a dress or painting sor story or song, can help teach the next generation in a way that nothing else can. thank you all so much. [applause] >> thank you very much, mrs. obama. especially your words about how emmake history. and i think it's fair to say that the first lady of the united states is one of the most influential unelected people in the world. and i think the words you have spoken about the importance of people in history and how people make history is really worth -- cannot be repeated too often. mrs. obama, on behalf of the smithsonian and the american people and this museum, i want to thank for presenting your

inaugural gown to the smithsonian and helping us tell the continuing story of the people who were first ladies. we hope that you and your family will visit again often, and you have of course an open invitation any time. . . >> concludes the formal part of your ceremony and we are going to invite members of the media escorted by our press office to come forward for photographs. and mrs. obama, if you would do us the honor of joining us at your inaugural gown. . .

>> staffers for former senator bob dole discussed his career. also the legacy of ronald reagan. then remarks from andrew sullivan about the politics of homosexual eddity. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] >> today on "newsmakers", republican governor mitch daniels. he talks about the economic impact of the health care bill on indiana and on other states. >> we are continuing to discover new costs. it is not just the cost that will be visited on some future governor to pick up hundreds of thousands of new people on our

medicaid system. we have already been hit with $25 million bill, because the government wants to confiscate pharmacy rebates. now they will take the benefit of that away starting immediately. we see administrative costs coming. when we have to supervise a huge expansion of medicaid and, as we understand it, shoulder the administrative costs of new exchanges. it will be of very expensive thing under any estimate for taxpayers in every state. and that hidden, crammed down tax increase that this bill will necessitate is just another example of the this honest accounting with which it was sold. >> you can see the entire interview on "newsmakers" today at 6:00 p.m. eastern and 3:00 p.m. pacific on c-span.

tomorrow on c-span, a preview of president obama's trip to sign a treaty with russia. live coverage begins at 10:30 a.m. eastern on c-span. the career of former u.s. senator bob dole is discussed by three of his former aides. she was in the congress for 27 years and resigned during his unsuccessful run for the presidency. this was held at the institute named for senator dole in mid february. it is about an hour and 20 minutes. >> my hope is by discussing comedy and leadership here in lawrence, kansas, it will have some effect in today's

washington, d.c. many people who attended last week's program talked of a bold leadership style, which put a premium on getting the right number of senators on that board while remaining true to their constituents and believes. this is how you got legislation like the americans with disabilities act or food stamps. or the 1983 social security fix or the tax equity and fiscal responsibility act or the 1992 extension of the voting rap -- voting rights act. the numbers game was different back then cree. dole's success fault leadership relied on a mastery of the senate's rules and a personal political touch. it also relied on detail- oriented and encyclopedic knowledge of the issues at hand.

he still has a terrific mind for policy detail that is not enough. you need help. dole is known for having some of the best staffers in holding them to our high standard. to help them analyze this significant legislation, we invited several former staffers to give us the inside story of how senator bob dole led. before i introduce the panel, i would like to introduce others who have worked on the senator's legislative and campaign staffs. i will not make you stand. i see in the audience mike murray, dave owen, scott richardson, john peterson, john bush, alison carter, judy kruger and nelson kruger. thank you for your service. on the panel tonight, starting in the middle, sheila burke, senator dole's chief of staff.

she had been a professional staff member of the senate committee on finance. she was a deputy staff director of that committee from 1982 to 1985. at the time, she was known as the 101st senator in recognition of running the day-to-day operations of the senate. she earned a masters of public administration from harvard. as a health care practitioner, she had deep wells of knowledge and authority on issues of health care reform. from 1990 622000, she served in the kennedy people -- school of government -- from 1990 to 2000 as a guest lecturer. rod was a senior adviser to

senator dole from 1979 to 1986. especially in finance led him to many positions on the u.s. senate committee on finance. he is a partner at covington and berlin, a d.c. law firm. he also came up with the acronym tefra. our last panelist was an intern, a senior adviser in the body man. he handled the senator's logistics. as we know from mike's visit last year, he served as the director of vice presidential campaign, for the mccain-palin campaign. he is a principal in

international public-relations firm. please join me in welcoming these panelists to the dole institute. >> thank you to all three of you for coming tonight for this night to talk about senator dole and his accomplishments. i would like to begin by asking each of you to tell how you can about working for bob dole in the various roles you had in his office. rob, let's start with you. >> i came to work for senator dole in 1979 when the senator rose to the position of ranking member and the senate finance committee. he replaced the retired carl curtis perki. the senator wanted to get some young lawyers to help staff that committee. through elizabeth, elizabeth

called one of her law school classmates, and bob and i worked at covington and berling, and bob came over as the republican staff director and i was the deputy staff director. bob, who was a litigator, was interested in having somebody there who understood tax law. >> what else to do going to be? that was not your only role? it kind of walk us through, you receive the staff. >> i was the deputy staff director of finance. i became the chief counsel and staff director of the finance committee. when the senator was elected majority leader, i became his first chief of staff. and sheila was the deputy. sheila pushed me out. [laughter] >> with a rake. >> tell us your story.

>> i have to admit that i was a working in new york city at the time. -- as a nurse. and i had come to and from washington to help buy nursing issues. i got to know people on the finance committee. the senator dole decided, as the ranking republican on the health subcommittee on finance, along with the chairman of the subcommittee, he decided he was interested in having somebody on the staff who had taken care of patients. there was a physician who worked for senator along who was terrific -- senator long, who was terrific. senator dole said he wanted someone who understood the health care delivery system.

i was recommended by the finance committee staff to interview with senator dole, who i did not know, having been born and raised in san francisco, a liberal democratic parentage. we interviewed. it was not what i expected in terms of the career trees. i said to the senator -- a career choice. i said to the senator, i am actually a democrat. are -- i am on the far other side of the line. his comment at the time was he said, i do not really care what your politics are. what i care about is whether you care about health care. i want someone who knows and understands those issues. i went to work for him as a legislative staff person on the finance, on his personal staff. when he became the ranking on the finance committee was asked

to join the committee staff and to essentially handle health issues. and then became the deputy staff director, responsible for all the spending programs on the finance committee and then became deputy steve of chief off and chief of staff until at -- where are remained with him. >> and i had my conversion. >> and i had my conversion. in the midst of it, i decided to go back to graduate school and had been accepted at harvard. i announced i was departing the finance committee to go back to harvard, and i began at harvard in the fall of 1980. the senate flipped. we did the majority. and i was asked to see me back to the finance committee. at the time, mike dukakis was my

adviser at harvard. i went to him and said i have this opportunity to go back to finance, with senator dole being chairman. i am not sure what to do. might help me work out a scenario where they flew to harvard a day week and finished my master's degree and went back to the finance committee full- time third >> that is a great story. the governor was here three years ago. mike? >> i grew up in rural kansas. i was quite familiar with senator dole as a political figure in kansas. in 1974, but in the senate race, that was when the ball or sticker squad -- i was on the bumper sticker squad. i went to the university of kansas. in 1985, i got an internship in a senator dole's office. that was the start of my

official capacity. in 1986, i moved to washington and was able to work for -- for the balance of 1985, i worked as a volunteer in his campaign office in washington. in january, 1986, i was offered a position as a junior staffer on what was then his finance fun dressing -- fund-raising staff. in old town, alexandria, virginia. and i gladly took that job, having no other alternatives. in march of that year, senator dole, having been elected majority leader the price or your, spend his weekends campaigning for others. -- majority leader the prior year. he needed someone available on

weekends, would work seven days a week. i had the added advantage of being from kansas. i was asked to go on the campaign trail and went to michigan early in 1986. we hit it off. we had a personal relationship. i proceeded to travel with him a round of the united states and abroad for the next 15 years. during that period, i had a number of roles, all of which work for his campaign committees. i worked as his personal aide or the body boy in his 1988 presidential campaign. in 1989, i came to kansas in managed his senate field office. in 1992, i managed his final reelection campaign to the senate. following that, i helped to manage as a national political

action committee. i was living in kansas. prior to the 1994 campaign, that was the end of the road. i did not seek for their campaigns in kansas or nationally. -- did not see further campaigns. in 1994, when the republicans took the house and the senate, it became apparent that senator dole was once again going to be a significant and ultimately successful candidate for the republican nomination for president. i went back to washington in 1995, and had a not dissimilar rolled to 1988. i had a much broader responsibility primarily for the response -- operations, with just six of the campaign. -- logistics of the campaign.

i moved to new york and continued working in a consulting capacity with senator dole 3200 -- through 2000. >> sheila, i will start with you on this one. if you had to recount one are two of your favorite bob dole stories, whether a tumor humorot would be your stories you would share with us tonight? >> the humorous story. would be on the morning of january 7, 1988, the telephone rang at home and it was not unusual for senator dole to call any of us at home at any point in time. >> or hour. >> wherever he happened to be.

he happened to be in oiowa. my father answered the telephone. senator dole did not identify himself. you knew immediately to it was. hello? is sheila bair? my father said, no. she has gone to the hospital. she is in labor. >> i was expecting my first child at the time. there was this pause. the senator said, when will she be back? [laughter] i had all three of my children -- i had them when i worked for senator dole. they happened to be born during congressional recesses. senator dole never understood why our staff ever had children when we were in session. he always said, she led them during our recess. -- sheila had them during our

recess. during the budget impasse in the clinton administration, the government had been shut down for a period of time, and we have been going back and forth with the house in terms of continuing resolutions in an attempt to get the government back operating and has a sufficient amount of money to allow the government to operate. the house was determined to force the issue. new gingrich, who was speaker at the time, and armey and others, were opposed to doing anything that would allow the government to go forward and wanted to force the issue. -- and dick armey and others. the house indicated there would be unwilling it to pass something. senator dole came out of the cloakroom and said to me, you call dick armey on the phone and

tell them the next time we will not stop it. these people have no idea what it is like to live from paycheck to paycheck. they are doing enormous damage to the people in this country we are depending on. it was an indication, when it really counted, of what he cared about. he had extraordinary respect for the public service nature of government and the people who perform those services. and little tolerance for at the indifference that seemed to be seen at shown it and this time of -- kind of brinksmanship or other people's lives were at stake. we had the opportunity to call dick armey and pass it on. i was not as effective as senator dole would have been. it is a memory i will longer hold. it gives an indication of the kind of man he is. >> for humorous, he used humor

as an effective weapon. a lot of it was self- deprecating. i remember a particular mark up we had. senator dole was a great fan of the use of ethanol. we had a proposal to enhance the tax benefits for ethanol. i was down in the witness chair as the staff director explaining to the committee what the proposal was in the course of the market, into the senators would be free to amend it and they would vote on it. i am describing the proposal, and senator bradley, who was a vigorous opponent of the gasahol tax incentives was torturing me with a million questions.

how does this work? why? what is this level? how much is the subsidy? and i am just getting sliced up by senator bradley. senator dole is just sitting there. finally, senator bradley said, what does this proposal cost? at that moment, senator dole broke in and said, senator bradley, it costs just about as much is that mass transit provision you are interested in. and senator bradley said, now it is coming into perspective. senator bradley had occasion to run for president. and he had a conversion in iowa to see the beauty of ethanol. >> mike? >> my story is not particularly specific but more general as to

the character of the man. it goes to what she low was referring to -- sheiala was referring to about his ability to communicate with working people. one advantage he had over many of his colleagues in the senate was that, unlike many of them who on the weekends, i do not know what they're were doing, i know what he was doing was attending a town hall meetings at states all across the u.s. in iowa, kansa knews, new hampshire. he had far greater access to real people and engaged in dialogues with them to a far greater extent than his colleagues did. it informed his ability to communicate their needs and -- into legislation when he went back to washington. that was the strength he had that was an advantage.

my experience travelling with him in campaigning was that, unlike a lot of powerful politicians in the position he was in, she did not differentiate between the billionaires' and the bottle washers. i think he more closely identified with the ball washers. he would make a point of going to the kitchen at the back of the house to meet the working people -- the bottle washers. that instinct for him to engage with the common man was one of his greatest strengths when it came to transiting that to legislation and policy. >> didn't the senate elevator operators take a vote on who was the most popular senator? >> yes. >> and she won that -- he won that. >> when he made a decision to

leave the senate, he made an opportunity for folks to come and say goodbye. little did we know at the time, what ended up occurring were day after day after day, he would stand outside of the dole beach, which was a patio that overlooked the mall outside our offices. he would stand there waiting for people who lined up for hours, all the operators, all the guards, all the cleaning staff come all the runners to get their photographs taken with him. he would stand there until there was no one else in the line. it went on for days. even today, when i go up, and i am sure this is true for rod, there is an immediate acknowledgment of having been a dole staff person.

the findings with which he has held by folks who worked the back halls in the senate is an indication that he never hesitated to stop, to ask how someone was, knew them by name, introduce them. you have corporate jet or something in the office, and some cleaning woman comes in -- gorbachev, and some cleaning woman comes in. have you met? mike is exactly right. he was beloved. he knew were there were -- who they were. he was remarkable. >> that really sets up this question perfectly. talk about that last day and the senate, the decision to leave to devote full time to the campaign. your thoughts on that. then i would like to find out from iraq and like what consul

they gave to him on that issue -- from rod and mike, what counsel they gave to him on that issue. >> it was a difficult decision. it was a remarkably difficult decision for him at to make. it was one that he made, recognizing that it was going to become increasingly difficult to manage the business of the senate. it was something which we will get it to in terms of his remarkable skills on the senate floor and in legislating. that is at odds with running for president or running for anything fall tiberi i think he acknowledged it would be unfair to his constituents -- i think he acknowledged it would be unfair to his constituents and his own caucus to try to do both he made the decis. he made the announcement in the hart senate office building.