive taxpayer dollars go to fund regimes to commit terrible crimes and to kill and archbishop. and it made a difference. i have not read the book i want to now but i am grateful for you writing this book for those that are in congress now how we should be and i want to be instructive to people who want to go into politics how they should behave if they decide to get involved in the political arena i am so

nostalgic for decency and honesty and integrity if democrats are lucky enough to win back the house i hope we remember tip o'neill and professionals to bring back the integrity the house had a lot of integrity and i was proud to learn about the system by working with him so it is my honor to welcome you to boston and introduce a good friend and a great example to us all. [applause] . >> it is wonderful to be here with you today.

first i want to thank our host for opening me up to this wonderful building as you the boston college i am very honored you would do this. thank you. >> we have worked together i have been very proud for what he has put together over the years in the state senate and the state house in massachusetts and we have something in common. i did it with congress he did in massachusetts.

and that was 22 minutes. that was half a dozen people going out of the way. it is good to see you and nice to be with you. so let me say this about jim mcgovern. i knew him that what binds him. that we all hear from the leadership committee. rights issues there is nobody better. and with those around the world.

but with the work on the investigation so to go back to the eighties and - - 19 nineties was unbelievable. it did everything to move peace process forward for six priest in the housekeeper and her daughter who were brutally killed. and with every important piece of legislation. and then to kill 80000 people.

so it's an honor to be with him. who was the one to watch or follow? so thank you for your time and great work. . >> and that's the point. but i always go to the mason-dixon line. [laughter]

. >> and that story that tom told i would add that they would talk about sports and politics you could barely see me and i was enjoying this conversation like this great canadian horse that won the kentucky derby and so then you pick this stuff up so i knew the name. so he turned around and had a little smile i could only see his profile so i knew something good would happen then shortly after. [laughter] that was my first step on the leadership ladder. so i will talk about the book.

and with 2014 and how those values were bode - - molded with my years of politics and from the second world war though this brings me that one of my favorite writers right before he died and his deficiencies devoting everything except the ideology

of a maniac. i cannot agree more the president without civic support structure holding of democracy in that structure the most important that matters the most is the truth with which he has no regard. and coming from those consequences of a pregnant mom - - a president ignorant of history and to remind of the importance of both. but above all organized. and in 1972 it was my first

time on the ballot. after my victory that year i started to work with a few progressives and a handful of people we built an organization of thousands it was not named after the populist in the 18 thirties. but they were that equal rights party in the state of new york not top-down but bottom-up grassroots. ed known as the home of the reagan democrats. it took a lot of work but we did it. one door knock add a time. and one election.

organizing all the stops. some are instructors, some are poignant and today and runs in 72 but with a six president and the speaker of the house and other inflatable actors. also to the highest level of congressional leadership and as jim just mentioned and the number two spot on the leadership ladder. and the nurturing of political movement on behalf of the vietnam veterans and to

circumvent and believe it or not on the veterans committee so we had these discussions until we figured out a way to have them referred to other committees as well. . >> and to place it just - - it was very important in that process. there are some great stories and all of the relationships he had with them. so with the movement to defeat nuclear trade with the trade policy it with the charge of gingrich leading to his resignation from the house and

exposing the national security weaknesses leading to 9/11. so how do i talk about the book? i am hoping you will read it so i will only do one reading instead i have developed a couple more minutes and ideas to leadership this is what they need to be effective in the legislative body. to say you have to be a good listener but to have little or no time for others your colleagues need a safe place to express their opinion and share their thoughts but

sometimes it's like to be a priest or a psychologist with them and you develop a bond with your colleagues. that is what leadership is about with that leader of trust and how much of that in your legislative body. second, everybody counts. they want to be a part of the team and we had a situation of these five-dollar hits and guam in america and the version. so i figured out a way to get them on the floor of the house. because we were on the committee as a whole.

and they got the vote. and we are very appreciative of that and it was very helpful when it came time to get their support running for whip. there is one way and another was bernie sanders a lot of people wanted to be in that caucus because he was not a democrat. i knew what he had done as mayor and what he stood for i thought it would be helpful if he was there. so i took care of him and got him in the caucus took care of his seniority on committees and it made a difference and as a result i could get bernie and it's not easy sometimes to say i was a mentor to him which made me feel good. so what other people take credit?

there is enough to share with others. tip was great with this the vietnam veterans issue he spread out the ability for people to shine and take leadership positions. vision. and proverbs where there is no vision the people perish. you don't do that you bring it that how i was and it has a piece in the book that i mentioned joe use to say when you got your first job you got your union card with it then

you were registered and brought into the democratic party. that's the committee i grew up in and all those institutions provide really good values and they are all struggling and to appreciate understanding so with this plaque to turn your back on the crowd. but some thought - - sometimes you need to stand up for what is important. so we were trying to get outreach counseling centers so

then to put the counseling centers and it was not a problem at all. but when the next one was elected decided we would not fund those programs so i decided with the federal court but in the end we got the money from the administration it worked that my dad and my uncle and everybody with critters and when they went on strike it was a terrible strike kennett and their headquarters may have been here in boston. during that strike i lead a group of people into the office of the editor of the

detroit news and they would not leave until we could call and talk but my staff was beside themselves but as i whip i was getting arrested that is a disgrace. i said it will be okay don't worry about it but we put into the pool that we were doing and found out two / one people supported it because we were standing up for average folks if you're ever going to get arrested find a bishop to get arrested with.

[laughter] . >>. >> and organize outside of the house to get the bills that you need done. i want to conclude my remarks that walking to the floor to give the closing speech but what we did is we had organize coalitions with fair trade to this very day. but what we did not know then that president clinton had at

that moment, 1993 sowing the seeds for hillary's loss in 2016 we will be glad to take your questions. i entered the capital was a last member to speak and to take a deep breath and began. mister chairman we are not alone tonight standing against the treaty don't have degrees from harvard or steady economic models. but they know when the deck is stacked against them asking americans to compete there is

free trade we stand here with those who cannot cut deals that is the economic theory when jobs are lost these are the people so those of us who take these concerns seriously are called fear mongers. that is an insult to the working families of this country they take risks every day for those who make fortunes and would never understand they know the work of the country is by those who pour their heart and soul through every paycheck and we cannot afford to leave them behind. tonight we are their voices

with the auto workers in the midwest who says how can we compete if we don't have jobs? so you stand with church leaders that are documented in corruption and ask why does this treaty do nothing to stop that? and then to hope they would have the opportunity to lift them out of poverty but when they rise their voices in protest to say we are their voices we are not alone for those who came before us and have the courage to fight against the odds of the powers that be the men and women who have struggled to find the strength to say enough. . . . .

said was what is. the voices echo throughout this chamber. we must not turn our back wall that we longed for. we must not turn our backs on what was earned the toil and the tears of our parents and grandparents. we must move forward. this is more than money and markets. it's about more than tariffs in trade. about are basic values and about who we are and what we stand for

as people. it's about the dignity of work. it's about the respect for human rights and it's about our democracy. mr. chairman if we don't stand up for working people who are going to? we have come too far and sacrificed too much in this country to turn the clock back now. this is not the best we can do. we can do better. ironically it's a lot of the negative pieces of that piece of legislation are being changed right now. i'm embarrassed to say for the better because we could have done this over these 25 years but we didn't. but now it looks like there's equity being put into these proposals. so thank you so much. i'm going to be signing books

and if you would like the food and everything else that they have put out for us. we will do some questions if you would like craig would you like to do a few questions. then we can open it up to the rest of you. >> first of all thank you very much. [applause] i agree that i'm proud that we have folks like jim mcgovern representing us in congress. he's really a statesman. and thank you for coordinating with tom in hosting this. one of the questions if you could just talk and drill down a little bit on nafta and what are the good elements and would it change your vote? >> it's moving in the right direction but what they have done is get rid of the investor

dispute group which has been giving away three near $50 million in just put in for negating state and local regulations to achieve what they wanted. that was i think the mexican thing is really important to me because what happened in mexico after nafta we lost virtually all the corn farmers down their number one. secondly the workers didn't get much of the benefits at all. the economy in mexico has increased to 60% in the rural areas and 50% in the urban areas people in the automobile factories were in the neighborhood of three to $4 an hour. not really climbing at all. and they could not form an independent union down there. what this does is that it requires there be an independent ability to form an independent

union with this new nafta number one and secondly i don't know if it's 30 or 40% by one of those figures that mexico has to pay a wage of $16 i think 50 cents an hour. that's a huge difference. that's when henry ford decided back in 1914 he was going to redouble the wages of autoworkers in the united states there are some other things with regards to the environment that are good. so i think if we are moving in the right direction whether it's there all the way i'm not quite sure but all i know is after nafta passed our manufacturing work base decreased tremendously in the united states. people who lost their jobs, 1 million people lost their jobs from nafta and the deficit in

mexico and canada was $181 billion a year. we were going in the wrong direction. i think this will help correct it but we still have some other things to get. we have a lot more work to do. >> one-story that i thought he was going to tell about his dad visiting detroit and having difficulty finding the right size vehicle to take them around. it's a great story. in the book but it's worth hearing it firsthand. >> well anyway when i got to congress i didn't know much about any of it so i was looking at the best way to figure this place out. john brennan was the flip at that time. i went and 30 or 40 members were in the organization then and started 8:00 tuesday morning. people would come in and get a

donut in the cup of coffee and stand around and chatting cutting deals or whatever they were doing, talking about their families. in the next room there were three rows of 10 and the leaders , the speaker, the leader and i think the caucus chair and the secretary. so that would be the way it was set up. when i came in i was kind of a shy guy. i would sit down and start to read the paper in the other room. basically do the same thing. it's a coffee and a donut and sometimes the other big cigar sticking out of his mouth unlit. he was reading the sports section as well. we were both reading what the spread was going to be in the

football game on saturday. he asked me how did i like iowa over wisconsin and i asked him about d.c. and we developed a relationship that way and i finally asked him, had the courage to ask them to come to an event for me which he agreed to. i told my father that i was really excited and that he was going to come in. he was a big guy, 6 feet 2 inches. i don't know how much he weighed but he was pretty close to my dad. i said we don't have a big car. who has the big car that we can pick them up and? he said call dan schultz. i called stan and i said stan would you mind coming and bringing up the car and picking us up at the airport? stan was thrilled. stan was an undertaker. [laughter] so you can see where this might be going. anyway my dad and i get to the airport and we parked our car

and sit down and we are walking to find stand on the curb and there he is. he has this big old car but the front seat in the backseat and a big file seat in the back. i figured that's it. [laughter] there goes my career out the window. it was a very pleasant story to tell for the past 47 years. >> last question for me and we will open it up. you guys really made a difference in central america with the congressman and the speaker. could you respond to jim's work in your work and in el salvador and guatemala and nicaragua is really made a difference in that region. >> i will give you the overall

good part since you are eager for refreshments and to chat with each other. those three countries, well for nicaragua al gore el salvador, roughly 300,000 people over short period of time. so how to put them, how to stop it. how to get some peace. reagan was the president during most of that time and george bush and 89. we are fighting an administration under the leg and -- reagan doctrine. we put together such a great operation. the woman who worked cindy and rosa delora was another one. she wasn't in the congress at the time.

we have thousands and thousands around the country that were working on this issue and we put enormous amounts of pressure on the right people. we would have these huge votes and by the way reagan gave more speeches on this issue than any other issue when he was president. he cared about the contra so much he was giving saturday morning talks. they were on the radio back then and he gave a few talks on television as well. we would have these battles every six months on whether to fund the doctrine and it was a close vote. we would win some and lose some and win some and lose some. it was a an amazing amount of tension and a good battle because in the end we eventually won. we eat them on this and jim can tell you more about el salvador because he knows that issued the

best. but we gave a think $6 million. that time. it's about 1.5 million dollars a day. they had these death squads and they were killing jesuit's and killing nuns as well as priests. it was poor indigenous people and in guatemala they had over 200,000 people killed mostly indigenous. it was a genocide. a minister was the president prison for 18 months was convicted of genocide. so anyway the upshot of all of this is it was pretty tense but everybody figured out what was best and we eventually ended it. the salvador piece ended the coast of what jim moakley did in getting justice for those who committed this heinous crimes.

questions, jim? >> thank you so much hermine here tonight and i can't wait to get the book. you have a couple of reasons why the democratic party did not step up to the plate. and why so many democrats voted for nafta and what reasons have they not supported the changes that have now been implemented and why did it take until 2018 and a republican president to implement those changes on behalf of workers in america? >> a good question. in 1993 in november we were ahead in votes with about two weeks left. before they set a date for the vote. i was keeping track very carefully. we were ahead. not by much but we were ahead. you always have what i would call the guys that hang out and

look for the opportunity to get something for themselves or the women. and this is a perfect bill for them to have done that. we had a number of those people who would give into negotiations about the vote at the end and those were the ones we could never pin down. i was talking to danny the chairman of the ways & means committee and he said i was at the white house the other day and i talked to the president. he said are you going to let that kid with the beard beat you? the president said well what should i do? danny day and he said you should open up a store. he meant that in the sense that do what you have to do as the president. the things you can deal with and that's what they did. they gave -- they get a sugar deal for the wheezing of the

people and an orange deal for the florida people. they gave a minister of new york who was a congressman a special sba loan. he was a good program but that was his price. they did offense for people in their district. they did everything they needed to do. but it was a sellout to working people in this country. all you have to do is travel -- find people on the east coast and west coast don't appreciate people from the midwest. you go through these midwestern towns and cities and you see the devastation that was caused. all the closed factories and all the closed stores on main street. it was unbelievable. one last question. >> i didn't read the book either you are pretty frank about the

tone change in washington. you want to talk about it a little? >> i think it happened when newt gingrich became speaker in it happened before that when he was the web for his party in the tone changed dramatically at that point. i know jim was staffed and shortly thereafter he became a member. was it a 97? so gingrich became speaker in 95 so certainly thereafter that he came to congress. he was a hard person to believe because he would change the story from meaning to meaning and he was pretty ruthless. the first thing he did was take a 4.50 and dollar book contract to do two books that harpercollins and harpercollins, this is murdoch's company they have a habit of buying off politicians. they paid china a million

dollars for a book that wasn't readable from what i've heard. they gave margaret thatcher, he gave margaret thatcher mr. murdoch did i think 5.4 million if i'm not mistaken. they have ways to do these things. that was the way they chose to do it. in the end he was pressured on that issue. it was just a whole host of other issues. they are in the book. i think he was not only double and the om -- his own person that followed him dennis hastert who was the longest speaker in the history of the country and people don't realize that. they got along reasonably well together but hastert mentioned you could never pin him down or

he would change his position all the time. he was just giving them whiplash so to speak and they couldn't take it anymore so they got rid of him. we helped along the way. i filed ethics complaints and we had a whole campaign to expose him. >> one last question. i just wonder if by contrast they talked about the proceeds for the book? >> thank you so much and by the way apologize for not mentioning that he did a lot of work on this and i really appreciate your work on this. he also worked with bill bradley in washington. [applause] so thank you. all the proceeds go to the mikvah challenge. he was a congressman from illinois, a swing district. he came after he was in congress

a federal appellate judge and he was the head of the intelligence division in federal appellate court and he became consul to the white house, bill clinton. he was a wonderful guy and he started this program in chicago in the late 1990s with his wife so he who was a teacher. as a legacy their friends wanted to do something and this is what they wanted to do. that is not necessarily to give these programs to college students but to start in the high schools with kids from inner-city schools mostly, the kid that normally wouldn't have a chance to do what we do is we train the teachers and we train the kids have a speak. we have a soap lots program where they get emotional speeches about things they care about, three minute, three minutes a five-minute speeches that are just unbelievable. then we had other programs with

internships and officers. they worked with campaigns a couple of years ago. i started the program with some other people in iowa. we plugged them into all the presidential campaign so they worked in those campaigns and we did the same thing in new hampshire with the kids. get them involved with voter registration in the d.c. area to work in the polling places on election day. you might see them in their. democracy is working and they are saying it. i'm just reading it from a book. why are they doing it? even more so now than ever. we are doing it because our our democracy as i said in my remarks is really threatened. it's really being threatened today so we have to change that. all the proceeds from the book go to that movement. [applause]

>> you have had your hand up for a long time. >> i was going to ask david -- he has such an amazing organization. >> i had a lot of luck because in 1976 we had this terrible ice storm in michigan that put the power out of half of the state. we have 16 people that were killed around the country as a result of it. i was ready for congress. i was in the statehouse at that time. i open the newspaper and there is a piece in the newspaper that said the michigan state extensive services passing one of these and the lightbulb went off in my head. i found a farm that sold 500

pints, 18 inches long for 40 bucks. i thought it was a pretty good deal. we were passing out these little pine seedlings. it was an assembly line basically. one person would pick the tree up in the next person would untangle it and give it to the next person they were put in the bag and the next person would water and a piece of literature and off it went. we did 70,000 my first campaign. it was such a success and all the people decided to continue the program. i would have somebody on my staff. one person was an owl and the other was smokey the bear. we would be giving out trees.

we did a million trees over 26 years. people would play with them in the backyard with their child and their grandchildren or somebody on the block and they would watch them grow. they would see them every day. turned out to be a great idea. it's something i'm really proud of. the really cool part about it was when they were doing those trees in the campaign office there would be a uaw member standing here. there would be a sophomore in high school standing here and maybe someone from the muslim community standing here and maybe somebody from the pirate radio would some of you may not know. we have all kinds of people all nationalities all religions, all races. every issue can imagine and watching them work and talk to

each other and get to know each other it was a great thing. only recently did i have success carmela from seattle washington did trees this year. she's a congresswoman out there. the new congresswoman from detroit, she did trees. hayley stephens who i hope will win. i'm working hard for her in michigan. she is done trees so we are trying to take this route's idea and let it grow. thank you for coming. thank you. [applause] >> a great job. >> sorry it was so long but thank you. >> are you kidding? it was wonderful.

[inaudible conversations] >> thank you very much.

>> they were working-class folks who managed with a lot of money, without degrees and connections to provide us with a home full of stability, consistency, love, guidance, values and what they remind me and should remind everybody as it does take a lot of stuff to raise good kids you know? [applause] you don't have to be titled to do the job of good parenting and my parents did that. my father was a fireman his whole life and work the same job until the day he died. my father was the oldest of five. my mother was the middle child

of seven. my father was a rock for so many, not just us but for his brothers and his sisters. he was a giver you know. i say in the book he believed time was a gift you give others and he gave and he gave in the game. he was the person that everybody would gather around and they would come and bring a girlfriend so he could check them out. they would ask them for advice. he was a visitor. he visited everybody and oftentimes he dragged me along with him on a saturday where he would be sitting on some plastic sofa and some lady's house with the little cup of 7-up. they would visit and visit and visit but my dad was a storyteller. he was courageous and he also

had part of the story and something i didn't realize that he struggled so mightily with as a young person. my father was somebody who wasn't going to complain. he wasn't going to seek professional help for his disease which was a frustration for all of us but he was going to get up and go to work and earn a salary and we were his world. he invested everything he had in us. any other kid that came his way. i learned to be a storyteller. i learned to be a listener. i learned to be a giver from watching him. there was my mom marion who is i describe in the book she does have a zen neutrality and her ability to parent and she taught us responsibility at an early age. i think we were seven or eight when she gave us a long block. -- alarm clock and she said you

were going to wake herself up. as my mom said i'm raising adults, not a beast. she taught us how to think for ourselves an early age. the thing that i want to share with people and they shared in the book that i want to say about my parents is a valued our voices from an early age. we were not shushed. we were allowed to speak their minds and to ask questions. they encourage their curiosity. they told us the truth and they told us the context of people's existence. if there was a crazy uncle, the funny cousin they would explain to us that history so that we could understand why they landed where they were. because of the two of them as craig said my brother said on the video we were six festival because these two hard-working good value folks, and i wish my

dad could be here to see all this. >> good afternoon. i'm the present policy studies here at the cato institute. thank you for being here. our camera -- conference staff at cato who does such a great job of keeping us on track. welcome all for those of you watching on c-span and on line at cato.org. at the end of the cold war the united states appeared to be