counted, you would not be counted as officially unemployed. when you add in those other definitions of unemployment, including people working parttime but would rather work full time you can arrive at an unemployment rate at 16%. >> one of the rises as far as specific jobs is in the terms of manufacturing. 17,000 jobs. what does that mean about manufacturing as a whole in the united states. guest: the factory sec was really on its knees for a long time. it was sheding millions of jobs. one in six manufacturing job disappeared between 2007 and the middle of last year. but then we have seen this turn around now and we've added manufacturing jobs almost steadily for over a year. the pace of growth is the highest since the 1990s. but what's behind this. part of this is basically payback. the factory sector was so devastated in the downturn that it had almost nowhere to go but up. when you recall when chrysler and general motors were taken

through bankruptcy they shut down for a period of several weeks. and thousands of companies across the midwest had to shut down and lay off people, and lay off half the workforces. now the car companies are coming back, partly because of the restruct urg, partly because of the economy, they're hiring again. i was in the chicago area talking to manufacturers who sell to the heavy equipment and automobile industries, they're hiring. the other thing going on as i was mentioning, the rest of the world is healthy and buying stuff from the united states, often heavy machinery, oil and gas drilling equipment, food and natural resource that is we still have a lot of. that's been helping. >> host: the current cover is the islam arab revolution. swells stories about the economy. tell us about other things you're covering. guest: we're covering the unrest in the middle east.

we're cover continuing to cover what's been going on in japan. there's been severe disruptions to supply chains around the world. this is one of those so-called black swan events. something unexpected that comes along and you have to take in a new account. we wouldn't have thought of an earthquake, tumesie and nuclear reactor accident in janen. interestingly, the global share has been declining for several decades now as their population contracts, their economy stag nates and the rest of the world grows quickly. so you wouldn't expect the problem japan is having to be a major burden on economic recovery. but one of the things we discovered and as my colleague writes, it's a little like the financial crisis where it turns out that your supply chain had enormous dependence on a few companies in japan you may not have known about and those companies had to idle production or reduce output because their supply lines are

broken or their workers can't get to the factories. >> niken and some of the names. >> that's right. even here in the united states, general motors it turns out relies on japanese suppliers for some parts. that's interfered with production around the world. even here in march we saw some anything give pact on automobile sales because some popular models were unavailable. i don't think the problems in japan are going to put us in recession again but it's definitely one additional, albeit small negative, that the economy has to deal with. >> does japan hold u.s. debt? >> it does. i think they're the second largest foreign holder of u.s. treasury bonds after china and there's been some concern that in order to repay the cost of rebuilding the country after this earthquake they would have to sell those bonds. and if they sold them our interest rates would go up. i think those concerns are considerably overdone. first of all the period of reconstruction will unfold over many months. and secondly, japan is still a

net savor. they still earn more than they need to meet all their domestic consumption needs. all they have to do is save a little bit less. they can still actually lend money to the rest of the world. >> marble head, massachusetts. thanks for waiting. ed on our republican line. caller: good morning. and thank you for c-span. mr. ip, since interest rates rose sharply from the time when the fed began its program back in november, do you think it's more likely than long-term interest rates will go up or go back down when the fed program comes to an end in june? guest: that's a great question, because if you recall, the point of qe, which stands for quantitative easing because the federal reserve wanted to bring interest rates down to stimulate the economy, how do you do that? they buy bonds and print money. and what happens, when they do

this, the opposite thing happens, the price of bonds went down and the yields went up. the bond market is gigantic. we're talking about thaily trading. so the fed by going out and buying $600 billion over a period of eight months, ll it's significant they're only one of many players. and what happened roughly around the same time that the fed began this operation is the economy started to show some life. durable goods orders, there was good news on jobs. so people said i'm feeling better. i'm going to sell my bonds. i'm going to buy stocks. so what you had was this rush towards riskier stuff like stocks and people dumping their sort of like boring old bonds overwhelming the efforts of the feds. now, what happens in june when the program ends. there is some concern that right now the federal reserve is buying more than half of all

issued treasury bonds and when they withdraw you'll see pressure on interest rates. i don't think it will be enormous because people have anticipated this already and some will have adjusted for it before hand. but i do think there will be some upward pressure on interest rates. the good news is that the reason they will be allowing that program to end is because the economy doesn't need it any longer. and so i wouldn't expect that rise in interest rates to be that much of a burden on economic growth. host: new haven, connecticut. good morning. caller: good morning, gentlemen. i would like to add to to the manufacturing uprise. number one is the baby boomers are retiring. i know someone who is working in manufacturing in h.r. and they are diligently lining up people who are interested in that field, and the baby boomers started when they were fresh out of high school, got that diploma and they were the second and third generation working in these small manufacturing fimples.

so that's another reason why manufacturing is hiring. another -- i do have a question in regards to the unemployment extension. i was out of work for almost two years and i am past 50 and it was difficult. it was very difficult. so i was offended by the republicans saying that we were couch potatos, lazy, people are really looking for positions in the northeast. it was very difficult. had it not been for those extensions, i would have been foreclosed. had it not been for those modifications, i would have been foreclosed. and believe me, when you went into that courthouse, there were over 200 families trying to save their homes due to them being laid off and unemployed. so i just wanted to comment on that. and i wanted to find out how the unemployment is affecting the economy. and one more thing. is that a young lady did take a position and she was getting $450 a week from unemployment, took a position. as a temp. and now she is getting $45 a

week. she has a mortgage of 1800. she had a high-paying job and the lins stated well no one wants to take a job because they are afraid of losing the higher paid unemployment. could you comment on that. thank you very much. guest: well, obviously she has heard of people and been through difficult times herself. and those are very moving stories. there is a debate over whether -- we have extended unemployment benefits repeatly since the recession. it is now possible to get benefits for up to 99 weeks. and there is a legitimate debate that goes on. if you allow people to collect unemployment insurance for longer do you discourage them them or disincentivize them from going back to work. you can go both ways on this. it turns out that it's probably the case that at the margin there are people who do continue to look for work longer because they are collecting unemployment insurance checks. and that may not be a bad thing. that extra time may enable them to find a better fit.

but it's also the case that there are a lot of people that because there are so few job vacancies right now, i think five people looking for a job for every job opening, that it doesn't matter whether or not you have the incentive to stay home from the unemployment insurance check or not. the jobs are just not there. and when the checks run out you're basically in a situation where your standard of living has to suffer. there's a recent study at princeton by allen cruger. he was surveying in the treasury department and he looked at the behavior of people what happened over the course of time that they were unemployed. he found that the locker they were unemployed, the less they looked for work. as they were repeatedly rejected for jobs and coming up empty handed they basically were becoming discouraged and their job efforts began to decline. he also didn't find that after their insurance benefits ran up that they upped those efforts. so that does tend to tell us

that the argument that all these people are unemployment because they've got unemployment insurance benefits is wrong. host: texas, thanks for waiting. kevin, republican line. caller: good day. with all respect to your guest, i'm presenting the contradiction here. on one side you kind of criticize the efforts to balance the budget saying that would be dangerous because it would affect jobs, it would reduce the jobs. and then on the other hand you said that the problem with the political leaders today is that they want to run deficits and stimulus while the economy is growing. well, the economy has been growing since president obama took office really. i mean, the turn around was by that summer. so we're doing the thing that is you told us not do do and to

me we're spending $1.5 trillion er year. that's stimulus that doesn't exist. it's all controlled by the government pumping the government the economy, and the economy right now, i mean, i think is a lot worse than what it appears. and you have to call -- the caller from new york, with all due respect from her being laid off. she credited the baby boomers. host: sorry to cut you off caller didn't mean to. guest: we were talking about balancing the budget. i was commenting on a balanced budget amendment being a bad idea. having a rule that it must be balanced every year whether you're in expansion or recession is a bad idea. i think what you should have is

a discipline that balancing the budget over a cycle. so when now, you have offsetting surpluses later on. and that is what we have not been doing. right now is a very difficult and delicate time. the budget deficits are enormous. and if we continue to run deficits of this size there is no question we would have a crisis. the deficits are caused not primarily by stimulus or excessive spending but by the damage that's been done to our base by the depth of recession. ordnarely you would say yes let's cut that as quickly as possible, don't worry about the economy. the federal reserve can take care of us. the problem is the reserve has rates at zero. but i deaf agree that we shouldn't -- it's in some sense a good sign that we have seen both obama and republicans in congress realize that the time right now is to start cutting. they're debating the size of

the cuts. but they do realize that this is a question that has to be dealt with sooner rather than later. the british has an interesting example. they're ahead of us. they have a very credible plan to basically reduce their deficit which right now relative to their economy is as big as ours, they're going to get rid of that over a five or six year period. we've seen growth weaken and one reason may be because of that austerity. so that just shows how difficult it is. host: are banks lending more? guest: not very much, unfortunately. we have, as we came out of the crisis one of the problems -- we had two problems. one was banks had lost so much money on their loans that they were reluctant to make new loans. they were trying to basically rebuild their capital base. and in addition, even when they were willing to lend, they couldn't find anybody to lend to because people wanted to pay down their debts and didn't want to borrow, businesses were pess miss tick or nobody could

meet their underlying criteria. all their assets were under water. their credit ratings were depressed because the houses were worth so little plun. we have seen a modest sign of pickup. we have seen the amount of credit that people have taken out on their cards and for car loans has started to inch up. surveys of banks do suggest that they finally started to loosen their criteria. so over the coming year we should still see pickup in banks lending. but it's going to be a long climb back. one of the things you can say fairly confidently about the kind of recovery that follows a financial crisis is that credit growth will be very weak. it will not be expansion built on borrowed money. host: so the increase as we saw job wise are in place even though we don't see a lot of banks extending creds to companies. guest: i like to say it's like hitting yourself with a hammer. it feels so good when it stops. essentially we were going through a period of hitting ourselves with a hammer as things got worse.

house prices kept falling, banks kept running up bigger losses, people kept pulling back. those things have stopped getting worse. they're not coming up but they're not going down longer. banks are not loosening a lot but they're not tightening them any longer so the just the i think flecks point, from things getting worse to not gets worse is helpful. people started saving more. their saving rate went from 1% to 6%. if that kept going up it would have meant that consumption was very weak. but it has stopped going up. as long as people are earning money they can spend more. host: independent, oregon, next. dan, independent line. caller: hello. my question is i hear a lot about how much in debt the united states all the time, and they scare people all the time with how much we're in debt. what i would like to know is how much is the united states of america worth?

how much is the entire country worth in money? host: because? caller: because you say we're $13 trillion in debt, how much are we worth? guest: that's a reasonable question. most of us have a mortgage. that seems like a lot of money. but we also have a house and other assets that are worth more. so the caller has a point. when you're assessing at the financial viability you look at debts and assets. the united states is the weltsiest country in the world. we have the world's most competitive companies, our assets far outweigh our debts. so you can't just look at that debt and say we're toast. but that said, those are government debts that are not specifically backed by particular oogs sets. and every dollar we borrow now is a $1 that we have to repay in the future. so you can't just sort of say, well werks don't have to worry about this. we have these assets as well. that's why we look at the size

of the debt relative to gross domestic product. gdp is basically the income of the entire country and a measure of our ability to support debt. the main goal of fiscal reform right now should be to stop the debt growing faster than the economy so we know that relative to our ability to pay our debts we're not digging ourselves into a deeper hole. host: atlanta, georgia next. as we take your call we're going to look at some of the statistics that were released yesterday. caller: good morning. in response to the last caller real quick, i think with our untapped oil and gas reserves, we could probably easily pay off the national debt and balance our books. but when it comes to gdp and debt to gdp ratio, i believe canada in 1995, when their debt to gdp rate was 68%, they considered that a crisis. they came together and

responsibly enacted 20% across the board cuts. i hearders kin bowls three weeks ago, he was actually criticizing the republicans 61 billion proposed cuts, 3.7 trillion a year budget being 1.5%. he was talking about discretionary, nondiscretionary cuts, we've got to get serious. we run 223 billion worth of debt in february. i don't know how much we racked up last month. another thing that the debt commission recommends that i completely agree with, is complete reform of our tax code. and lowering the rates across the board and eliminating much of these tax expenditures. and that would do wonders to stimulating growth, in my opinion. host: well, first of all, the call ser absolutely right about canada. i used to live in canada and i was covering the economic

situation. and the fact that canada was able to get out of that and today they have one of the lowest debt levels in the industrialized world is an encouraging sign for us. a couple words of caution. canada had high interest rates at the start, so as the government shrank they are able to lower that. and they were able to export more to other countries so those were advantages canada had. touching a minute on what he was saying about the ers kin bowls commission, one of the things that's a little bit troublesome is all the debate we're having, whether or not we're going to cut 30 billion in spending this year as the democrats seem willing to agree to or 60 billion as the republicans would want, we're still only talking about the discretionary part of the budget. by discretionary i mean that part of the budget that must be authorized by congress and we're leaving out a chunk of that because we're not talking about defense. but there's that other part, the mandatory side 60% of

spending that's medicaid, that's medicare, that's social security. and we have still not had a serious discussion about that. that could change in the coming week. paul ryan, the chairman of the budget committee is scheduled to bring out a version of the republican budget and we're hearing that he is going to try to address some of these questions. host: and part of that is looking over a ten-year scope as opposed to other years? or have they always done a ten-year scope? guest: budget resolutions are typically only for a year in some cases two years. so now the president's budget does look out over ten years. so it would be actually intriguing to have a congressional budget resolution that actually looks at the same thing. one of the problems it's been too easy to use accounting ledger to shift expenses around from one year to the next. have one of the favorite gimmicks is to have a tax cut that's extended for just one year, and then is allowed to expire so you don't have to endure the pain of it.

but you also don't have to account for the ten-year cost. if you have a ten-year budget, that takes away some of those gymics. host: our last call, pennsylvania, connie on our democrat's line. caller: yes. hello. i was calling because i'm wondering if anybody has factored in the actual psychological damage when they're saying about they can't figure out why some people, the numbers don't add up. in my family alone, out of my household and my three older children, because i have one that's a senior this year, i have children as old as 37. he was off for only a few months, but he owns his own business and it is not going to come back. he's going to lose 50% of his income. guest: absolutely. i mean, the confidence in fact is one of the biggest dampeners when the economy goes through a difficult period. one of the things we know is

that typically someone who loses their job unvoluntarily, the next job doesn't pay as well. so they not only have to cope with the spell of unemployment, they have to deal with a paycheck that's smaller. the good news is that if you look at the surveys of people's confidence, it seems to be coming off the floor. people are getting more optimistic because they're seeing jobs open up, because like the stock market is doing better and so forth. there is that negative of gasoline prices. but if we can maintain that sort of optimism that develops into that circle of business is hiring, people with jobs being able to spend. produceses more sales for business. host: but is the next report economic indicator going to tell us as far as how the economy is doing? guest: the first quarter of the year ended on thursday, so i think a lot of people will be looking in a few weeks time to see what the gross domestic product report was for the economy in the first quarter. that's in some sense the gold standard of how the overall

economy is doing. it was a little disturbing because as numbers were rolling in on things like car sales and houses, people were lowering their estimates looking at 2 to 2.5%. it's ok but it's not great considering how much faster we should be growing. so that could be a little bit of a reality check. what i'm hopeful of is that the pickup in hiring that we've >> tomorrow political roundtable on the news of the week including a government shutdown. lawrence yun from the national association of realtors discusses the future of fannie mae and freddie mac. and the baghdad correspondent for the "new york times was "

talks about libya and some of his colleagues held captive for a week. why did 7:00 a.m. eastern on c- span. -- live at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. >> nets, the annual congressional correspondents dinner. dennis in the tribute to the late geraldine ferraro. then a possible carbon tax in australia. >> follow potential 2012 republican presidential candidates sunday on c-span's "road to the white house." kentucky senator ran paul on road to the white house, sunday. >> now the annual congressional correspondents dinner in washington. speakers include anthony wiener, sand paul, and the daily show'

larry wilmore. it is one hour and 45 minutes.

>> [singing "the star spangled

banner"]

>> our thanks to the color guard, the united states marine band, and shirley hughes. please enjoy your dinner. >> ladies and gentleman, but that congressional correspondents dinner chair, peter slen of c-span. >> ladies and gentlemen, good evening and welcome to the congressional correspondents dinner on this fine spring night. this is sponsored by the radio and television correspondents association, and this is the

67th year that this annual awards dinner has been held. we're so pleased that you have taken the time out of your schedule and money out of your pocket to join us this evening. as many of you know, a former speaker nancy pelosi was scheduled to be with us this evening. she is currently in new york at the wake and funeral of her friend and former colleague, geraldine ferraro. to others who have passed since we have last gathered in this room, i think we should make note of. senators byrd and stevens. we have a full program ahead this evening. we will be giving out two awards. we will hear from several members of congress this evening, and we will conclude with larry will more of the daily show. [applause]

d. we'll conclude our evening with larry willmore of "the daily show" with jon stewart. but wait, there's more. ease join us for the after party, sponsored by our friends at the national telecommunications -- national cable and telecommunications association. many of us on the board are members of that association. it will be held right outside in the atrium where we had the reception. that is immeately following the dinner tonight. by the way, i'm suspecting that some of you will be tweeting during the dinner tonight. if you would, use the hash tag cong dinner you saw up on the screen earlier. that way everybody will be able to access your tweets more readily. want to acknowledge a special guest, a nonwashingtonian we have with us this evening.

we want to introduce everybody to miss america, tresa scanlon. formerly miss nebraska sitting down here in front. there she is waiving. we appreciate it very much. mayor gray is alsoith us this evening. thank you, mayor, for being here. there he is. and we also want to thank shelly hughes and her mellow moods band for the wonderful music at the reception and during dinner. by the way, you can catch shirley and her gospel choir every sunday morning 9:00 and 11:00 a.m. at the metropolitan community church here in washington, d.c.. we want to let you know who's sitting up here with us. we're going to start down on my far left to your right, our friend mike mastrian, director

of the television and music technology. john somers, communications director for harry reid, he's with us this evening. and a long time rtca board member and senior fox producer, chad bergram. thanks for being here tonight. sitting next to chad is the communications director for the democratic leader of the house, pelosi, and that is nadi nadim ashami. thank you as well. he's sitting wth jeff balou of al jazeera network. and by the way -- [ cheers and applause ] >> jeff headed up our committee for the schorrenstein award. we'll get to that later. next to him is congressman anthony weiner. his dinnerpartner, leann

caldwell of c-span. and another one of our speakers this evening, senator rand paul of kentucky. and now, ladies and gentlemen, if you've met him, you know him, your current chair of the radio television correspondents association, my colleague and friend and the first photojournalist to be elected chairman of the radio television correspondents association, cnn's own jay mcmichael. [ cheers and applause ] >> and down on the left, my right, we're going to start here with the democratic whip of the house of representatives, steny hoyer is with us tonight. and he's sitting with long time rtca board member and super producer jill jackson of cbs. >> larry wilmore tonight's

entertainment. we'll hear from him as well. john wallace, current vice chair of the rtca. and congressman ben quayle, republican of arizona will also be speaking this evening. we're missing one guest, but he will be here, that's cedric richmond, another freshman from louisiana. and then we have libby casey of alaska public radio down there. sitting with kevin smith from john boehner's office, kevin, thank you for being with us. and down there at the end is our good friend olga ramirez cornacki, director of the house radio tv gallery. thank you. and i want to make a special mention, we want to thank mike and ol ga for all their work in dealing with the media and our multiple personalities, we appreciate it. but more importantly, we need to

acknowledge their two staffs. we're going to start with olga's staff down here, her right hand, sometimes her left, is that correct? yes, both hands, andy elias of e radio tv gallery, thank you. olga also works with helen de bar barge, among the house gallery. and mike's staff we need to mention as well. special shout out to een eckert, new deputy director of the senate tv gallery. mike lawrence, long time staff member up there. erin yademan, and arlen salazar. thank you, mike for all your hard work this past year as well. now, if i could, i'd like the current members of the rtca board to rise and be acknowledged. if you would just go ahead and rise. thank you for all your work on behalf of the media, and the

congressional coespondents. applause ] >> but wait, there's more. this is washington. so that means everybody needs a lawyer or has a lawyer. and that includes the rtca. i want to acknowledge our long time legal adviser, sitting right down front here, bruce collins. bruce is the general council at c-span, but 's also been the long-time rtca legal adviser, he's pro bono, so we love his advice and we love his price. thank you, bruce, for being with us. i think it's important that we also recognize some of the journalists we've lost this past year. i think it's fair to say we will also miss the dean of the washington political press

corps, david broder. [ applause ] >> we also want to acknowledge the untimely death of a long-time cnn video journalist, senior video journalist, jerry thompson. tapp naill was one of the longest-serving journalists mr. d.c. he passed away recently as well. we want to acknowledge the passing of mike michaelson, at c-span. long-time director of the house, radio and tv gallery, where he was known as a journalist's best friend. thank you, mike. we appreciate your service as well. we have a special group of

student journalists we want to introduce you to tonight. let's bring the treasury of the radio correspondents association to the table. >> thank you, peter. and thank you so much for inviting radio roots. radio roots is a youth media educion program that teaches underserved students radio and journalism and media, both in washington, d.c. and n york city. right now we have five of the most outstanding radio root students with us tonight. they've done really important students in thei community and are currently working on a piece on the school dropout crisis with the pbs news hour. please stand. crystal, mario, calys and

ingrid. give them a welcome. [ applause ] this is an organization very close to my heart. as journalists, feel free to go to them and tell them about the trials and tribulations of being a journalist. thank you. >> thank you. >> lee ma, thank you for organizing had it had and bringing these students to the dinner. welcome. i hope you get a chance to talk with a lot of folks tonight. we have one more group of folks we want to single out. we have invited the former whip to join us, steny hoyer. [ applause ]

>> thank you very much. such a sad phrase. former majority leader. that was a kul cut, peter. but i'm nevertheless very glad to be here to join jill for dinner. i want to enjoy the extraordinary accomplishment you have made being the first photo journalist to be the chair of this organization. ani would be remiss if i did not thank all of you for being so very nice to three people on my staff. maybe you're nice to others as well. but these are the folks that i have asked to make sure that we put a positive face forward and voice forward and release forward with all of you. and so thank you for being so nice to stacy bernard, my deputy

chief of staff, katie grant and dan riley, my communications people. they have the extraordinarily difficult task of making me look good and it's tough. tonight, lads and gentlemen, we are honored to be joined by several journalists from cairo news company, cnc, as well as egypt's ambassador to the united states. [ applause ] like so many of you in this r m room, many of you were there during the recent uprising in egypt, the folks i am about to introduce were there.

they made a video about their experience in cairo featuring never-before seen footage. here it is. the revolution is history's first literal e-revolution. its only weapon was the media. it relied on theroadcasting media in its success. realizing the importance of etechnology in the 21st century, mubarak's regime cut off mobile phones and internet services. countering with horses, camels

and donkey independent broadcast media agencies were the main 88 of the revolutionary forces, playing crucial role in bringing down the regime. it was critical to tell egyptians and the world the truth as the state-owned media continued to spread liars and rumors. before attempting to annihilate the rebels, mubak had to take out his other enemy, the media. >> i cover the war in afghanistan. >> mubarak's secret police attacked all buildings surrounding the square, removing and destroying rooftop cameras and transmission equipment. they systematically, brutally and relentlessly attacked reporters and camera crews. one of their first targets was

cnc, transmitting crimes live to the whole world. >> for three weeks, i was here with cnc under threats from security service. but thanks to cnc, we did 17 live broadcasts from here during those three weeks. and i thank them. >> covering the breaking news of the revolution has a steep price for cairo news. our cameraman was hit by 13 rubber bullets. another cameraman suffered from a dislocated shoulder. a sound man suffered from a broken hand. secret police forces destroyed three cameras and attacked those coming i and out. cnc had had to smuggle staff through the parking exits. on three separate occasions, cairo news was forced to close

down its operations and work out of hotel rooms to keep the coverage going. when they cut off our lines, we had to use this transmit pictures live. >> agencies were more determined than ever not to let down the rebels. the backup plan was to use small cameras throughout the square to use the rebels' main tool, media, facebook and twitter to communicate with offices outside of europe. the bureau chief played a critical role in communicating with the rebels inside the square and covering the event of the bloody wednesday making sure it reached everyone throughout the world. their foot shoulders remember the young men andladies armed with social media. >> we have to admit that the beginning of the revolution in egypt came fromtwitter, facebook and youtube. >> this young revolutionary was

embraced by those who took to the street in millions. the unprecedented solidarity led to the support of the revolution. the egyptian will, armed with only a mix of the traditional and mu military, armed with the possible. >> without this, we wouldn't have been able to broadcast images around the world for people to see had it not been for cnc and the extraordinary and professional work they are doing. from all of us, thank you very much to cnc.

>> before i ask your guest to sand, i have the great honor of being the chair on the commission on europe, otherwise known as the helsinki commission. i traveled behind the soviet union on numerous occasions. indeed, almost every other month. one of the things i learned from dissidents that i met that what they feared most was anonymity. what they feared most was subjected to beatings and arrests anonymously. and so when i visited and with other members of the commission or members of congress visited, they were happy to see us, knowing full well that the secret plice or other security operators knew we were visiting them. but said to me, the fact that they know that you know who we are gives us better safety.

on behalf of all those otherwise anonymous people who would have been subjected to vicious attacks but for the fact that you made them with your courage and your focus, nonanonymous people. so that would world would know increasingly when violence is visited upon some of our fellow citizens in the glo ebb. congratulations to all of you. and i would ask our guests from cairo to rise and be recognized. including ambassador shaqri and nadir gohar.

[ applause ] the process that began with the heroic action is going to be a long and testify one. we are all hopeful and optimistic at the end of the process, egypt's people will have a responsive government that respects their rights and the egyptian people will know their struggle was worth it. if that happens, and when it happens, they will owe not only cnc but to many of you who had the courage to cover it. god bless you, and godspeed. thank you very much. [ applause ] .

>> congressman hoyer, thank you very much. thank you to our friends and colleagues from cairo. thank you for coming over today. we appreciate it. the radio and television correspondents association gives out two awards. one is for congressional covege and the other for international coverage. one is named for a cbs news producer who passed away in 1985. for many years, her father, the late walter shorenstein would be joining us at this table. we uld like to acknowledge and thank the shorenstein table for their support of the association and the free press.

[ applause ] now here to introduce the winner of the award for congressional coverage is long-time correspondent and our friend, bill plante. [ applause ] >> good evening. the award i'm about to present honors an extraordinary woman. a colleague of mine. bob schieffer and i are probably the only people who knew joan. she was something else. she started out as a researcher and became the executive producer of "face the nation." one of her early mentors was a seasoned reporter that sawhe had the right stuff. his name was david brodeur. joan was tough and smart and loved life and loved politics.

she would be perfectly at home and very entertaining at any one of your tables. she had the kind of standards that the critics say our business doesn't have anymore. that it doesn't exist in the kind of work we do. but the roster of winners of this honor over the years is proof positive that those standards still exist. here is what the judging committee had to say about this year's winner. quote, what distinguished this year's award winner was a clear, concise body of work. that was truly in the spirit of joan shorenstein barone. the entries eodied clean, solid original reporting from a beat reporter cleared involved in the day to day grit of capitol hill.

one of the things that the committee fod refreshing was the correspondents' focus on the subject of the story rather than on the role of the reporter. imagine that. the reporter says the committee was clearly prepared. whether confronting lawmakers in an elevator, press conference or in the all-too-familiar hallways. the emphasis was always on the answers and not on the questions. the on-cameranterviews, the committee says were substantive and enlightening and enhanced rather than distracted from the issue at hand. for the aforementioned reasons, the committee is pleased to award this year's joan shorenstein barone award to jonathan carle of c news. [ applause ]

>> he works his way over. >> just very quickly. unbelievable honor. and the credit all goes to my team. i am blessed to work with some of the very best people in journalism. unbelievable. just avery miller and john

gradson. matt jaffe. my bureau chief. and my wife, who loves me so much that she's here tonight at this dinner. thank you all. >> let's listen to a short video about his award. >> jonathan -- >> the bill is being pushed by democrats and has been attacked by republicans. >> the bill is loaded up with pork projects. >> this is an outrage. >> wait. many of the earmarks were inserted by republican senators. >> going through this bill, there is earmark after earmark from the both of you. millions of dollars in earmarks from the two of you and other senators. how do you have any credility? why do you have earmarks? >> we'll vote against the bill. >> were you wrong when you put the earmarks in before? >> this is not just about earmarks. earmarks are a symptomf

wasteful washington spending >> is that an acknowledgement the earmarks were wrong in the first place? >> you've asked me that five times. >> meet hal rogers. i understand you're incoming appropriations chairman. he's the map the republicans have chosen to run the most powerful committee in congress the one that controls the government's purse strings. an odd choice for a party that wants to cut spending. rogers has been called the prince of pork. you've been known as the prince of pork. have you changed your ways? >> well, sure. the electorate told us i think the number thing they want is to cut spending. >> look at his home town airport. he's funneled $17 million here. when we visited on tuesday qualify no cars in the airport, no people inside and no planes on the outside.

it's not even used. >> t flight control we've worked out over the years to protect towns from being flooded. i proud of that work. [ applause ] >> jonathan, congratulations. bill plante of cbs, as always, thanks for helping us out at the congressional correspondents dinner. the rtca's board jeff ballou, headed up the committee for the award. he was helped by jerry bodlander, kia johnson, david mcquinny of al jazeera and christina rafeeney of cbs news. thank you for your work this year. now the david bloom award was started in 2004 at the urging of the late tim russert to honor the late nbc anchor and newsman,

david bloom, who died in the iraq war in 2003. we are honored to have here his three daughters to present the bloom award. her are christine, nicole and ava. [ applause ] >> good evening. it is such an honor to be here tonight. it's hard to believe it's been eight years since we lost our dad. but we want to star by thanking the rtca for naming thi in his memory and recognize tim russert, who played such a big role in founding the award. we appreciate the challen many of you face as journalists when report progress war zones or natural disasters and having to spend long piods of time away

from family and presented to cover a story. >> i am continually amazed at the brave journalists who are willing to put themselves in dangerous situations in order to share pressing news with the world. the winner of the david bloom award shows bravery on the job. and the previous wrnsz exemplify the drive and commitment jonalists have. we are honored tonight to present this year's award to msnbc's news chief foreign correspondent, richard engel. [ applause ] >> the judges said engel's report, while embedded with the soldiers of charlie company 2508 of the 82nd airborne was gripping.

and offered compelling images that are rarely seen. giving viewers a glimpse into the challenges that american soldiers face every day. >> in afghanistan, this has been a tough month for americans on the front lines. 27 americans have been killed in june. and tonight,nbc's's richard engel, embedded with the 82nd airborne has a powerful look at what it's like when the enemy, e taliban attacks. we need to caution you. some of the footage may be disturbing for some viewers. soiers from charlie company of the 82nd airborne hike for an hour outside kandahar. it's a somber mission to attend a memorial service for one of the four soldiers killed since december. after the salutes and prayers,

charlie company matches back home. the taliban are watching them. they attack as soon as the troops return to their outpost. the soldiers rush to the roof to return fire. it's the most intense assault ever on the outpost. they launch morta almost straight up because 20 taliban fighters are just a hundred yards away. >> watch and shoot! >> but in the chaos, they're just realizing how bad it is. >> any others? how many do we have? >> two in there. >> in the guard tower on the roof, soldiers find more injured. now three soldiers are wounded.

they're treated under fire and evacuated off the roof. the troops keep firing, now supported by helicopter gun ships. in minutes, the guard tower is back up. there's now been a lull if the futh. the air support see to have stopped the attack, at least for now. the soldiers are all here on high alert in case there's another attack. after 30 intense minutes, it's finally over. med vac hel helicopter irz lift away the injured. as night falls, the troops stay by their weapons. they don't know how many taliban they've killed but expect more will be coming. [ applause ] >> accepting the award tonight on richard's behalf is one of my dad's favorite producers,

antoine senfentez, vice president and bureau chief, nbc news, washington. congratulations to richard engel. [ applause ] . >> i apologize i'm not there in person but i'm he in libya covering the rebels' advance and gadhafi's attempts to stay in power and what could end up becoming one of the most transformative periods in the middle east in decades. this ward is so important to me and everyone at nbc news because it carries david bloom's news and covers his integrity. i'd like to thank the crews om kabul to baghdad and pakistan. their hard work has made all of this possible. thank u. [ applause ]

>> young ladies, we very much your coming down each year and presenting this award in your dad's honor. [ applause ] i want to acknowledge john decker of reuterz. annie tennessinn and joe matthe sirius. if you're tweeng about the dinner, if you would use the hash tag, cong-dinner. everyone can readily access all the tweets about tonight's dinner. ladies and gentlemen, this is the congressional correspondents dinner. so we thought it appropriate to hear from members of congress

tonight. consider tis next section of the program, special orders. that didn't work, you're right. [ laughter ] we wanted to get a freshman perspective on washington. we're pleased to have join us two freshman congressman. we'd hear from cedric richardson from new orleans, louisiana. he's a it tulane law you school graduate among other things. please welcome from the gratsz city in america, congressman cedric richards from new orleans. [ applause ] first of all, thank you all for having me. i have to do just a few serious usekeeping not first.

first of all, to the many people who sent me a tex from home asking why i was late, i want them to know i was participating in the home court classic basketball game that raises money for the washington legal clinic for the homeless. i don't know why it was so important for me to be on the team this year. maybe it had something to do with the fact that i was the youngest member of the only african-american and it looked like i could play basketball. [ laughter ] i wanted to tell them that my goal was never to play in the nba. it was always to win a noble peace prize. but i don't think they would have bought that one. the second thing i'd like to do is say, hi, mom. because growing up i had a couple of issues. one, she bought me a trumpet when i was very young. i would practice and practice. she would say, cedric, the music coming out of your roomoesn't sound anything like the music coming out of the neighbors'

house. it was just my luck i grew up next to the jordan family, who the entire family is world renowned musicians. i said, mom, i can't play like win theon and marlon but i can play basketball better than then. she said one day when you're on espn, say hi, mom. i'm not on espn but if you're di dyslexic, you may consider c-an espn. hi, mom. to those wonderful, great

lenlgsz la lenlg legislateors in louisiana, i know you're going to do right by me because you know i would do right by you. thank you to the louisiana legislature. part of now, i get to boast a ttle bit. my district said, cedric, go up to washington. we expect great thingsz from you very early. the president did a tv commercial saying how much new orleans needed cedric richmond in congress. i'm pleased to inform the people of the second congressional district in louisiana that i came up here and i am making waves. my good friend selected me to be an assistant whip. that would be none other than steny hower. thank you for that. more important than that, i was elected presidential of the louisiana democratic caucus. i was also elected treasurer of

the louisiana democratic caucus and secretary of the louisiana democratic caucus. the election was close. it was hard totally the votes, but me, myself, split if in te, voted for two other people. i had to break the tie and i want everyone to know i am the president of the louisiana democratic calk u. iic caucus. anything you need, call me. i want you to know now this is something you can do to help president obama. unemployment rate is sky high. r the rest of these one-liners, jokes, whatever i have on this pieces of paper i didn't write unless you think it's funny, i have the initials of each of my staff members that thought the joke was funny. and i told them before i left,

you all convinced me to do this. this was over my objection. i'm not funny. i don't like speaking in public. if a joke bombs, i'm going to make a note. if you get the book "who moves my cheese" on your desk tomorrow, it means you're no longer employed. please laugh at the jokes or we'll add either one or seven people to the unemployment roles starting tomorrow. as they were trying to convince me, they said you can really do this. you're funny. you'll have them rolling. i do know i can have john boehner in tears. i want you to know one other thing, my 11 years in the state legislature, i had three speakers of the house.

and i didn't get o'along with any of them. three governors and i didn't get along with any of them. my mother said, cedric, it's probably you. the first thing i did was set up to meet with speaker boehner. i learned from my ways. you're the speaker. you have the gavel. i want to be good friends with you. and we've really hit it off. so i hope tonight after the one or two lines that my stf thought was appropriate to pick on speaker boehner, i hope we are still friends by the end of the night. even though i was nervous and my staff says, peter, cedric doesn't want to do it. we've really come back from the storm. he doesn't want to do anything that's going to embarrass new orleans on national tv.

after we calk u.s.eulkused, the it'sust c-span nobody's watching. virgil, you're in trouble. the next line on was, npr, it's good to seyou here. because next year you very well may not be here. okita, you're in trouble. i don't know how this is going, but i will it tell you there are a lot of events to attend up here. as a single member of congress, i usually take my mother. for swearing in, i rented my niece and nephew, so i could have a nice faly picture.

and i figured that was a lot better than going on craigslist to find a date. zach, you're in trouble. seriously, a guy from new orleans and louisiana, we have interesting names. we have budreaux and thibodeaux and spell geaux differently than everybody else. we had an e-mail from wiener and the next was from boehner. i called my mother and said, i

don't know about this place. it reminds me of bourbon street. as i prepared to come to d.c., we were getting over hurricanes katrina and rita. i figured that all the storms were over. that we wouldn't have any more floods or any more hurricanes. that we had turned the corner and we were headed in the right direction. then november 2nd came. talk about a washout. we took a beating in the democratic caucus. i thought i was coming in the majority but you it didn't quit work out that way. i hate to say it but fabrice, you're in trouble on that one. before i get serious, because i think what you do is vitally important to the country. and the things that you offer and the things that you did for not only me and my district are

very important. but i won't get serious. i guess i'll close on a series note. i'm using this as an audition for the news shows. wolf, i' be happy to come on and katie, i'll be willing to. even more than those. if you're auditioning for "two and a half men kwtsz i'm here. and willing. but i guess you're finally going to get your wish. we may you have a government shutdown. and you may get to go on vacation. but i'll tell you, in new orleans, in louisiana, in 11 parishes that were hit by the storms, we're used to government shutdowns. all we have to say is katrina and fema and we understand that government will shut down on you. in closing, i will say -- no, i

won't close yet. [ laughter ] i'll say one more. this part was funny. i think it was funny. i was paying attention to the president's's state of the union address. my date to the state of the union was representative steve skalice, a republican from louisiana. he said, cedric, we just happened to cross each other in the north carolina airport. i said, steve, i want you be to be my date. he said you' not my type but we can go together. we go to the state of union. and i find myself at the end of the night, i'm standing and he's sitting. i said, steve, how does that work out? he said, we're in the majority, you're in the inority. you all stand up, we sit down. it was halfway through the speech i realized that steve pued a fast one on me.

but while i was standing i heard the president sayath the future of tomorrow, that we're going to outbuild and outinnovate and outeducate on the rest of the world. and he called this program, we're going to win the future. i started thinking to myself qualify wow. he must have le the vice president name that one because the initials are wtf. now you that you have added six people to the unemployment rolesive and to have that hard conversation with my staff and tell them we're going to make some chanchsand unfortunately their name is change, i want to get serious for just aecond. because of the work you do, all across the country and all across the world, wherever i got, people will always ask the question. how's new orleans doing?

is it coming back? because you all exposed to the world what happened during hurricanes katrina and rita. we're coming back strong. that the history of new orleans is one that is consistent wi devastation and disaster. but it's always consistent with rebuilding and coming back stronger. it's almost like that old church song that says, god don't move the mountain but give us the ability to climb. if you look back in our history, when new orleans was founded, we had yellow fever and smallpox outbreaks. back in the 1800s when we had a thousand buildings in the french quarter, 800 burned down. four yrs later, another 200 burned down. we came back bigger and beer.

we had hurricane betsy that destroyed more than half of the city. we came back bigger and better. then we had hurricanes katrina and rita. and with the help of congress and with the light that you all put on what was going on, we came back bigger and better. then we had the bh oil spill where 11 u.s. stsz is thes losr lives and millions gallons of oil were spilled into the gulf of mixturexico. but we're coming back bigger and better. as an ambassador for the state of louisiana and the city of new orles, that it's because of what you do, it's because of the energy and the risk that you take in coming and reporting

from ground zero when some organizations who offer aid are afraid to come but reporters and camera men come. they have a duty and moral responsibility to make sure that the story is told and told accurately. we're coming back and coming back better. i just want to say it at the end of the night. thank you for what mot only you did for the second congressional district and for the state of louisiana, the city of new orleans, the constituents of my district, for my family, who lost all of our homes. the story you told was to the only important but it was accurate. and it was heartfelt. thank you tonight for what you do. thank you if are having me. it's a joy being here. i am honored and humbled to be part of the 112th congress. thank you. [ applause ]

ladies and gentlemen, someone with a familiar washington name. unfortunately, many of us remember when he w born in 1976. the same year his father was first elected to congress. now elected to congress in his own right from the great state of arizona, represent ben quay. >> i want to thanyou all for having me heere. i'm honored to be be with so many distinguished speakers. it's a little weird to be speaking at an event sponsored by the media. although i come from a newspaper family we seem to have a

strained relationship withhe press. strain is a polite term for troubled and the press is a polite term for ppolitico. it took everything i had not to refer to politico as the worst media outlet in history. it's mot that i don't believe that assertion, but i don't want to get into hyperbole. it's nice to see you, congressman how yer. i don't think i'm nearly as surprised as when nancy pelosi announced her candidacy for senator minority leader. homeland security is a major concern of pine because i am adamant about protecting arizona's border, mainly wit

california. not to worry. secretary napolitano just released a statement saying that the arizona/california border is more secure now than ever before. and i look forward to hearing from senator paul get ready for five to ten minutes about the scourge of low flow toilets. congressman wiener, great to see you. my fellow insurance subsidiaries asked me to give you a big hug on that obama care waiver. i heard there was some speculation that you may be facing eliot spitzer in the upcoming new york mayoral election. spitzer returning to politics is great news. at least for d.c.-area hotels. but you know, campaigns are full

of twists and turns. my campaign featured a mailer with a photo of me playing with my nieces. and i was immediately accused of renting a family for political gain. let me be clear. i am fiszical conservative. i don't rent. you i pay cash. i refuse to leave this country worsz off for our niece says and grand nieces. most of you know i lived in washington. but growing up in a political family was not easy. the roughest part was fighting for earmarks in mom's grocery budget. but those wre very different times. back then, we faced banking scandals and bomb gsz in libya. it's hard to believe we're in the same country. during my campaign, i said i was coming ear with the intention of

knocking the hell out of washington. it's been a few months. this could take some time. but i do usually reach my goals. among my credits are having passed the bar in california, moerk and arsz. new york and arizona. i've passed more bars than mitt romney stumping in vegas. geez, tough crowd. now we've got to look forward to another presidential election. newt gingrich said he wished he could be here tonight. he sent another message to say he doesn't want to be here at all. then i got another message saying the last two messages said the same thing. but he won't specify what that is. in the end, he said it's all obama's fault. but 2012 will be exciting.

you know who might win some early primaries and go completely under the radar bere people notice? tim pawlenty. he could win the general election and serve two consecutive terms before anyone would notice. but there are a lot of competent candidates testing the water. haley barbour. mitt romney, newt gingrich, donald trump. i guess dog the bounty hunter had other commitments. no matter who wins the job, my mission in washington remains clear. to establish a precedent for cutting government spending and proving to the american public bad spelling is not genetic. [ applause ] so he misspelled potato?

in t worsds of another vice president, big effing deal. i know that today's media has matured. gone are the days when a vice president can be harshly ridiculed for misspeakinor shooting a friend or xwrkidnapp a reporter and stuffing him in a closet. i want you all to know my family holds no grudges. we want to congratulate you on your spectacular work of late by spelling gadhafi. i'd like to close by saying you a few words about a great reporter ha we lost a few weeks ago, david brodeur. i had the pleasure of getting to know david growing up. as all of you know, david was beloved because he never let his biline become bigger than the subject beneatit.

when i was in my early 20s in the iowa straw poll, i saw him you treat local voters the same way he treated my dad, with respect and class. his example of gracious business, fairness and integrity is something that people from all professions, not just journalists should emulate. he will be greatly missed. i'd like to thank you all of you for the thankless work ul do for this country. many industries have gone through tough times. yours faced challenges well benefit recession took hold. many organizations were forcesed to make layoffs and cutbaxz. those that remained had to work that much harder. those of us in elected office probably complain about you more than we praise you, we appreciate and value the vittlez wo vital work you do for this country. thank you very much.

[ applause ] our next guest may want to be the next mayor of new york. ladies and gentlemen, the honorable anthony wiener. [ applause ] >> thank you very much. thank you, steny. i will keep my remarks briefed. i'm double parked outside and the last thing i need is a ticket. this is really a huge thrill for me. this is all being broadcast on c-span 3. tens of americans will see this. down to the cnn table, they're saying, tens, what's their secret? % you know, this is a great opportunity for all of us to get

to know each other in a less formal setting. we work with each other a great deal. this is a chance for pea to answer a couple of the questions you might have about me. ones i frequently get. there's really not a chance to talk about it. it is rtrue, it's difficult having this name. it's something that caused me a lot of ridicule a hard ship. it is in my neighborhood not easy to be named anthony. but in fairness, i did hear the last original wiener joke in the fifth grade. now i embrace it. so much it's part of me and part of the campaign slogans. i use vote for wiener, he'll be frank. vote for wiener, he's on a roll. vote for wiener, he'll relish

your votes. that's a very good one. in fact, some of youave done some real research, which probably means none of yo have -- my family didn't always have this name. my great grandfather when he came here from ellis island. his name, of course, was harold schmuck. i get asked about my recent marriage. by wife is here. she was the traveling chief of staff for secretary clinton and now at the state department. she's lovely and elegant and brilliant and widely reported throughout this town. obviously, opposites attract. i want to thank my colleagues, who have spoken before mand ose who are going to be speaking. ben quayle.

we have a guy you in congress and a guy named newt is attacking the white house. republicando recycle. it really is true. that's because there used to be -- i'll tell you later. senator rand paul is here. i worked with his father. he brings even more diversity to an institution congresshat is remarkably diverse, as many of you kn. we have muslims and we have christians and now we have aqua buddhists. and cedric richmond, who did an excellent job. he is a very bright star in a tiny constellation of freshmen democrats. he is a terrific guy. he really unified new orleans arnd had his platform of better education and health care. but i think it was hi pledge to keep all his money at room temperature ha that won him the greatest support. i think the people of new orleans respected that.

by the way, you i do ti do the jokes around here. who is boehner fooling? i'm seris, brother. just embrace it. and i know nancy pelosi was supposed to be here. i'm sorry she's not. she'll forever be my speaker. she and i are sometimes lumped together when people describe the extreme wing of the democratic party. in fact, she and i hold many positions that represent the mainstream of heartland america. for exame, both of us believe in mandatory gay marriage. michele bachmann, i don't know if she is here. she's probably not. she's campgning if iowa and organizing in that important caucus ste because s's running for president. that's really all i have for that joke. [ laughter ]

this is the first dinner in a while that rahm emanuel isn't here. let's face it. we miss him. who knew that what it takes to be mayor of a big city is to be a hot tempered, arrogant loud jew with 9 1/2 fingers. in other news, i've taken a job attarby's as the meat cutter. and hillary clinton, who i unrstand was originally invited to speak here today could not make it. she's got a lot going on. imagine spending all that time with petty tyrants. i'm glad she left the senate. this is the day we celebrate, of course, the media of tv and radio. as has been reminded several times, many of us are trying to embrace new media. i'm following twitter myself.

and i know youight have seen recently that time magazine named me one of the 140 top twitterers in the country. i'm very proud of that. if you would use the hash tag and as me as a follower. i'll put my profile up there. [ laughter ] what? tell me you've never seen a 1970s jew fro. wolf blitzer still wears one. i'm provide to say this. i have over 18,000 followers. i was feeling good until it became clear i was getting confused with other famous people on twitter. let me show you a couple of them. i think i was getting confused with this one. i don't know. that's rachel from "glee."

i don't see it. but it could be this one. again, i'm to the really sure. this one i kind of do understand. this it predates ben quayle. clearly who people think i look like. i'getting a lot of followers because of it. what do i do now is? i don't want that up there telling the rest of my jokes? there you go. please follow me. i don't care who you think i am. but, you know, this is not about the newest high-tech things. this is still about radio and tv. i want to offer a lot advice to some colleagues who are here. i have a reputation in town for being something of a you master of the person-to-person interview. because of my lm, insightful and my poise, the way i've

added. people want more civility in politics. they're taing about me. so i have some tips i want to offer to my colleagues as they're doing these interviews. first is listen carefully to the interviewer. always want to communicate you care about what they say. you want to respect what they have to say, take a deep breath and then answer the question. here, let me show you what i mean. >> was she or was she not the solicitor general of the united states? >> that was not what i was taking exception to if you let me finish my thought. i'm not really sure what goes on at fox that actually covers, but we'll get back to another conversation -- before we go -- >> let me ask the question -- >> i'm just curious -- >> when theen -- >> we are -- >> let me ask you this, what should be -- congressman, what should be the tax rate? >> you've characterized for me -- please -- >> now, let's face it, let's

face it, that's some namite tv, you see what i'm saying? another tip that i would give to my colleagues one that might sound intuitive, but you really have to concentrate to make sure ithappens, to maintain eye contact with the interviewer or the camera. for one it shows you're listening, again, but it also shows respect that they don't ink you're a jerk when you're done. here, let me show you an example. >> the highest in the world. >> what about the other 12%? >> the irs gets them if they don't pay the taxes. ask wesley snipes. you can't tell me the irs isn't the enforcement arm here, it is. >> no, i'll ask the question. you're not answering. tell me, how is it fair? >> ready? you see, it's really not that hard. and the last tip i'd like to offer is a little bit of a signature thing of mine, so i'm letting my colleagues in on a

little bit of a secret. the reporters and interviewers love a little positive reinforcement when you're done with your interview. they love a little, you want to be acknowledged they have a very hard job, they want to know that the interview went well, and so here's a little trick that i started. >> go ahead. >> what's the question? >> you clear -- >> i her the speech, what's the question? >> thank you for coming on, congressman. thank you souch. >> great interview, aces. >> now, i just want you to know great interview, aces, that's my trademark, so don't steal it, paul. i'm just saying. but in conclusion, let me express my gratitude to all of you, in all seriousness, as i said before, you are an important part of our lives, an important part of the organization that makes politics rk, and i'm sure that all of us, whether we say it or not, are realizing that tonight around the world there are some real tests and we're particularly sympathetic and our heart goes out to the people of

japan. and as richard engel steroid us in h showed us in his story, half a world away thereare 160,000 men and women fighting for us in iraq and afghanistan andow in libya. let's keep them in our thoughts and prayers. thank you very much. thank you very mh. appreciate it. thank you. >> the honorable anthony weiner, everyone. and finally tonight from the other side of the capital, we're pleased to have join us freshman republican senator rand ul of ntucky. >> how to follow that, i don't know. i was told this was a serious speech. i've got a really long lincoln-esque two- or three-hour speech. well, if no one laughs, i guess that will be my excuse. some of you may have heard that

i've come up to washington and i'm living with my dad. that's a little embarrassing to tell people, i guess. i called him up and i said, you know, you're waiting and counting the days. i've got teenage sons. you're caughting t incounting t until they find a place of their own. i'm 47ears old, can i move back home? and my dad says, nothing, for about 30 seconds on the phone. and then, well, sure, sure, son, yore more than welcome. some of the pundits have thought this was a little bit funny. and one cartoonist did a little caption about us, and in it has me inhe kitchen asking dad about, dad, do you have anything you want to add on to the grocery list? and he's like, son, we don't do central planning around here. the next frame hasim or me going up to my dad, saying, well, dad, it's that time of the

month to pay the rent. i'd like to write you a check for rent. my dad's response is, i only take gold and silver. now, some of you may have heard that one of the pauls might be running for president. it's a tough decision, i mean, you talk to your wife, your minister, if you're a democratic, your spiritual adviser, you know, it's a tough decision. but i mean, it's gotten even tougher. i mean, sarah palin sort of paved a new path for all of us. now we got to decide if you want to be leader of the free world or have a reality tv show. i mean, it's a really tough decision. now, campaigning can have a certain amount of peril. and i don't have to make up any campaign stories, because i lived them all. one of the low points or high points depending on your perspective was when a japanese cartoon film came out about me

depicting me committing a carjacking. my kids were, like, was grand theft auto based on your college years? other people have asked me, they have said, were you just really wild as a kid? were you wild in college? i said nothing like ben quayle. i say, no, if you want to imagine me in college, you can imagine billy graham as a young man. okay, it wasn't quite that. you can imagine charlie sheen as a young man. i was neither of those. somewhere in the happy medium between those two mit have been my youth. now, one of the low points in the campaign might have been when on a nationally -- in a nationally televised debate my opponent said or asked, do you now or have you ever worshipped the water deity your god that you call aqua buddha? and it's, like, we had practiced

this debate over and over again, no one ever told me that i would have to answer that in a debate. but interestingly the question, you know, i don't really remember the aqua buddha. i called my friend in europe, and i said do you remember us doing something with aqua buddha? oh, no, we were performance athletes, we would never put anything in our body that would damage our ability toerform athletics. i don't remember that either. i was in leitchfield, kentucky, one y, and a woman comes up to me and grabs me by the hair. and she said, i just wanted to know if it was a toupee. i said, lady, give me a break, i'm just having a bad hair y. but, you know, i became a little bit self-conscious about my hair. because i learned there was a website out there that wasn'ting to know and there was a big debate, there was a big blog line on this when it was a toupee or a trible. anybody watch "star trek"? you know what a tribble is from

"star trek," it's a small furry animal that loo kind of like this. i really began to worry that, you know, when i had people compare my hair to jim traficant's, that's a low blow. no one has compared my hair to donald trump, i'm doing okay there. in the senate my mentor is al franken. that's the best laugh i got all night. now, he's a comedian and also senator, and, you know, i thought the guy's been a comedy writer. i'll pick him as my mentor, i'll get him to write jokes for me. so, he hasn't done crap. he won't write jokes for me. i only write jokes for people who are funny. look, you wrote for "saturday night live" for years, what's the deal here? that's sort of a slam, okay. i do want to thank speaker -- i

mean, minority leader pelosi, for all her help in my campaign. i mean, i don't think i could have won without her. i mean, such consideration, such selfless sacrifice, i mean, really, to let us all read that health care bill after she passed it. i mean, i don think i could have done it without her. the president was also helpful to me, too. i should thank the president as well. in fact, we had a big airplane ticket blown up that we carried around, i had a picture of my 4-year-old son with an airplane ticket, come on down to kentucky, campaign for my opponent. he didn't show up. i don't think he'll need an opponenthis year. with all his flip-flops against t with the war, i think he'll run against himself. i was happy to see that newt gingrich has staked out a position on the war, a position

or two or maybe three. i don't know. he may have more war positions than he's had wives. all right, that was a good one, right? now, i heard mitt romney might be running again for president. and, younow, if he wins the primary, it could be pretty contentious. can you imagine the debate? this is romney impression, but i've never done an impression before, so i'll let you know the first one is the president. this is the president. mitt, thank you so much more doing romney care and giving us all those great ias for our health care plan. thank you, mr. president, for using my ideas. no, thank you, mitt. no, thank you, barack. no, thank you, mitt. it's going to be a really contentious debate. it may even get to, mitt, do you want to play golf on saturday? well, mr. president, i thought you were going to be starting a new war on saturday. well, hell, i can do that between holes. hell, i started the last one from brazil.

that was just me. that really wasn funny. you know, i'm trying. speaking of debates, you know, there's a big debate going on over at fox news. it's really messed up. i mean, they don't know what to do. they just really can't decide over at fox news. it's, like, what do they love more, bombing the middle east or bashing the president? it's like i was over there and there was an anchor going, they were pleading, they were pleading, one of the anchors, please, please, please, can't be do both? can't we bomb the middle east and bash the president? how are we going to make this work? over at msnbc it's a difrent story. no civil war there. completely placid. no compunction, i mean, i actually like some of the guys over there or women over there, they would say they hated preemptive war and imperial presidency, but do you know what, i think they just hated republican wars over there. now, people have asked me how's your relationship with rachel maddow. i get that question more than

any. and tell you the truth, i'm hurt. she doesn't call. she doesn't write. she didn't ask me to be her date tonight. that could be kind of complicated probably. but the thing is, i've said, you know, racl, i would love to be on your show again. i'm thinking, let's see, hmm, maybe when she joins fox news or hell freezes over. and my wife says, don't worry about being too funny, and i don't think i've had to worry too much about that, there will be drinking out there, don't worry about being too funny. just don't be too long. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> and now to wrap up our evening, ladies and gentlemen, we are pleased to have with us comedi comedian, author, actor, writer, producer, larry wilmore, senior black correspondent of t"the

daily show" with jon stewart. >> thank you. thank you. thank you. it's nice to be here. first i'd like to acknowledge all the other speakers here tonight. especially senatoraul for just whipping everybody into a frenzy. i appreciate that. did all of my jokes, man, all of my jokes. just burn right through that "a" terial. i preciate that. oh, man. whoo! thanks, peter, for inviting me. i appreciate it. no, larry, no, no, no, the president's going to be there. it's going to be great. thanks. it's nice to be at the congressional correspondents dinner. formally known as the radio and television journalists dinner. nice. i like how you did that.

it's nice. as a black man, i'm from a group that tends to change its name a lot. so, well done. well done. i think we're african-americans now. i'm not sure. it's hard to keep -- we change our name so much. we were -- okay, we were first, like, negro, then we were colored, right? then we were black. then we were afro afro, weere n after a hairstyle, do you remember at? white people never called themselves beehive americans, that's true. black again, right? then americans of african descent. that makes no sense at all. that's trying too hard, right? then black again. then people of color. that was kind of nice. although john boehner's a person of color so -- that's a little too inclusive, right? and then black again, nappy-headed hos, just checking

to see if you're awake. just checking. it's a horrible joke. but for me, i go by black. do you know what, i don't have any romantic connections to africa. i wasn't born in africa like the president, i was born -- hey, he's not here. i can make that joke. not like he wasn't invited. not like i ddn't tell my family and friends. he's got a lot on his plate, libya, right? i understand, you know? maybe he thought by coming to the congressional correspondents dinner, it might seem like he's nsulting congress, i don't know. but, no, but i don't have that connection with -- africa just makes me think hot, right? hot. yeah. and things that might eat me. and brothers who speak french,

which i don't think is in god's plan, seriously. i don't think so. right? i mean, and i'll be honest with you, if i want to be around brothers i can't understand in an unbearably hot environment where my ancestors once roamed, ll go to the check cashing place, there's already a place. no, you'll get some on the way home, too, that's all right. but we are fascinated with race, aren't we? we're so fascinated by it. race is such a fascinating topic. even personally, like, people always ask me what i'm mixed with, because i'm light skinned, they do, they go are you -- they always make that face, are you -- mixed with something? w i just tell people, look, if i was a beer, i'd be a negro light, okay? and i am a third less angry than

the regular negro, so, yeah, just kind of -- but we're fascinated. race is so fascinating to people. you know, even within the race, you know? when i was a kid, brothers would say i didn't talk black. i never understood that. i thought, well, i'm black. and i'm talking. right? ergo, i'm talking black. i mean. i know what they mean now like black slang, you know? like somehow black slang, you know, is the marker for true authenticity. i mean, i never heard martin luther king say yo yo, yo, i got a dream, bitches. he was black. sorry, kids, don't repeat that joke. don't do it. it won't be good. but the black guy said it was okay. no, no, no. in fact, a lot of people said it was the election of obama shows that america's not racist

anymore. i don't know if i agree with that. i mean, if we had elected flava flave, i mean, that would show we're passed, you know -- no because obama that is a comfortable level of black. be honest, people. be honest, white people, you are very comfortable with that level. that's the will smith, oprah level of black, right? be honest. be honest. but flava, that is a very unsettling level of black, i'll be honest with you. i am uncomfortable. at that level of black. i would prefer he dial it down, i would. it's tough, man, being president, it's got to be tough, you know, everybody's on obama now. both sides. hurry up. fix the economy. the economy's the big issue, right? what's taking so long?

you know. why can't it go faster. why can't you fix the economy faster? yoknow, fast is not obama's style, right? they're not known for their speed in kenya, right? they're long distance runners. he's not here! all right? that joke doesn't go if he's here. then i make fun of ben quayle all night. that's how it goes. maybe when they said the senior black correspondent was going to be here, they thought they meant juanwilliams. i don't know what the reason is. is juan here tonight? oh, man. but, you know, let me address that issue about birthbirthers. do we have any birthers here tonight? come on, now. yeah, right. i actually have a theory about conspiracy theorists or people like birthers, truthers, big foot, whater, you know, i

believe these people always, you know, demand evidence for the obvious but thenhey expect you to swallow the preposterous, right? it's true. think about that, like, with obama, you know, i think it's obvious that he was born in hawaii, right? because he said so. i take him at his word, right? bush said he went to college. i took him at his word, right? i did. but they need evidence, you know? what about his birth certificate, that's a rtificate of live birth. it's not a birth certificate. what about the announcement in the paper? they called that in from kenya. what? people say this. but then they expect us to swallow the preposterous, like he's a secremuslim. a secret muslim? first of all, it's impossible for obama to be a muslim with all the pork in the budget, that's impossible. let alone a cret muslim. how are you in the closet for

allah? i don't under that. he's the president. he's going to sneak praying five times a day? oop, dropped my contact lens. right? i'll get it, mr. president. no, i got it. la la la la la. a little while, oop, dropped another one. la la la la la la. h la la la la. a secret muslim. it doesn't make sense, right? and even the left is upset with obama, you know, progressives are disappoied, matt damon's disappointed. it's tough, man. right? it's their own fault. i think they projected so much on obama, because i don't think he's like that. i mean, they made him into, like, a prophet, like he's a greek god, barack opapollo obam.

he got a peace prize. even obamalooked embarrassed before he accepted it, right? that's like giving away the mvp award when they're in training. and then you are mad when they are only batting .220 at the all-star break. at least republicans waited until reagan was long gone before they turned him io a messiah, right? nobody remembers the '80s. reagan was great. right? nobody remembers. i thought you hated him. no. huuh. i guess. he was great. then they try to get me on the train with him. larry, aren't you disappointed with obama? health care, larry let me just clear something up. i voted for obama because he's black, okay?

all right? i don't have disappointment issues. right? as long as he keeps being black. he's doing a pretty good job! actually, no, i actually have -- i actually haven't, but what the hell, let's do it anyway. i believe -- no, this is true. i believe when you're voting for the first, like the first black president, i think you should get a pass. you should. nobody was mad at the catholics when they voted for kennedy, you know, first catholic president, making history. nobody was mad at women, righ voting for hillary, could have been the first woman president, making history. i dot have to agree with all of obama's policies. dot even know what they are! i don't. if it was colin powell, i would have voted for him. whatever brother got the nomination would have gotten my vote. except alan keyes, whew.

even thinks he's crazy. that's crazy. i'm crazy. whoever's first should get a pass. i just think that. now, the second brother to run, he's going to have to show me something. change i can believe in. you better be more specific, brother. what the hell is that? i don't know what you're talking about. and believe me, when we get the first hispanic nominee, i don't care what party, they're not going to have to go courting the latino vote, right? buckle up, white people, because that day is coming, right? oh, yeah. and good luck finding any of those birth certificates, i'm telling you. oh, ah. oh, no. you're not going to. oh, no. oh, no. right? this is not even in english, i can't read this.

oh, i'm going to get in so much trouble, boy. what the heck. but, i know, it's tough for the president, all the things happening in the middle east. who would have guessed all tse revolutions, you know? although i wonder what's going to happen to all these deposed dictators? where are they going to go? in my mind ere's only one place where a bunch of narcis narcissistic exdictex-dictators go, cable, right? by july we'll see "the real dictators of the middle east" ght? i clearly put my initis on the hummus. mubarak was the only one else home. now my hummus is gone. what up with dat? you know, gadhafi acts like he's the only dictator in the house.

excuse me, colonel, the floor is not a hamper, okay? i'm not sure what accent i was doing there. i have no idea. i have no idea. you guys can figure it out. i do get the press a lot of credit for deciphering things that politicians say. i have no idea what newt gingrich says, whether he's for or -- do you kno what, he's either completely doesn't know what he wts or he's absolutely certain he hates obama, right? it's got to be one of the two. but i give you guys a lot of creditust for figuring things out, you know? obama's not that tough. for me, my problem with obama -- besides not being here. my problem with obama -- i even brought my camera. uh-huh. to go to a cut-out at the mall. no, i was there, kids. i was there. but my problem with obama is that he just takes too long to get the point, you know? like when he's speaking off the

cuff, if you asked him what he wants for breakfast, uh, uh, ahh, breakfast, uh, there was a, a, some sort of a decorativdeco uh, plate. finish your thought, man, i'm hungry! just tell me, you know? because bush would have said eggs, ha ha ha. pop-tarts. well, i know it's been a long night. i just wanted to say you guys have really been great, and i really admire the work that you do. and i'm honored to be here

tonight to perform for you, and also i'm honored to be a fake one of you. so, thank you very much. and have a good evening. >> thank you. >> larry wilmore, everyone, from "the daily show with jon stewart." but, wait, there's more. but not much more. it's just the after-party, and here to tell you about it is the airman of the radio television correspondents association, the first photojournalist ever elected to that position, jay mcmichael. >> thank you. thank you. let's thank peter slim for a great dinner tonight. so, we would like everybody to join us at the after-party. rand paul will be leading the

conga line into the room, so please follow him. thank u r coming, and we'll see you next year. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] [captioning performed by national captioning institute]

>> on tuesday, a memorial service for "washington post" reporter and columnist david broder, who died on march 9 at the age of 81. he was a writer on the 1960 presidential election and wrote an article about watergate in 1973. he was known as the dean of the washington press corps. it will include remarks from family members and eulogies from don graham of the "washington post," glen of p.b.s., and vice president biden. it begins tuesday at 12:15 eastern on c-span 3.

>> next, senate tributes for the late geraldine ferraro. then prime minister gillard discusses a possible tax. and then a discussion on possible defense overruns in the defense depth. >> the c-span video lish has won a fee body award. now a year old, you can watch every program that is aired on the c-span networks since 1987. over 170,000 hours of archived video, searchable, shareable and free. it's washington, your way. >> democratic and republican women senators took to the senate floor tuesday to pay tribute to former house member geraldine ferraro, the first female vice presidential candidate. she ran as a running mate to walter mondale in 1976.

she died of blood cancer. this is 45 minutes. ms. mikulski: mr. president? mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from maryland. ms. mikulski: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that our remarks regarding the passing of skwrer dean tper -- of geraldine ferraro appear at an appropriate place in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. mikulski: mr. president, i also ask that the following senators be permitted to speak for five minutes each: senators -- on the subject of geraldine ferraro: senators boxer, hutchison, stabenow, shaheen. i don't know if the gentlelady from maine wishes to speak at this time or another time about -- would you like to speak at this time? let me reiterate the unanimous consent. the following senators be permitted to speak for five minutes each: boxer, hutchison,

stabenow, shaheen, snowe. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. mikulski: thank you. mr. president, we come tohe floor with a heavy heart and great sadness. geraldine ferraro, a former member of the united states house of representatives, a congresswoman from new york, who was the first woman to be nominated by a major party for vice president, has lost her gallant and persistent fight against cancer and has passed away. i really thank the leadership for offering a resolution noting the manyontributions that she made to america and express the condolences for her family. because, you see, mr. president, for we women before 1960geri was a force of nature, a powerhouse. she changed the face of politics.

she changed the way women thought of themselves and what we believed we could accomplish. on july 11, 1984, when mo walter mondale called geri ferraro and sctd her to be his vice-presidential running mate, an amazing thing happened: they took down the men-only sign on the white house. they took down the men-only sign on the white house. for geri and all american women, there was no turning back, only going forward. america knows ger implete as a political phenomenon. i knew her as a dear friend and colleague. we served in the house together in the late-1970's and when she left in 1984 to run for vice president, left in 1986 to run for the senate. we were among the early bird women in the house of presentatives and as early

birds, we weren't fraid to ruffle some feathers. we had some good times and passed some good legislation. it must be historically noted that when geri came not house in 1979, only 16 women were there. in 1984 when she left, my gosh, we'd moved to 2 but in 2011, on the day of her death, 74 women now serve in the house, 50dems, 24 republicans, and 26 of those women are women of color. in the congress, geri was a fighter, she was a fighter from new york. she fought for transit, she fought for tunnels, and she loved earmarks. earmarks that would help move her community forward. she also fought for the little guy and gal. she was known for her attention to constituent services. the senior getting a social security check, the vet who needed his disability benefits, the kid from a blue-collar

neighborhood like herself who wanted to go for college -- go to college, and she fought for women. she fought for our status and she gave us a new stature. when the campaign was over, she continued for all of her life to be a source of inspiration and empowerment for wom. inhose early days of the second wave of the american women's movement, the movement defined we women on what we did not have, what we did not have access to, what was it we didn't have? equal pay for equal work. it's hard to believe that we were not included in the research protocols at n.i.h. and when it came to having access to credit, we could not get a loan or a mortgage in our own name in many circumstances. weengdzed a husband, a father, or a brother to sign for it. but when geri was chosen for vice president, she showed us what we could be what modern

women in america had become. women felif we could go for the white house, we could go for anything. geri inspired. and on the night of july 19, 1984, in san francisco, in the musconi center, geri gave her acceptce speech. she became the first woman to be nominated for vice president for a major party. what a night i was there. the thrill, the excitement in the room, the turbo energy that was there. 10,000 people joined the -- jammed the musconi center. guy delegates gave their tickets away to either alter nationals, to their daughters, to people who helped out. she wanted to be there. people brought their children. they carried them. they put them on their shell doers to see -- on their

shoulders to see what was go t occur. when geraldine ferraro walked on that stage, she electrified a of us. the convention gave her a 10-minute standing and resounding ovation. we just couldn't sit down because we knew a barrier had been broken and for the rest the as she made history, there would be more on the way. during that campaign, it was hard-fought. she traveled over 55,000 miles, visited5 cities, campaigned her heart out. but it was not meant to be. the ticket lost to reagan-bush but though she lost the election, she did not lose her way. geri never gave up and never gave in. her storied career continued. a teacher at harvard, a u.n. ambassador on human rights -- alalways teaching, always inspiring, always empowering thousands of women here and around the world.

then in 1998, she was diagnosed with blood cancer, and once again she was determined not to ve up d not to give in. she began the greatest campaign her life. she began the campaign for her own life. she fought her cancer, and she not only fought her cancer, she also fought for cancer victims. she forged a relationship with senator kay bailey hutchison, as we will as my friendship. yo see, senator kay bailey will tell this story herself. her brother alan -- alan bailey -- soferredz from the same disease as geri. they met through an advocacy grp on multiple my len know ma. en they said, alan bailey and geraldine ferraro joined hands and joined together and kay bailey hutchison and i did, and we introduced the geri ferraro research investment and

education afnlgt i wanted it to be ferraro-bailey but alan very graciously said, geri is a marquee name. she will attract at love attention. we can hopefully get a lot of money for research and more interest in this dreaded disease. this legislation paled and it showed sometimes when we come together out of common adversity, we find common cause and we get things done. that bill passed, and it is changing lives. geri did various clinical drills and often we talked. this is what she said to me duri the last few weeks. she said, i'm glad i could be in those clinical trials. in many ways they helped me live. but we also knew the research would provide lessons so that others could live. once again her mentor was, never give up, never give in. she had toughness, persistence, ten n.a.s.cyty, and an un-- tenacity, an an unfailing

optimism in the face of diversitadversity. it was her personal story that brght us together. you see, mr. president, we were both from european ethnic backgrounds. she italian, i of my proud polish heritage. we grew up in urban villages. her father own add dime store. my father owned a grocery store. very much involved with our customers and community. we had strong mothers who wanted to make sure we had good educations. when ger i's dad died, geri' mother took a job in the garment industry. sh sewed beads on wedding dresses to make sure h children had an education. geri went to marymount, she became a scholarship girl because she was so smart and had so much talent. she felt it was the nuns who

played a big role in her life. they coached her to be smart and taught her to be a great debater. her faith was about the attitudes. the one that said hunger and thirst after justice. the other day when geri and i were talking, she remindede that not only did she go to marymount, but so did lady gaga. she said, i'm just sorry i can't live to go to more alumni associations. and then there was john, her beloved husband, a love story for the ages. i was there at this church just over a year ago when they renewed their vows for their 50th anniversary. their vows were not just for a day or for a year, for a decade. you see, they believed that their vows are for eternity. and geri loved her husband and she loved her children donna, john, and laura.

and she was so proud of them, one a doctor, one an accomplished businessman, another a tv producer and also had worked on wl street. and oh, my gosh, the grandchildren. there was always the ptures and the stories of many storied accomplishments. you see, geri ferraro loved her family. she loved her extended family that went to her friends and her community, and she loved america because she believed, as she said to me, only in america, barbara, would somebody who startled out -- who started out in a regular neighborhood, whose father passed away and her mother taught her great determination could go on to be the vice president of the united ates, to be an ambassador on human rights and to make a difference in the lives of her family and her community geri, we will miss you but your legacy will live forever. mr. president, that concludes my remarks, but i would now like to

turn to senator barbara boxer and then to senator kay bailey hutchison. mrs. boxer: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from california. mrs. boxer: i'm so proud to be here with my colleague, senator mikulski a kay bailey hutchison, because of a woman who brought us all together, despite any differences we might have. geraldine ferraro. and so i rise to pay tribute to geri and i want to thank senator mikulski because i felt that her remarks just touched on every single point that i think needs to be made about our friend. geraldine was a trailblazer. we all remember the first female vice-presidential nominee of a major pearlt, the first in u.s. histor she cracked open that glass

ceiling for women seeking higher office. and it was a long time ago, and i just looked at the associated press, mr. president, had a photo of when geri arrived in san francisco to prepare for her speech at the convention. and i was there waiting for her to arrive, a much version of myself, i might say. and i -- i don't remember what said or did, but this picture tells a story. you know that old sailing, a picture says 1,000 words. this one says "a million words." i've never seen anyone as excited as i appear to be and was in this picture. arms opened wide, body language just incredulous that we had reached this milestone, all the

while knowing what a tough, tough, tough time it would be. a tough, tough time it would be for geri, as it is for all women, whether they run for u.s. senate, or they run for governor or they run for vice president. it is a tough road still. and especially all these many years ago, more than 20 years ago. geri was give an very hard time by the press. geri was give an very hard time by her 0 opponent. and shee here's what she proved. she proved without question that women can stand up to the grilling, women can stand up to the pressure, women can go toe to toe with anybody. you know, i often say, women are equal. we're not better or worse. we're equal. and geri proved it when her

campaign took a tough turn an a lot of others would have just tried to contain the problem. she stood there in front of the press and said, here i am. you as me anything you want. and i will stay here hour after hour, and you knew she meant it. she would have stayed there for days because that was geri. she was open-hearted, she was straight from the shoulder, she always said what was on her mind, and she did it in a way that was also very appealing beuse you knew this was a woman who was willing to look you in the eye and not give you any song and dance. i mean, it was what it was. and for that she will be missed as a friend, as a colleague, and it is just difficult today to imagine what it was like then. is now, yonow, you know, we seen

figures in the senate and in the president's cabinet and it's hard to igine a day that women were not actively engaged in the highest of offices and, frankly, that is geraldine ferraro's abiding legacy, because, as senator mikulski so eloquently stated, she didn't win that race. it was a tough race. it was a very tough race. buthe proved a woman can do this. and when geri spoke about change, she felt in her heart the history-making moment. i remember her in a white suit. it was as if it was yesterday. and i remember saying, in those years, tv people always said, don't wear white. geri wore white. she was magnificent. and that smile and her togetherness at this moment in history when not only was the

whole country watching, the whole world was watching. it was an electric moment. and i want to read what she said -- quote -- "by choosing a woman to run for our nation's second highest office, you sent a powerful signal to all americans, there are no doors we cannot unlock. we will place no limits on our achievements. if we can do this, we can do anything." and those words resonated, not just to people who are interested in politics but to women who were in the corporate world, to women who were going to law school, just a few in those years. now so many more. women who just dreamed to go into health care, not as a nurse, although some chose that, and some men do as well, but as physicians. this was something that i truly believe changed. i would ask unanimous consent for five additional minutes and then turn it over to sator hutchison. the presiding officer: without

objection. that's going to run up way past our adjournment time. without objection. mrs. boxer: there was only one geri ferraro so i would go over for five minutes and turn it over to senator hutchison for as long as she would want. after graduation from college, geri got a job as a school at a public -- teacher as a public school in queens. she applied to fordham law school, the lawchool my husband went to. she was accepted into a night school. despite a warning from an admissions officer that she might be taking a man's pla. she got into law sool. she was one of two women in a class of 179. imagine, they said to her, you will be taking a man's place in law school. she persevered. one of just two women out of 179 students graduating in 1960. yes, she raised her family. she adored her family. there wasn't a second that went by water her saying to one of us

anywhere in earshot, i've got to tell you about laura, i've got to tell you about john, i've got to tell you what about my kids are doing. did my colleague want to yield? mr. durbin: i would ask if the senator from california would just yield for a brief statemen mrs. boxer: yes. as long as it won't interrupt my -- mr. durbin: i would ask it be put in a separate place in the record and i will put a written statement in the record because i know senator hutchison is waiting. but i would like to make one or two comments about geraldine fur ar row. first, my image of geraldine ferraro is this you congresswoman from california with her arms outstretched as she raced toward one another that iconic photograph of the two of you after she won the vice presidential nomination. i'll remember you and her in that context forever. second, it was my honor to serve with her in the house and to count her as a friend. and, third, in this long, long battle that she had, this medical battle, she never failed to remind all of us that she was, indeed, one of the fortunate ones who had the resources to be able to fight

this battle where many people didn't. and i'm going to miss area is dean ferraro. she was -- geraldine ferraro. she was a grat woman. -- she was a greatwoman. i ask that my statement be put in the record after senator hutchison. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. boxer boxer: i'm glad you e that statement and i appreciate it very much. when geri worked as an assistant district attorney, she formed a special victim's bureau, investigated way, child and women abuse, abuse against the elderly at a time when no one was talking about it. she was elected to congress. senator mikulski has gone into, that the work on the women's health equity act. i was proud to work with both senator mikulski and senator ferraro on that and senator snowe and others. i remember that senator mikulski, olympia snowe, geri ferraro and myself, we worked to open up the house gym to women. it was a battle. we had to resort to singing and everything else. we finally got into the house

gym. we said, yes, women need to work out too. that was -- that's the way it was then. we only had 24 women in the house and senate. now we have 88 of us. now, i'll skip over her time as a broadcaster and all the things she did that senator mikulski talked about, her work in human rights. but i want to just conclude with her brave, brave, brave spirit as she faced multiple mil my my, the bone cancer that ultimately took her life. and i want to do it in this context. i have a good friend now whose name is robin, and her mother is battling the same kind of cancer that geri was battling. and as we know, geri was given four or five years and went on, thank god, for much longer. this woman lives far away from her daughter, robin, and when geri passed, she called her and she said, i need to see you.

will you come out and stay with me as i battle this cancer? and -- and robin said, well, what is it, mom, you're doing great? and she said, we just lost geri and she was the one who kept my heart and soul together and my spirits up and i knew she was there battling. and now that i've lost her, she said, i've lost her, i don't know, i feel a hole, i'm empty. and that just is the most eloquent thing i could say about geri. now, this woman never met geraldine ferraro in person, but geri had that way about her, that she could reach you as if she was touching you. andt's a tremendous loss, first and foremost for the family, who she adored beyond words, and, secondly, for all the rest of us whoust need someone like that out there standing up and being brave and telling it like it is and never giving up. mr. president, i just am so honored that i could be here with my colleagues and i'm proud

to yield to senator hutchison for as much time as she may consume. ms. mikulski: the time is allocated as five minutes but i know you want to speak. you were a very dear friend and, please, proceed. mrs. hutchison:thank you. thank you, senator mikulski. thank you, senator without sena. thank you, mr. president. i do want to talk about this remarkab woman because i think that, as has been mentioned before, her loss is being felt throughout america for many different reasons. she was a trail blazer and she was one of the great female role models of her generation. i wrote a book in 2004 called "american heroines: the spirited women who shaped our country." and it was to profile the women who were the earliest trail blazers in different fields:

education, sports, politics, journalism. mrs. hutchon: and then i interviewed contemporary women who were still breaking barriers in those fields. in the public service chapter, i profiled margaret chase smith because she was the longest-serving women elected to the senate in her own right at the time and she was a true trl blazer. i interviewed then sandra day coconnor, our first -- san driveway day o'connor, our first supreme court justice, and geraldine ferraro, our first woman nominee for vice president of a major party. i asked geri ferraro in her -- in my interview with her, what was your most important trait for success? and she said, i think the ability to work hard and if something doesn't work, to learn from the mistake and move on. that's what's happened with my own life. it goes to the personal side,

she said, "from watching my mother w moved on after becoming a widow with two kids to support. she was 39 years old. then i watched her move on and do whatever was necessary to get the job done of educating her children. i'm exactly the same way. i'll do whater is necessary to get the job done, whatever it is. then if i do something that doesn't work, i go on to the next goal." i asked her what was her biggest obstacle. she almost laughed. she said, i'm 68. the obstacles in my life have changed with time. an obstacle when i was a kid was being in boarding school, away from my mother, because my father had died. i had no choice. it wasn't like the boarding schools or the prep schools of today. it was in a semi-cloistered convent. it was lonely and i had to work hard. i wanted to go to college but we didn't have the money for college so i knew i had to get

top marks in order to get a scholarship. that was my obstacle then. money was always an obstacle, she said. i taught when i went to law school at night because i couldn't afford to go during the day. when she applied for law school, she said, "they would say things to her like, geri, are you serious? you're taking a man's place. you know?" d then after getting out of law school, as was mentioned earlier, she was only -- one of only two women in her class, she got out of law school and she was faced with the challenge of trying to get a job. but she said, "i interviewed at five law firms. i was in the top 10% of my cla class." but she didn't get a job offer. well, i related to that because i graduated from law school after her in 1967 and law firms in texas didn't hire women then

either. so i know how she felt as she went through obstacle and obstles and obstacles. but she said, "you know, in the end, each thing was an obstacle that i had to get by at the time but i didn't have too many obstacles," because she just picked herself up and kept right on going. she truly was an inspiration and a trail blazer for women of our time. throughout her life, as a public school teacher, as an assistant district attorney, as a congresswoman and candidate for vice president, geri ferraro fought for the causes that were important to her. and when she learned that she had multiple myeloma, a somewha rare blood disease that is incurable, she drew upon that same fightinsame -- same fighting sp. as she waged the battle with her

own disease, geri stepped into the spotlight because she knew that if she talked about it with her high profile, that she could bring help to others. her testimony before congress was instrumental in the passage of a bill that senator mikulski, who is on the floor leading this effort today, and i cosponsored together in 2001 and 2002. our legislation gave the research community the tools they need to discover what trigrs these deadly blood diseases, to devise better treatments and to work toward a cure. in our bill, barbara and i decided to name "the geraldine ferraro blood cancer education program" for geri ferraro, to raise the awareness and spread the lifesaving information about myeloma, leukemia and other forms of blood cancer. geri ferraro was on the floor of the house when her bill, our

bill passed the house of representatives on april 30 of 2002. her daughter was in the gallery with my staffer and there was so much joy in her eyes and her demeanor. by then, geri ferraro went about the business of fashioning the education program. she consulted with the doctors at harvard, at dana farber, dr. ken anderson, her doctor, consulted with him because she wanted an interactive web site because she knew that doctors all over the country were searching for information on treatment on this disease because they were so unaware at the time of what you could do to help patients. well, this is personal to me because my brother, allen, also has multiple myeloma, and i got

involvedn this because i watched him bravely fight like geri ferraro is doing -- was doing. and my brother is a great patient. he is -- he's tough like geri, he's fighting like geri and he's doing really well. but we knew how hard it was because we watched allen fight this disease and take many of the same drugs and have the same doctor consultations as geri. so geri and allen knew each other and traded information, and the patients in these blood diseases do that. they reach out, they help each other because they know that it's the person with the experience who knows how you feel when you just don't feel like you can get up in the morning. people like kathy justey, who was also a good friend of geri

ferraro's, and ken anderson's. they traded information and it helped all of them to kno that they had that kind of support. so she was an inspiration and her dignity and great in fighting multiple myeloma will be one of her trademarks in her life, along with the other great trailblazing things that she has done. just last month, the women of the senate pulled together to return the encouragement. we knew that geri was having a hard time and we took a picture of the women of the senate and we all sigd it around the edges and we sent it to her and we said, thanks for being our champion, thanks for all you do for the women of our country. and geri was not just a champion for women running for public office ssm she was a -- office. she was a champion for women to

succeed in every sector. she tookhe first powerful swing at the glass ceiling. she won't be here to see the woman president who is sworn into office who will finish the breaking of that glass ceiling, but we will all be standing on the shoulders of bette geri fero and that first woman president will be as well. she took the first steps like so many of the early trail blazers in all of the different stors. the first ones don't see their success, but what they do by showing the digty and courage and the tenacity and the grace does prepare the way for the next generation or the next woman to move to the next level. and that's what geri ferraro has done for all the women of our country. i will always remember her friendship.

i will appreciate her leadership and we will all miss her on a personal level, but we will always remember in the bigger picture what she did for this country. thank you, mr. president. thank you, senator mikulski. and i yield the floor. msmikulski: i yield the floor to senator snowe. the presiding officer: the senator from maine. ms. snowe: thank you. i want to thank our senior senator from the state of maland for oanizing this tribute to our dear friend, geraldine ferraro and the eloquent comments from the senato from texas as well. i'm pleased today to be able to join in this tribute with my good friends and colleagues. senator barbara mikulski and

senator barbara boxer, as well, of california. and as i look back in our time ace began my service in the u.s. house of representatives, i can't help but think today we're standing here honoring a come paacompatriot at that time, a political torch bearer, geraldine ferraro after a brave battle with cancer. as many will hear in this senate many times over, geralne was a pioneering champion and a dynamic force for women's rights, a colleague of all three of us in the u.s. house of representatives, and always a dear friend through more than three decades. as america's first female vice presidential nominee for a major party, geraldine has forever secured a legendary position along the timeline of american political history as walter

mondale selected her as his running mate in the 1984 presidential election. while america was learning about gelgeraldine on the national st, as you will recall, senator mikulski and senator boxer knew her as a legislative sister in arms. as we served together in the u.s. house of representatives and geraldine and i were members of the same house freshman class that began service in january of 1979. at that time, unbelievably, brought the total number women serving in the 96 congress to 16. and all four of us, as youl recall, madam president, fought e myriad causes. most especially those affecting america's women. looking back at that time, i take enormous pride, as i know both senators mikulski and boxer do, we spoke as women first, not as republicans or democrats. that women's issues transcended

partisan lines for us. the fact was that we couldn't afford to draw partisan lines for women underrepresented in congress and that drove our agenda, the bipartisan congressional caucus for women's issues, which i happened to co-chair for more than 10 years in the house of representatives, along with the co-chair of thing on woman pat schroed from corado. our adherence to working together and the ideal of principle over politics became our foundation. we determined if we didn't act, who would. and we started to make a difference for women and not a moment too soon. because there was a time in america where federal laws were systemically working against women, discriminating against women as women were assuming more of a role not only at home, but also in the workplace. and the federal laws did not reflect the dual responsibilities of those roles as women were assuming more and more obligations in the workplace.

well, we weren't going to accept the status quo any longer. and certainly geld dean was not -- geraldine was not to count t notion, that's just the way it is. to the contrary, we began to confront those dparities, introduced a package of laws known as the women economic uity act that addressed a litany of issues that called for a study of government pay practices, sought to have equal credit for women in business ventures and battled with geraldine who led the effort to end the war on pension, that discovered unbeknownst to them they were left with no pension benefits. they wouldn't be notified until thaifer husband's death -- after their husband's death that without their knowled that it had been canceled prior to their death. a group of women legislators,

not come priced -- no one pressed for remedys to right these wrongs with more skill than geraldine ferraro. she was a bulwark against injustice and a cherished champion for fairness in america where women were increasing their roles in american life and their presence in the u.s. workplace and the economy. on a personal note i can't help but think part of our mutual bond is that which i came from similar backgrounds much our families immigrated to this great land. our heritages spoke to the american dream where anything is possible and the only limiting out ofhose that you place on yourself. indeed "the new york times" mentions how geraldine's mother crocheted beads to send her to the best schools. my mother worked in the textile

mills to sen sure that my sus -- to ensure that my cousins and i received a good education. we shared a determination to make a lasting difference for women and working families and a focus that surrounded politics and party be labels. more than 30 years later geraldine's legacy lives on through the 74 women serving the other body today compared to the 16 when we first entered the u.s.ouse of representatives. -- u.s. house of representatives where the presiding officer was serving in the u.s. house of as well as the 17 women who are now in the united states senate. in fact, back in 1979, there was only one woman serving in the united states senate at that time. in closing i can't help but recall the great lady who was the first woman to ever serve in the british house of parliament. one day she took her seat in

that distinguished body. a member of parliament said welcome to the most exclusive men's club in europe. demonstrating the kind of moxy and obligation that was truly america's geraldine ferraro, lady as torre responded by saying it won't be exclusive for long. when i came in, i left the door wide open. that is precisely what geraldine ferraro did. she exemplified those things, that it is not enough to break barriers and chart a new course, you have to ensure that others are able to traverse it as well. geraldine spent a lifetime making certain that the path she helped pave was available and accessible to every woman with the courage and the will to travel. and so today it is a privilege for me to extol this remarkable woman, hose imprint will be felt for generations to come. our thoughts and prayers remain with her husband of 50 years,

john, as well as their children, donna, john jr., laura and the eight grandchildren. may they be comforted in the knowledge that so many share in their profound sense of loss. in our service service in the house of representatives, she talked about how much she adored her family and her husband. they meant so much to her. she was very much a woman ahead of her time, having a legal profession, raising a family, and then entering the political arena, and then making sure those doors were thrown open for all women in america, fighting for the discriminatory practices that were prevalent at the time in the work place and certainly even in federal law. i always like to point out to younger generations of women that it wasn't so long ago that there were so many federal laws in place that served as barriers and impediments to growth in the work place, growth in education, and the

ability to compete on an equal level. and geraldine helped to break those barriers without question and left a remarkable legacy that will resonate for generations. so madam president, thank you for offering us this opportunity to pay tribute and to honor this woman, who will forever have a place in history and one with whom we shared, fortunately, a friendship and memories that will last a lifetime. madam president, i yield the floor. >> madam, president. >> the senator from new hampshire. >> i know we are about to close the senate, but i wanted to just take a minute or two to add my voice to all of the women in the senate who have been here today and thank you for your leadership in encouraging us to honor geraldine ferraro. i remember being on the floor of the 1984 democratic convention when she gave her

acceptance speech for the vice president of the united states. it was electric. listening to her epitomized for me, and i am sure for every woman there, the fact that women could do anything. geraldine ferraro worked tirelessly on behalf of human rights, and women's rights around the globe. she dedicate her public service to the ideals of respect and equality, and she had a career that called on all women to challenge the glass ceilings of the world. i think it is particularly important because -- just because one woman breaks the glass ceiling, it that opportunities are open to every woman, and she understood that and continued to encourage all of the ceilings across the world be broken for women. her life was a powerful example for all of us here who are

honoring her today and for our daughters and granddaughters. we thank her for leading the way. she will be missed. thank you, madam,. . >> next, prime minister gillard discusses a possible carbon tax in australia. after that, a senate hearing on weapons cost overruns in the defense department. then a commission on wartime contracting looks at procedures in afghanistan and iraq. >> the only difference between a deputy mayor and mayor was i could say what i wanted as mayor, and the only one who got in trouble with medvedev. >> stephen goldsmith spent eight years as mayor of indianapolis. today he has a boss, michael bloomberg. >> i am here to make the streets a little bit cleaner and saver, make the tax dollars go farther, and that large cities have a really vibrant

future. i steer away from things that will detract from that agenda. >> quamplet, sunday night at 8:00 on something. >> at a recent question time session in the australia parliament, prime minister julia gillard and cabinet members answered questions on the government's plans for a carbon tax and multiculturalism policy. this program is just over 40 minutes. >> to fight climate change. the idea is being fiercely resisted by opposition leader on the conservative side of politics. during march, the government had to defend its border protection policies after riots on christmas island, where a detention center houses more than 2,000 asylum seekers.

during march the government and opposition declared their support for japan after the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disasters. here

earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disasters. here now are the highlightses. >> thank you very much spl speaker. i can say to the leader of the opposition i watch channel 9 too as it happens. i did watch that interview, and i did watch the segment that she is referring to from president obama. i think it was the sunday before actually that that went on air. so we are seeing the usual degree of research and endeavor by the opposition we have come to accept because of their lazy approach to politics and their lazy approach to policy. can you explain to the deputy leader of the opposition in answer to the question she has asked me. yes, she is absolutely right. i did say before the last election campaign i wanted a full cap and trade scheme, and we will get a full cap and trade scheme.

thank the deputy leader of the on for verifying that to the house. number one, i think she would note that it was sometime ago. number two, she would note that president obama has committed his nation to a clean energy future. president obama is in a situation where with the congress, the american people have elected, he is not in a position to legislate an emissions trading scheme. a member states why would we have one in well, the reality is -- and let me explain this to the members today. i am someone who shows a great deal of admiration for the united states of america. i think that was on display when i recently traveled there. but the members may not realize that we are not middle americans. we make decisions for our own we make decisions for our own country.