"washington journal" is next. . host: we will bring you the details in a moment. for republicans, 202-737-0001. for democrats, 202-737-0002. for independents, 202-737-0205.

one of the headlines this morning looking more at the general motors bankruptcy deal. the headline from michigan is that behind the attempt to change the image of general motors is ambivalence about its car of the future. looking at some of the new hybrid vehicles in the pipeline. the associated press has a story that we want to give you -- get your reaction to. "supreme court blocking sale to chrysler -- sale of chrysler to fiat." a related story this morning from the front page of "the detroit free press." bankruptcy profile, "head of the auto task force, bankruptcy filing an hour away. they were left with no doubt that stephen ratner was calling the shots. the chrysler executives still

hoped to avoid bankruptcy. the uaw had ratified a second round of concessions. all but a handful of lenders had signed off on the u.s. treasuries offer of $2 billion to write off $6.9 billion in chrysler loans. reluctantly, however, leaders recognized the harsh decision made rate -- made weeks earlier, chrysler was filing for chapter 11 no matter what." part of that plan was to sell chrysler to fiat. we will be accepting your tweets from twitter as well. the sale was approved on friday. investors are given until monday afternoon to get the supreme court to intervene. chrysler llc wants to sell the bulk of its assets to fiat.

we will take your calls in just a moment. "newsweek" has a piece about detroit and what pittsburg can teach the city of detroit. "before going to europe, president obama took care of another piece of international diplomatic business. he announced the city in which we will host the next g 20. his choice drew laughter. pittsburg. -- pittsburgh, pennsylvania. it was a rusting, steelmaking homeless town that through struggle, pain, and creativity retooled itself to be a vibrant 21st century leader in education, computer science, sports entertainment, and manufacturing." we will take some of your calls.

good morning, where are you calling from? caller: greensboro, n.c. i think that the chrysler and fiat deal should go through. i am apprehensive, though, about losing all of our american carmakers. but if we were to have a major war? we would not have any major car companies manufacture of our war goods. i think it is important that something on a smaller level occurred, rather than all of general motors. the old and the new should help things better for the car company. i have a state employee on a pension plan, and i understand it is very important to the workers. i also understand that leaders

have failed the workers. simply being in on what is better for the car company, rather than what is best for everyone concerned as consumer and worker. host: that is the key issue. three pension funds wanting the supreme court to block the deal between chrysler and fiat, in hopes that they will get a better deal. diane, you are next from arkansas. good morning. caller: good morning, steve. i do not have a whole lot of opinion on this, as i do not think it makes much difference. what is concerning me this morning is i was watching the president's talking to the french president yesterday.

has anybody mention that that our flag behind them was dragging the floor? has anybody said anything about that? host: at the news conference? caller: in france. host: i have to admit, you are the first to pointed out. caller: that really irritated me. one of the rules of the flag is that it is not supposed to touch. it was the only one. there were three flags there. it was not just touching, there were three or 4 inches touching. host: this is the video that we have from yesterday. we will continue to watch it. it might have been in what was called the location inside. thank you for bringing that to our attention. we will go to atlanta next.

should this deal between fiat and chrysler be blocked? ruth later ginsberg is fielding a question -- ruth ginsberg is feeling the question -- fielding the question. good morning. should this deal be block? caller: good morning. this deal, in my opinion, is a non issue. we have overlooked the source of the problem. trying to treat the symptoms. our main problem is that we have concentrated the source of this nation's power in the people who are supposed to be our employees. they are now dictating to employers will we are going to do. we have done that, in my opinion, by ignoring the

constitution. host: this morning in "the weekly standard" there is an article, "the bailout state." "sometimes the company already had ties to the government, like frenier -- fannie mae and freddie mac. sometimes the bailout state's beneficiaries are businesses, like aig, citigroup, and bank of america. the wards of the bailout state have more in common in government support." indiana, good morning. caller: is an amazing thing the power that the obama administration is amassing. they have taken over the car companies. taken over the banking industry. it is to the point now that here

they are, trying to tell stockholders that we will take care of your money and give you pennies on the dollar, and we will sell it. if i thought that he was supposed to create money and jobs. so far i would say that we lost $2 million with no end in sight. i think that people who voted for him voted for him like a cult figure, with no idea of his policies. now that his direction of america is upon us and people are trying -- shaking awake. host: if the deal follows through, fiat will be exploring china and closing factories. steve is next. good morning. caller: we have to look at this carefully.

i remember, general motors lost only $1 billion when they tried to d-o a deal with fiat -- tried to do a deal with fiat before. the devil is in the details. we have got to look at this carefully and not just do all this big splash stuff. host: this cover story, "the wise latina." sonia sotomayor's confirmation hearings are scheduled to start in the middle of july. the issue of climate change in "the national journal." tom, north carolina. good morning. caller: my concern is about general motors and what is happening with its situation

within the car industry. no one seems to be pointing out the fact that there are six general motors factories in china and that they are talking about expanding, plans to build more. there are no problems with the ones in korea. to me this is just a way that they are trying to break the backs of the union's in america, take the jobs away. once the unions are broken and benefits are down, they beat manufacturing will come back to the u.s.. nobody seems to be pointing out the fact that companies in america are just fine. when chrysler needed help a few years ago, nobody pointed out that they were making money overseas. mexico was doing fine showing

profits. no one seems to want to bring that up. i do not think we are asking hard questions when it comes to that. when it comes down the breaking america down, this is a serious situation. host: we are asking about the chrysler fiat deal because of the papers found this morning. viewers are saying that having invested billions, why would we want to block the bankruptcy? bruce, jacksonville, fla. should this deal go through? should it be block? caller: the united autoworkers is going to have about 30%, fiat will have about 20%. as far as the factories for

ford, general motors, and chrysler, they have had factories outside of the country for years because the uaw price themselves out of the market. they go where they can get a car built cheaper so that they can sell it for more so that they can make more money for the stockholders. the thing that gets me with chrysler is that the president has changed the rules and secured bondholders, we are told, they were told sari, you get nothing. that has been in our bankruptcy law for 150 years. now the president just changed it? take it or leave it. host: thank you. i can read some of the details. this emergency request went to ruth bader ginsberg. she can act on her own, or she

can refer it to the entire court. here are some of the details. first of all, the indiana state police pension fund, police and teacher retirement fund, claiming the deal that -- claiming that the deal is unfair to the secured interest of stakeholders and debt holders. they are saying that the troubled assets relief program money is helping chrysler through bankruptcy protection but not helping the pension fund. that is the essence of the issue. do you think, based on the developments overnight, that it should be blocked memo we should know later today. steve is joining us from elmhurst, va. good morning. caller: do you know what is amazing? stockholders are crying the

blues, it is like they are showing up when it is time to shoot the wounded. how many of them are driving american cars? that is what kills me. host: patricia, good morning. welcome. should this deal go through? caller: i think that it should be stopped. host: because? caller: they knew back in the middle of the 1980's that they were going into trouble. they were warned. they were told then to try to make the car is better with the fuel. they wanted airbags. a lot of things that we wanted them to do back in the 1980's, i do not think that we the taxpayers should have to bail them out. host: the book is called "renegade, making of a president." richard wolffe is going to be

joining us in about 15 minutes with a full hour looking at the presidential campaign that led to the election of senator barack obama last november. marlene, jefferson township, new jersey. good morning. caller: i do not know where to start, but i know someone in the family that takes corporate minutes and types them up. about five years ago they were very upset when general motors was talking about how they were going to bring cars that they were making in china into this country. they planned on bringing 50,000 cars per year from china. they are building and upgrading ports in mexico, building a huge

highway that goes from the ports of mexico through the united states and into mexico. there is virtually no news media talking about this. what happens? for general motors, the cars that they are bringing here, they are european cars. most americans have no idea how small they are. when you are mandated to put your child in a car seat, they will lead even fit in those. what do you do? host: we are getting a bit of an echo from your phone call. thank you for sharing your perspective. another viewer, along similar lines, saying that "general motors is in china because they are making profits. we need help. i have an equinox." the assailed -- the sale was

approved by a judge last sunday. there is a deadline approaching, june 15. chrysler has maintained that the sale must be completed quickly to save them from complete collapse if the deal does not close. fiat has the option of pulling out. pension funds from indiana, asking the supreme court to block the deal. bob, good morning. caller: i am not in favor of any of these bailouts. i will be damned if i will by a general motors car if it is run by obama. this character that is coming up next, part of the obama national broadcasting co., he will nationalize everything. will people wake up or what?

host: thank you. gloria, wisconsin. caller: this is the first that i heard about the deal wanting to be blocked. there is a lot of questions about what capitalism and the stock market is all about. when you invest in something, you take a risk. my thinking is that if they had allowed everything to simply collapse, we would be completely government-owned. our cars are so old, we cannot afford to purchasing one. everything got way overpriced. cars, homes, many of us are just hanging on by a thread. hopefully this deal will go through and people will learn that these are the risks of capitalism. host: "no matter what the topic, for the right all

problems lead to obama." that is the comment from one viewer. from "the pittsburgh post- gazette," a cartoon, president obama arriving in saudi arabia. "remember, he is not just any world leader, he is the president of general motors." gary, from minnesota. caller: i am against this. people who have a stake in the company should be paid first. a few calls ago a gentleman brought up the fact that bankruptcy laws that are 150 years old are being ignored on a whim. and you have got to have to pause and think well. what laws will be ignore next? it is a slippery slope. are we trying to keep jobs or

benefits? a person that wants a job will work. as a couple of other of callers have said and, unions have priced the cars out of existence. paying workers not to work anymore, things like that. another caller mentioned that these cars were supposed to have this and that, but when the conference -- congress and the senate puts cafe standards on cars, you either comply or do not sell in this country. everything mandated on these vehicles is on there, which is why they do not sell, they are so expensive. host: george will is going to join us for a full hour on june 18. he writes, "have we got a deal for you. washington's rescue of general motors began because it was too big to fail and bankruptcy was unthinkable.

big? general motors' market capitalization, $375 million on wednesday, is about the size of california pizza kitchen. is it too big to fail? harley davidson, $4.3 billion. fail? the general motors has not already failed, then the new coke was a success." next caller, good morning. caller: i just wanted to make this comment, republicans should not be upset at all. this is exactly what trickle- down economics is. companies make the money, it goes to the investors, and whatever is left over goes to the working people. it is the same thing. the company makes money, it goes to the investors, and hopefully

goes to the workers. i am shocked at the republicans. they do not understand what is going on. thank you. host: if you missed the ceremony from the normandy region of france, commemorating the 65th anniversary of that june 5 invasion -- june 6 invasion, there was a front page spread here. "unimaginable help," as suffered by soldiers. todd, new york. good morning. caller: one of the things that we often forget is what led us in the last two years to the point we are at with general motors and chrysler. that was the increase in gasoline prices. general motors relies so much on truck sales, we jumped up to $4

per gallon. what did not have been better to supplement oil companies with billions of dollars to not get us to this point? instead of throwing money at the auto makers? if we had never had $4 per gallon prices, i do not think that we would have been in this situation. host: the president spend the night in paris, flying back to washington today. this is a scene from a conference. an e-mail, going back to the issue of chrysler and fiat. "americans complain about high- priced cars, but we live a high- priced life. how many chinese have one to one cars for family members? caller: good morning, c-span. like the last guy said, the problem with gas prices, they have known this for 30 years or more.

gas prices, they do not plan for the market. they just make these big cars and then a crisis comes along where gasoline goes up. this has happened to them so many times over the last 30 years. they should let the deal go through because these guys cannot manage a company. they make these gigantic cars and they do not think about what could happen. there is no planning. of course we know that gas and oil does this. the political situation, then there is the tank. then gas prices go up. we cannot bail them out. some other company has got to take them over and manage this thing. otherwise they will be back in another 10 years and they will want more money. it has become a cycle where they just do not plan for the future.

host: that is what they're saying intelsat tweet. -- saying intelsat tweet -- saying in this tweet. "is a three strikes you are out" pelops -- "is it three strikes and you are out"? as they divide responsibilities amounts the justices, it has gone to justice ginsberg. inside of "the washington post," "general motors must change its image but it is conflicted." anita, michigan. caller: good morning. we are having a serious problem. back in michigan, we are in a

total depression. the fiat deal needs to go through. we need to figure out a way to get more cars built in the united states, bringing jobs back to the united states. the people in michigan are hurting. and they have no place to live. you would be shocked and surprised to drive around and see the state of michigan right now. also, the last eight years of administration, their policy was to take everything from the middle-class and the poor and bring us down to zero, which is where we are. everybody in america needs to wake up and see what is going on.

president obama cannot straighten it out in 100 days. it is not possible. i do not know what the answer's going to be as far as general motors and chrysler in what we can do. $3 per gallon gasoline. host: "one of the watergate burglars, bernard barker, 92- years old, died on friday. he was born in cuba. back in 1971 he was involved in the break-in involving the pentagon papers. he was one of the burglars found

crouching under a desk in the democratic national committee headquarters in the watergate building. he served a prison sentence that was suspended in 1975." joe, south carolina. caller: i used to know plenty of people in chicago that were in construction and the unions. their entire model was to make the job last as long as they could. they worked half taste, half- hearted. that is the model of most unions, including the uaw. could you imagine everyone in this country working at that pace? imagine if your doctor said that he would make the surgery last longer, what kind of productivity would we have?