it was boiling hot and we go there and they decide that we're all going dress alike that day. so it even got hotter as we donned our robes and here we were seeing not only telling them the esteem to which he was held in congress, that was the least of it, because what we were hearing was what people from around africa, the esteem to which they held him, name ad lietum brear for him at that university in -- named a library for him in liberia. he was school teacher and he never forgot how important it was to -- for us to put our students first. he called them the bright lights of our nation's future. investing in their potential, for inspiring them to succeed, igniting the sparks that they had within them, to do their very best. . he was very proud of newark and serving there, remember when he first came there, his work on

behalf of his constituents, for people who were striving to reach up into the middle class, he was always working for them. new jersey, as has been mentioned, their first african-american member of congress he remained a champion, a committed champion of equality and opportunity for all. again, he in his accomplishments bolt on his committee, where he served with congressman george miller who holds him in the highest esteem and then his foreign affairs committee, where he served with congressman howard berman, to hear the two of them talk today as if they had lost a brother. an we all have. they had an appreciation of his hard work ethic, the knowledge he brought to his subject, and the concern he had for the american people an the love he had for our country.

and he came to office to talk about the issue of global health and he asked if donald payne could be meeting. we hoped that would be possible but he was not feeling well that day, this was a week ago. but up until the end he was in demand, recognized for his, again, standing on issues that related to the alleviation of poverty, the eradication of disease, again, the alleviation of hunger throughout the world and what more could be about the gospel of matthew than ministering to the needs of god's creation, which the bible tells us is an act of worship. to ignore those needs is to dishonor the god who made us, donald payne was all about worshiping god by ministering to the needs. he was an expert on economic, political and security situations throughout africa and i had the honor of

nominating him, recognizing his extraordinary work around the world, i was proud to recommend that president george w. bush name congressman payne our congressional -- our representative of the house democrats at the united nations. usually it was just for one term. in the case of donald payne, it went well beyond that in recognition of the extraordinary contribution he made. so again, whether it was in his own district, whether it was in newark, new jersey, or across the world, he was a powerful and passionate voice. i hope it's a comfort to his children, to donnell jr., to wanda and nicole and all -- to donald jr., to wanda and nicole, his brother who traveled with him frequently and loved him so much, i hope it's a comfort to them that so many people who knew him well, mourned him so much -- loved

him so much, are mourning him now. i thank mr. row and congresswoman christensen for the opportunity to say a few words. his legacy lives on in the congress of the united states. thank you, mr. speaker. mr. roe: i would like to yield time to the distinguished gentleman from maryland, mr. steny hoyer. mr. hoyer: i thank the gentleman for yielding. this is a sad day for america. it's a sad day for the congress. it's a sad day for our african-american brothers and sisters who have lost a real leader and an extraordinary friend. i first met donald payne when i

was in my mid 20's. he was active in the young democrats of new jersey, i was active in the young democrats of maryland. that's how we first met. don was about six years older than i am. and so i looked on him as an -- when you're a middle -- when you're in your middle 20's, somebody in their 30's is really old. but we all saw him as a serious individual. serious about his activities, serious about his objectives, serious about the people. he had a -- an extraordinarily productive career as the leader mentioned, as i know other speakers performing have mentioned, he was a teacher. he was a teacher in the tradition of frederick douglass. frederick douglass, a fellow

marylander, said that it is easier to build strong children than it is to repair broken men. donald payne was focused on that concept as a teacher. then throughout his life he was focused on making sure that america kept the faith with people around the world, that its values, that its hopes, its visions for ourselves were also our hopes and visions for others. donald payne, before he came to the congress, i think had traveled to more country than -- cupries than perhaps any member of congress. he cared about people and particularly people who lived in africa. and i think there was no member who knew africa better than donald payne. no member who risked more for

the welfare of those who live on that continent. my first trip as majority leader, the leader is here, she went with us, my first trip as majority leader, i went to sudan and darfur. i made that my first trip because at that point in time it was one of the most troubled, and still remains, lands in our global. donald payne unfortunately could not go on that trip. he was otherwise -- he had another thing to do. but we had a briefing before we went and donald payne was there. it was clear from those who briefed us that donald payne was obviously the person they looked to for knowledge and insight into how we could get

from where we were then to what is now the independent south sudan and hopefully it will remain so, notwithstanding the violence of sudan itself. donald payne was an extraordinarily conscientious member of this body. but more than that, he was a man who cared about his fellow man and fellow women. donald payne was a serious member of this body. that does not mean he was always serious. he had a sense of humor. he was a wonderful, engaging person. but he was serious about what he did. and it reflected how deeply he cared about those whom he served. and about his cutchtry. -- his country. we could all speak for special order after special order and

still not reach the magnitude of praise and thanks that de-- that he deserved. suffice it to say that this body was a better place for his service. and as reverend cleaver so eloquently intoned, we were better people for having been his friend and his colleague. and his co-worker. i am pleased to join all of you who, like me, knew donald payne as a member of congress, yes, but as a human being. as an individual. as someone who cared about us and we cared about him. i join leader pelosi and all of you and our friends on the other side of the aisle because don worked across the aisle, don was not an observer -- an

observer of partisan differences, although he understood they existed. his objective was to work with all for the betterment of all. so i'm pleased to have this opportunity to join all of you in thanking god that he gave us don payne, that he gave him sufficient years to make an extraordinary mark here in this country an around the world. and i yield back the balance of my time. mr. roe: mr. speaker, i would now like to yield time to the dean of the michigan delegation, mr. conyers. mr. conyers: i thank the gentleman for yielding to me. i also thank donna christensen for her leadership in bringing us all together this evening.

this is a wonderful way of, when this record is read of this special order for donald payne, for everyone to know the depth of the love and respect that we all have for this great and gentle human being. he was a committed public service servant and true champion for social and economic justice at home and around the world. he had a global perspective that helped teach us that all of the 6.4 billion people on earth are connected and related and so when i was asked to go campaign for his first run for

congress that i knew about in 1988, i was pleased to do so. i traveled to newark and joined with him in that victory. and i remember being struck by his deep desire to help people and i had no idea he would grow and develop into this leader that we mourn and praise here today. and through his work as a member of the house education committee and the foreign affairs committee, he led the fight to address inequities in every rem of existence. he was a great proponent for

piece. -- for peace. and i must say that i am convinced that he had the spirit and the philosophy of dr. martin luther king jr. that he lived and demonstrated every single day of his life. he's the one member that i can say, i never saw him angry. i never saw him upset. and when i was able to take him away from his african commitments, i took him to haiti, where he immediately understood the depth of the suffering and the tragedy that

required us to go back again and again and again. and so donald payne, what has been said of you today is only a small token of the contributions that you've made during your life, you'll be missed by your colleagues, you will be mourned by your family, you will be treasured by many people in many places on this globe. mr. roe: i now take the opportunity to yield two minutes to the gentlelady from texas, ms. jackson lee. ms. jackson lee: i want to thank my distinguished friend for your kindness and

generosity in yielding the time and to the speaker and i want to thank mrs. christensen for -- dr. christensen, for binning -- beginning us on this journey and to the speaker for being educated by these powerful words of my colleagues. i do want to say that if you had to give a tribute biblically to donald payne you would certainly quote from timothy in saying that i fought the good fight. and i am grate to feel also say that donald payne had a lot of fun in life. some of us can trace our friendship to years past, to decades past. but i know that as the world loved donald payne, he loved newark and new jersey. hayed the pleasure of joining him and his friends in the

congressional black caucus, we have the opportunity to meet constituents and there is nothing but love in that room. i had, i recall a humble privilege to visit him at georgetown hospital, where his brother an sister were in the room, chief of staff, to have him smile as some of our colleagues have said but in the course of being in the room, i heard that the former president of south africa was trying to reach him. . there will be a long list of presidents and former presidents trying to reach him. but you cannot in any way doubt the fact that in his acceptance and acknowledgement by all of those iconic figures, president mandela as well, that he as a progressive, stood along with

the family members that he loved, whether it was his son who was a counsel member or other children, bill payne, he showed the struggles of african american in newark, new jersey in the 1950's and 1960's and was fighting for equal rights out of the northward. and leave it to donald payne to talk about new jersey politics and he loved it. and he had an iconic presence, but he also had a leadership bossman presence, and i say that lovingly, because if you needed something in that area, and as my good friend, my good friend, brother pallone ap and pascrell, if you needed something, you could get a hold of don payne. he loved the richness of his district and diversity, but he

was fighting for the poor and dispossessed. and maybe that's what brought him to his affinity and kinship to africa. one of my predecessors died on the side of a mountain trying to feed those who could not feed themselves. but don payne went from sudan to south africa, to angola, to the congo, liberia, he was in all of those, if you will, conflicts, where he wanted to bring about peace. he counseled presidents, republican and democrat. and i remember bill clinton's historic trip. you can be assured that donald payne was at the nexus of drawing him to making that historic trip in 1998, counseled

george bush and others, counseled president obama. and i don't know if many of you know that donald payne was a longshoreman and worked in many different places and he is reminded of his work and said -- and i heard a member talk about that, i believe, but he loved the working person. let me just conclude as i salute him for being the progressive who did not forget the poor. and as well, could speak eloquently with the leaders of international positions around the world albeit he was coach, teacher, counsel member. i remember to traveling to africa on occasions, plural, but on this instance, what i would say having in somalia was almost

taken down. but many of you will remember, the father of the present president of the congo, you will know that that area has always been in conflict and donald payne has never shunned. two places we went, angola when it was still in conflict and donald payne said we can meet the president in his office, but i'm going up up in the bush and if you all are with me, we are getting on this one propelor plane, not two, but one, but we are going to go up there and meet with the opponent of the president. we sat with donald payne encouraging this opponent to put down his guns and to come and meet with this president who through donald payne had promised peace. i know that man wished he

answered the call that donald payne made. he never left the bush and died in that place. i got to see him up close and personal where no risk of life was too much for him to bring about peace. so as i conclude, let me simply say to the peacemaker, to the intended nobel peacemaker, to the man who didn't shy away from a conflict that might have taken his life, to the love of newark, to the love of his family, children and staff, to the love of this institution, don, may you rest in peace. warrior, leader, hero. god knows that you never stopped working and you deserve that angel's place in heaven. i yield back. mr. roe: i now yield to the gentleman from texas. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from texas rise?

>> mr. speaker, first let me say i join my colleagueses in recognizing not only the life and work of don pain, but also wanted to add -- don payne but also wanted to my personal sentment of what don meant to me. mr. sessions: speaker hastert asked both don and myself to become engaged in issues that would be considered the war on terror. and the speaker recognized that the caribbean could be the gateway not only for terrorism, but also on a number of other issues. and don and i accepted that role, had a number of trips down to the caribbean, but also met with caribbean leaders here in

washington, d.c.,. don was always upbeat. don was always looking for answers and responses to the needs of our friends in the caribbean and really found the way to cut some good friendships with people to where they became better friends of the united states congress and the united states because of his personal involvement in issues and matters. and i enjoyed working with don. he accepted not only his role and mine, us working together, i as a younger member, he as a senior member. and he welcomed my advances for ideas and thoughts. and it was difficult for me also, and i know as i was walking into the capitol a few minutes ago to see the beautiful flag that flies outside the united states capitol at half mast in honor of our colleague don payne. so i do want to thank this body for allowing me a chance to express not only my thoughts

about don, but also to recognize him as an outstanding member of this body. mr. speaker, i need to notify this body that i send to the desk a privileged report from the committee on rules for filing under the rule the clerk: resolution providing for consideration of the bill h.r. 3606 to encrease american job creation and economic growth by improving access to the public capital markets for emerging growth companies. the speaker pro tempore: referred to the house calendar and ordered printed. session sgs i that -- mr. sessions: i thank the gentleman for yielding. mr. roe: may i inquire how much time i have remaining? the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman has 26 minutes remaining. mr. roe: we have 11 speakers and if you would limit your remarks, i want the opportunity for everyone who wants to speak to

speak. i would ask one of don's colleagues, mr. pallone, to speak a and i yield time to him. mr. pallone: thank you, mr. speaker. i have a lot of don pain stories and i wanted to tell one which says a lot about the man. i listened to what sheila jackson lee said before about how he was humorous in telling jokes and new jersey politics and how he was so well respected and had the ability to basically tell other members or indicate to other members what they should do. and i also listened to clark when he said dop was a gentleman. don was a gentleman and people respected him as such in newark and throughout his district. there was an occasion after the redistricting when i gained an area -- i won't mention the area in my new district that was

mostly african american and dop payne was very well known there and i wasn't known there. i actually lived at the jersey shore and people down at the jersey shore, the people from north jersey refer to us with names like clam digger indicating that the people aren't as sophisticated. i was at a meeting with african-american ministers and the purpose of don being there was to tell them it was ok, in other words, it was ok that this guy from the shore, the clam digger, so to speak, was now going to represent you, because he was ok. as you know, don couldn't take an occasion like that without making a joke and getting the point across. so he said to the ministers, he said, you know, this guy, frank pallone is going to represent you, but he's down at the shore and most of the time he spends

talking about crabs and the fish and the things at the shore. i don't know if he can relate to this urban area now that he is going to represent where you all know me. but he said i'm going to tell you the story. you often see congressman pallone picking up crabs and he picks up the crab and talks about how the crab was injured and it was important to help the crab and the crab needed some help and needed to be fixed, needed some health care so it could become a whole crab again and lead a good life. and everybody was laughing at this point, but it was his way of getting across in a humorous way that it was ok to have frank pallone represent you, that he was going to relate to you. he could relate to a crab, so he could obviously relate to you. i don't know if i'm saying this properly, but this is how don was. he just was able to use humor to get a point across, a very

serious point in a very effective way. and i will miss him so much because he made me laugh so many times in situations that were serious and didn't seem to be much humor, but always did it in a way that made me understand how important it was to be here as a member of congress. and he really understood how important our jobs were and how they can make a difference in people's lives. thank you, mr. speaker. mr. roe: i would like to yield to a the gentleman from new jersey, one of mr. payne's very close colleagues. >> today, newark, the state of new jersey and the united states of america lost a hero. and the world lost, especially

those who needed help, those who were being persecuted. mr. rothman: they lost a champion. for don pape's family, they've -- payne's family, they lost the strong, gentle, warm, beautiful, handsome hero who held them together all these many years. and like so many others but in a very special way, we lost a very dear, dear friend. i loved donald payne, i know he loved me. we spent many times together as dear friends, buddies, laughing and joking, but also many great times speaking about the very, very serious issues confronting our state, his district, my

district, the country and the world. donald payne led an extraordinary life. a young african-american man from very humble beginnings did not have it easy growing up in america and didn't have it easy acquiring political power that enabled him to help everyone, whether it was in newark, essex or new jersey, the united states or in the world. history will record that that this young man from newark, donald payne, literally saved tens of thousands of lives. he did. all over the world, in america,

in africa and in northern island. and he was known throughout the world as a champion of the down tropical depressionen, those in need, and a champion of human rights. he was a longshoreman, he was a teacher, he was a waiter, an elected official from new jersey who made us all so proud, but he was a citizen of the world. he was a leader in this world. . . he leaves behind a legacy not only as a beloved father, husband, grandfather, great grandfather, brother, family man, but also as a dear, loving friend. beneath that strong, serious,

statesman's demeanor was a warm, charming, funny, irreverent, smart, and great friend. i will miss him very, very much. god bless you, don payne. my friend. god bless you, congressman donald payne, you iconic figure for america and the world. we will miss you dearly, but we will never forget you. mr. roe: madam speaker, i now yield time to the distinguished gentleman from illinois. mr. rush: i want to thank the gentleman for yielding.

in the book of ecleese yasstees, these words are recorded, to everything this there is a season, a time and purpose and to everything under the sun, a time to be born, a time to die, a time to plant and a time to pluck up what is planted. today, a giant oak tree has fallen. there's a gaping hole in the forest. don payne his moved from an earthly life into an eternal,

heavenly life. a time, a purpose, a season. don payne did not take his time , his season, nor his purpose for granted. every moment, every season, the purpose for which he was created meant something to him and he gave his life, he spent his life working on his time, his season, and his purpose.

last friday, don, through his chief of staff, asked me to come to the hospital. and we talked for a while and he whispered some words to me, some directions for me, some orders from his hospital bed. but what stands out to me on that occasion last friday was his last words spoken to me. we were in the middle of votes and he said, -- i missed those

votes. here a man who knew he was spening his last hours on this earth, he knew that his life was coming to an end, he had told me some weeks before that he had colon cancer and he didn't know what was going to happen. but his last words to me was not, woe is me, but he was thinking about public service. he was thinking about this house. he was thinking about me and the vote that i was to cast. he was thinking about a time and a purpose and a season.

this reminder becomes quite simple. the prophet micah asked, when god asked the prophet micah, who do i require of thee, but to love mercy and do justice and walk humbly before your god. mr. speaker, i know that don passed fwod's requirement he lived his -- god's requirement he lived his life with purpose. he was a son of africa but he

was also a servant of africa and a servant of the world. we're all going to miss don. we all look to don's example in public service. i will miss him and my condolences to his entire family and his entire staff. i might add that we went to his office, we sang a song together , jesus keep me near the cross.

don not only stayed close but now he's in a better place. god bless you, don, god bless you. mr. roe: i thank the gentleman. i would like to yield to the distinguished gentlelady from california, ms. lee. ms. lee: thank you very much. thank you for yielding. madam speaker, it is with a very heavy heart that i rise tonight to honor and commemorate the life of a world leader, but more importantly a grandfather, a great grandfather, a father, a brother, an uncle, a boss, a dedicated family member to so many. i offer my condolences and prayers to don's family, to his staff, they need our comfort

during these very difficult days. don was more than a colleague to many of us, myself included. he was a very good friend. we lived near each other in washington, d.c., here, and i had the privilege to drive him home quite often. these were special moments for me which i will always cheerish. it was during these rides that he counseled me, he cracked so many jokes to cheer me up because he always knew what we were going through. and we talked about family and friends and what was really real in our lives. don loved children and he relished his membership on the committee on education and work force. and of course before coming to congress, he was a national president of the ymca and an elementary schoolteacher.

but yes, don was also a global leader. and i have traveled abroad with don and he was greeted as a head of state and a comrade. but don didn't especially like traveling with large congressional delegations. he liked going by himself and with his brother to the middle of conflicts, sometimes in the bush and in the jungle, to meet with guerrilla leaders and freedom fighters he helped negotiate truces and all sides, everywhere in the world, loved and respected him. now for many years, don was a lone voice in the wilderness, calling for a declaration of genocide in darfur and sudan. finally, we all got it. as a result of his persistence working with both sides of the aisle to address the atrocities and genocide, his bill passed, this declaration of genocide

work bipartisan support. i was honored to serve on congressman payne's subcommittee for many, many year the subcommittee on africa. he was a brilliant and fair chairman and he helped me shepherd and negotiate many bills and many of my legislative efforts. and yes, i was blessed to have visited don on thursday afternoon. he smiled, we talked, he whispered a few words, but he gave me a thumbs up. i met don payne through the mail in 1998 when my predecessor, who i know sends his condolences today, told him i was running for congress. he sent me a wonnerful note, didn't even know him, and a contribution. when i was elected, he came up to me and he hugged me and he became my mentor on so many issues. in closing, let me just say that, i know, and we talked a

lot about this, i've been to church with him, don payne was a humble man of tremendous faith and in thinking of don this evening, i'm reminded of a scripture from the second chapter of timothy, verse six to eight, it says as for me, the hour has come for me to be sacrificed, the time is here for me to leave this life. i had done my best in the race, i have run the full distance and i have kept the faith and now there is, waiting for me, the victory prize of being put right with god which the lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day. and not only to me, but to all those who wait with love for him to appear. may don's soul rest in peace. mr. roe: i thank the gentlelady.

i would like to yield to the distinguished gentleman from missouri, mr. clay. mr. clay: i thank the gentleman for yielding. madam speaker, the untimely pass moifing good friend and colleague congressman donald payne early this morning is a terrible loss for donald's family and friends, the house of representatives, the people of the 10th congressional district of new jersey, and our nation. donald payne was a tireless advocate for his constituents at the local and municipal level before winning election to the house more than two decades ago. as new jersey's first and until his death only african american member of congress, he was the voice of working families from all backgrounds who called the 10th district their home. i am privileged to have known and worked with -- and worked with donald payne. i will always be grateful to him for the warm way he

welcomed me into this house and into the congressional black caucus. i know that my father worked with donald for more than 10 years joins me in extending our family's sympathies to donald's family, friends, colleagues, and constituents. as the people of newark and a across the state of new jersey mourn the loss of their friend donald payne, the people of st. louis, all of missouri, and all across our country mourn with them. his leadership, friendship, and passion for his work will be missed and madam speaker, i yield back the balance of my time. mr. roe: i thank the gentleman for yielding. i would now like to yield time to the distinguished gentleman from new orleans, louisiana, mr. richmond. . mr. richmond: thank you for yielding and thank you, mr. speaker, for the time.

it was once said that a politician worries about the next election. but a statesman worries about the next generation. don payne was a statesman. to the payne family, i offer my sincere condolences and prayers. thank you for sharing your brother and your father with us. while i do not have as many personal memories as my colleagues of serving with congressman payne, i stand here as a bishyear of his work -- beneficiary of his work over 77 years. i can honestly say but not for donald payne, i probably wouldn't be here. i along with others of my generation and the generations after me, not only in america, but all across the world, stand on the shoulders of congressman

payne. so i have the honor and the pleasure of serving with him, but also have the obligation on behalf of those generations to say thank you to congressman payne for making this world a better place for us. if we can remember anything with his passing, we can be rest assured that donald payne did what he was purposed to accomplish in his lifetime. so i can say right now without a doubt that donald payne earned the right to say exactly what paul said to timothy, and that is, i have fought the good fight. i finished the race, and i have kept the faith. so, mr. speaker, this body, this country, the entire world, we

lost a true gentleman in donald payne and we lost a statesman and with that, mr. speaker, i yield back. thank you for the time. mr. roe: i yield now time to my colleague and time to mr. cohen, from member his. mr. cohen: i appreciate the time. everything has been said just about congressman payne and by such wonderful gentlemen and gentleladies that pay tribute to the man. i had the opportunity to meet him early into my entry into the congress and made me feel at home from day one. he was indeed a gentleman, quiet, with a marvelous record for peace, for justice, for the people the downtrodden who needed a helping hand.

i had the opportunity to travel with congressman payne and his brother and others to rwanda and to the congo this past august and i saw how he was beloved among people in africa where he had traveled on many occasions before. we shared the experience of going to the memorial, to the victims of the genocide there, and congressman payne told me some stories of when he had been there with president clinton and president clinton had gone back and expressed his regrets in not having done more to prevent the genocide, but was a strong and supporting the nation of rwanda and the people getting their country back together. donald payne had a progressive record and was respected and loved by all. i was fortunate that my life intersected with his, for he

made me feel at home as a member of this congress and as so many other members of the congressional black caucus have done didn't have to be a member of the congressional black caucus to be a member of the congressional black caucus. and i yield back. mr. roe: how much time do we have? the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. roe: i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: under the speaker's announced policy of january 5, 2011, the chair now recognizes the gentlewoman from california, ms. lee, for 30 minutes. ms. lee: i would like to yield now to the gentleman from south carolina, our assistant leader, jim clyburn. mr. clyburn: i thank the gentlelady for yielding me the time. madam speaker, i often quote the

poet, robert frost, who admonished us that two roads difficult verge in the wood and i picked the one last traveled by and that has made all the difference. i would not quarrel with mr. froast, but i would believe that it's the people that as you travel the roads of life that really makes the difference with all of us. and several years before i came to this body, i met donald payne. i was a bit in awe of him because he struck out to us and

in the race after i met the goal as he had hoped, as many of us had hoped. but don did not lose faith. he gathered himself and he tried again. and, of course, upon his success, all of us know whether successful congressman he made. i traveled with don often. we went to africa together and traveling with him on the in the event of africa, going in and out of country after country, sitting with him as he called

heads of states by their names and to see the respect that all of them had for him was just a joy to behold. i learned a lot from donald payne. and i always, whenever i could, wanted to be around him. just this past december in my congressional district, donald came to charleston to help me participate in a congressional panel, talking about sustaining good, healthy communities. don on that particular day, was sort of the star as he usually was. i had no idea at that time that

we would be in this place today, but i think i could say without any threat of contradiction that if anybody has left his or her mark on service in this body, it was donald payne. his record will never, in my estimation, be equaled on two nents, as well as he -- continents, as few people will ever get to attain. i want to join my colleagues in joining his brother and other family members as much sympathy as i can muster. and i hope that they will

achieve real solace in the fact that their brother, their dad, their uncle gave so much and demanded so little in return. with that, i yield back. ms. lee: i yield to the gentleman from illinois, representative danny davis. mr. davis: i thank the lady for yielding. some of the fondest memories, he was a philosopher and poeta all of the things he had said and did, he has done those. the last conversation we had was

a philosophical conversation. and i believe that timmerson framed donald payne long before he was born. and he wrote this poem, "sunset and clear call." and may there be no moaning of the bar when i put out to sea, but such a tide as moving seas asleep, two fools have found and foam, from that which found the boundless deep turns again home. twilight in the evening bail and after that, the dark, and be there no sadness of fair well when i embark. from those from those born of time and place, the flood may

bear me far, i hope to see my pilot face to face when i have crossed the bar. donald crossed, but he left a great deal behind. and i yield back. ms. lee: i would like to yield to the gentlelady from new york, representative clarke. ms. clarke: i thank my colleague. madam speaker. today, i'm here to pay tribute to a great public servant, a person who tirelessly fought on behalf of his constituents in the 10th congressional district of new jersey and for all americans of all backgrounds across this nation. i pay tribute and celebrate the life of our beloved colleague, congressman donald payne.

you know, donald made history as the first african american in new jersey to be elected to congress. he served as a former chairman of the congressional black caucus and was recent chairman of the congressional black caucus foundation, where i really saw him go to work on waff behalf of the people across this nation. along with many others, i considered representative payne not just an accomplished colleague, but a role model and a dear friend. he was relentless and iconic advocate for the continent of africa as well as the caribbean region. he spoke boldly. he spoke out boldly against genocide in darfur and rwanda and fought with the black caucus

to help haiti recover from the devastating earthquake that struck the nation in 2010. congressman payne was a representative of newark, but his leadership was global. he was grateful -- we are grateful for his world view. we will never forget his passion , zeal and commitment to ip -- to improve the united states diplomatic relations around the world. i count myself fortunate to have established a real bond with congressman payne. he shared with me his quick witt and we shared a lot of laughs together. we often joked about who was tougher, newark or brooklyn.

his close friends and devoted staff and the people of the 10th congressional district of new jersey. know that he has left us a great legacy, building blocks if you will, for future generations of leaders. we will continue to celebrate the contributions of this great statesman. the stars in the heavens, will twinkle a bit brighter as congressman donald payne makes his transition to be with our creator in heaven. thank you, congressman, for all your commitment and sacrifice for the betterment of our global community. i yield back, madam chair. ms. lee: i yield to the

gentleman from north carolina, congressman price. . . . >> it was with great sadness i learned of the passing of my friend and colleague, donald payne. few members in this institution have left a greater impression on their constituent, their colleagues, and their country's domestic and foreign policy than don payne. mr. price: from the moment he set foot in congress, he was a powerful advocate for his district in new jersey and for working people across the country. he was a schoolteacher, president of the national council of ymca's, and an elected official in newark, he became one of the most forceful advocates for public education in congress. he played a key role as a

member. as the first african-american elected to congress from new jersey, don was an equally forceful advocate for the continued struggle for civil right, eventually becoming chair of the congressional black caucus. these accomplishments in education and civil rights would qualify as a successful career for any member but don didn't stop there. driven by his early fascination with africa and his adventuresome travel there is, don recognized that the struggle for civil rights and human dignity knew no borders, rising to become one of the most effective chairmen of the foreign affairs, africa, and global health subcommittee we have ever had in this institution. our nation's expanded focus on aids, malaria and other pandemic diseases would not have occurred without don's visionary leadership and moral courage. it was fitting that usaid announced a donald payne development fellowship last

week, designed to help people enter careers in international service. i was fortunate to benefit from don's knowledge and advocacy personally as he became a founding member of the bipartisan house democracy partnership which i co-share with my california colleague, representative david dreier. don's counsel and guidance and encouragement were invaluable as the partnership initiated partnerships with legislators in africa and countries affected by the arab spring. our frequent travels together in the region forged a deep and lasting friendship. he probably knew more about the ins and outs of africa politics than all other members of this institution combined he had strong and well-informed views about what our country's policies should be an he was ready to articulate those views persuasively, no matter who the president was or which party was in charge.

he also insisted on investigating situations on the ground for himself which led to quite a few one-man cartels and some anxious moments for those who wanted to prepackage congressional visits or maintain airtight security. it was fascinating to talk to him about his diplomatic forays which offered a combination of high adventure and a remarkable, inspiring dedication to the freedom and digny i have to the people of africa. congress has lost a true statesman a dedicated humanitarian, and a loyal public servant. we mourn his passing and we will miss don payne's counsel and friendship.

ms. lee: madam speaker, i'd like to yield now to the gentlelady from florida, congresswoman brown. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. ms. brown: often i say god is good but god has been good for giving us the life of donald payne. when you're born you get a birth certificate, when you die, you get a death certificate and that dash in between is what you have done to make this place a better place and don payne has done his work and when i think of what paul said, you have fought a good fight, and he has, and you finished the course. but there is still work for us to do. i remember we talk about donald payne and all his work in africa and i don't know anyone

that knew the continent or the people more than donald payne but i want to mention that my first trip as a member of congress was with congressman payne and we went ireland and we went to other countries. he was an international leader. and i want to thank his family, the constituents that sent him here and you know that he -- you sent someone here that loves, he loved the lord but more than that, he was what we want our public servants to be. someone that actually believed in serving the public and so donald's work speaks for itself. and we are so grateful that we've had the opportunity to serve with him and with that, i yield back the balance of my time. and i want to put my statement in the record.

thank you. ms. lee: i would like to yield to the gentlelady from the virgin islands, congresswoman christensen. ms. kristen zen: thank you, ms. lee and thank you everyone who has come out to pay tribute to donald payne and thank you father conroy for being here with us. i had the opportunity to go to a market side gala, it was an honor to do that. i talked about his commitment to africa and how i told donald i would never travel with him. he was as comfortable meeting rebels in the jungle as meeting presidents and chiefs. state department warnings meant nothing to him. you heard about his plane being shot at in moe gandhi shoe and he was jailed here at home because of protesting for justice. because of the high respect he

had from those on all sides, he was able to bring peace to warring factions, to broker a truce and ease the path to democracy for many. his legacy as a peacemaker was not limited to africa, he is an honorary son of ireland for his cricks there. as a teacher, he used his senior position on education and labor to ensure that educational opportunities are available for all children but especially poor and minority children he worked hard to close the achievement gap and was also a key player in legislation to reduce interest rates on college loans and to increase pell grants. i was able to tell those gathered how working families had no stronger supporter of labor and worker protections than donald payne. last year, the health brain trust and our partners honored him with a congressional leadership awar. i had the honor of traveling to newark every other year to the donald payne health summits and health fairs. he was just as derped that the

people in his district have access to quality health care as he was committed to their education and economic opportunity. it was always an event that was looked forward to and attended by thousands who were then connected to the health care system, some for the very first time. but if commit -- but his commitment extended beyond his district to the whole country and africa and the caribbean. he was chair of the subcommittee on africa and led the effort to increase pepfar funding more than three-fold. when president bush signaled his willingness to go from $15 billion to $30 billion other five year, donald took that as an opening to get even more and parlayed it into $48 billion. he led in assuring that all countries in in the caribbean would be included for the first time. i want to submit a statement

from dr. claire nelson on behalf of the institute for caribbean studies. there were only a few of us who knew donald was diagnosed with cancer. i thought he was even more feisty after his diagnosis than before. he would add his humorous commentary more often at our meetings he teased many of us mercilessly he led the congressional black caucus foundation with boundless energy which all of us had to try to keep up with. his most recent boat ride of which he takes pictures of everyone who comes was as enjoyable as always and he enjoyed every minute of it. his work in this body never faltered and i i think he might have been a more formidable adversary, or advocate, as the case might have been. above all, he was a great friend. in the end, he succumbed to the cancer but up to the very last, he lived his life to the

fullest. the people of the u.s. virgin islands, and he visited us several time, my family and staff join me in extending our heart felt sympathy to his family, his children, wanda jr., wanda and nicole, to his brother bill and sister katherine, to his staff here and in the district and to the people hofe 10th district of new jersey, donald was not only a respected member of the congressional black caucus, which he chaired, he was loved by all of us, we will miss him terribly but remember him with such great affection and consider ourselves blessed to have known him, served with him and have him call us his friends. so long, donald, rest in peace until we meet again. i'd like to -- ms. lee: i'd like to yield to the gentleman from indiana, congressman andre carson. mr. carson: thank you, congresswoman. madam speaker from my first days in congress, i always considered donald payne to be a

mentor and a friend. he took me and others under his wing and showed us what it means to be a member of congress, not just a politician, he showed me, like he showed so many of us in this chamber, how much more we accomplish through humility and cooperation than through bravado and partisanship. he was brilliant and he put thought into every word he said and because of that, madam speaker, his words carried weight on both sides of the aisle and in both chambers. most recently, i was privileged to serve under his leadership on the board of the congressional black caucus. i was able to see up close that he brought together the diverse personalities and opinions of the caucus in order to achieve a greater purpose. congressman payne made our

caucus strong and united and while we attempt to fill the gap, he leaves behind, i know we'll never have another leader like donald payne. madam speaker, learning to serve is truly an honor but it also comes with many challenges. as a young member, i am continuing to grow an find my place amongst my distinguished colleagues but i feel just a little more confident. i felt a little more confident because i had a role model in donald payne. if i'm given the privilege to serb in this great house, i look forward to carrying that legacy, the one he started, to fight for the underprivileged, to bring attention to the critical issues that don't make the front page, madam speaker. i want to extend my deepest sympathies to his family and

staff and they know like i do how great a member and great a man he was. i'm reminded of a passage of a conversation that jesus had with his disciples in the book of matthew, an they were dealing with this notion of leadership. jesus said, very succinctly and clearly, very wisely and prophetcally to them, he who wishes to be chief among you shall first be your servant. let us remember around honor donald payne, the true public servant. i yield back. ms. lee: i yelled to the gentleman from oregon, congressman blumenauer. mr. blumenauer: thank you very much. today we mourn the loss of a colleague and friend. newark lost its champion. africa lost its informal ambassador as donald payne exercised tremendous leadership

and influence as a senior member and chair of the african subcommittee. but with the passing of donald payne, i think it's important to note one other loss. because for millions of people around the world who never knew don payne, they lost a hero. . don knew that almost a billion of the world's poorest people lacked access to clean drinking water, that almost three times that number lacked access to sanitation, resulting in the death every 15 seconds of a child needlessly to wear-borne disease. one of the great privileges of my career in the house was working with don payne on the paul simon water for the poor act.

don payne was a quiet member of congress, but he knew what was important. he was clear in expressing those needs, expressing what needed to be done. and his leadership, his work behind the scenes as well as on the front lines made it possible for the first time in our history to have the united states have a cohesive policy towards meeting the unmet needs of water and sanitation for these poor people. to set a very clear objective that within the next four years, we would cut in half the number of people who lack access to this fundamental. because of the leadership of congressman donald payne, literally millions of lives have been touched, improved, indeed, saved.

we thank you, congressman payne, for your leadership and influence that extended far beyond your district in new jersey and we thank his family and constituents for sharing him with us and sending him back repeatedly so he could do his important work. thank you, and i yield back. ms. lee: i now would like to yield to the gentleman from georgia, congressman scott. mr. scott: thank you very much, ms. lee. this is, indeed, a very sad and at the same time a very precious time, because we're here to talk about a life, a life so precious

. donald payne was indeed a very special human being. i served with donald payne on the foreign affairs committee. and through his work on the foreign affairs committee, i got to know him. and let me just say to the people of new jersey, to his family, you've lost a friend, you've lost a father, a public servant for the area of newark, new jersey. but i want you to know that donald payne's life and his legacy goes far beyond there. there was a friend of mine who said, i don't want to hang around the shores with the little boats. i want to go way out where the

big ships go. donald payne went way out where the big ships go. and no where was his impact more meaningful than in the continent of africa. it was africa that just pulled his heart, pulled his whole being. and donald payne became the champion and the foremost advocate for the people of africa and the congress of the united states. what courage. i remember the time i was over in africa going to the congo, going to the real heart of the matter, going into kenya, and going into somalia, into yemen and there was donald payne with the courage at a very difficult time, at a challenging time when

al shabab was in control of the situation in somalia and you hear in the news that there was a congressman who in harm's way trying to get on an airplane in somalia in a very hot moment, but he was there in the toughest, meanest, most difficult part of africa. so all over this world we can all say we thank god for sending donald payne our way. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. ms. lee: may we request an additional 10 minutes?

the speaker pro tempore: the chair cannot entertain that request. ms. lee: can we do one-minutes? the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from new york -- without objection. meek meek i'm here to -- mr. meeks: i'm here to thank god for the life of donald payne, a man who was focused, a man who was a trailblazer, a man who when he came to congress, he knew what he wanted to do, people don't know what their purpose is in life. some people wonder all of their life to find that purpose. donald payne knew what his purpose was. he fought and was determined to get to the house of

representatives so he could make a difference in so many lives. and once he came here, he never changed his focus, he never changed his purpose. he knew that he wanted to deal on the international scale. he knew he wanted to take care of the people of newark and he knew he was focused on education. and so when he had the opportunity to go on appropriations, the powerful appropriations committee, he was so focused on what his mission was. he said no to appropriations and stayed on foreign affairs and stayed on education because that is what he wanted to do. he paved the way for someone like me that when i came to the congress, i looked to him. it wasn't popular to be on foreign affairs when donald came. donald did what he knew his purpose was. and so, i want to say thank you, donald payne. thank you for your work and your

mission in paving the way for someone like me now who doesn't have to have a machette to cut away the grass. thank you staff and god for sending us donald payne. job well done, my good and faithful son. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from rise? without objection. ms. mccollum: i thank you, madam speaker and i thank my colleague on the other side of the aisle for this courtesy. remember your first and -- first time i met donald payne, first term, education and work force committee and we were talking about the inequityies in college funding for minorities and

talking about historical black colleges and i said about the tribal colleges and mr. payne we will never forget the tribal colleges and he never did and i thank him for that. the last time and congresswoman woolsey is saying with me, we had the privilege of keeping him warm that night. with that, here are my remarks. today the house of representatives and the american people lost a statesman and dedicated leader at home and around the world. it was my honor to serve with donald payne on the african subcommittee and the education and work force subcommittee. i will remember him as a friend and gentleman and kind friend who spoke with authority and legislated for those. my deepest condolences to his staff and constituents and to

people all over the world. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from georgia rise? >> request permission to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. >> madam speaker, all the world is a stage and all the men and women are player. each has their entrance and exit. one man may play many parts. so it is with donald pape. he was a son, brother, husband, father, a grandfather, a great grandfather, a teacher, coach, mentor, leader. he led the c.b.c. and congressional black caucus foundation and he was a friend. he was an extraordinary legislator. he represented the people of newark, new jersey very well. mr. bishop: but one thing i learned about donald from personal conversations was that he was truly a family man. he loved his family. he spoke with love about the

sacrifices he made upon the untimely death of his wife and how he had young children and he was demmed he was going to take care of those children to himself and not farm them out to other family members, did the p.t.a. and the hair, all of the things that his children would have a good life. it seems donald's early life was difficult and he was determined that his children would not have the difficulties that he had. donald's a great man. we have lost him. the family has lost a great man. we feel your pain, but the joy we share because we knew him will sustain us because we were blessed to know, love and be a part and share the life as you did with this great, great man. he was a friend and we'll miss him and our thoughts and prayers are with you. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. under the speaker's announced policy of january 5, 2011, the

chair now recognizes the gentleman from north carolina, mr. jones for 30 minutes. mr. jones: madam speaker, thank you very much. madam speaker, i was elected in 199 , shortly after being sworn in. i was appointed to the armed services committee. my district in eastern north carolina, camp legeune and at the time i was familiar with the marine corps' desire and need to have the mv-22 ospri, the plane that can go from helicopter mode to a plane mode and i realized it was very controversial. in fact secretary of defense dick cheney was opposed to the plane ever becoming a reality and as a member of congress, i

was very supportive. i was a new member and i was very much supportive. i'm going to hold up for a moment. was the osprey looks like. it was the plane i was just describing. it has the -- unusual looking bird, but the marine corps believes it is what they definitely need to complete their mission of serving this great nation. well, on april 8 of 2000, a tragedy happened in arizona. colonel john brell and he is to my left, was the pilot and co-pilot, and, and that night, 19 marines on a mission in

arizona, it was being pilotted by the pilot and co-pilot, it flipped and crashed and burned and 19 marines were killed. very tragic happening, very tragic night. madam speaker, the wife of the pilot contacted me and asked me if i would please look into the fact that the marine corps had issued a press release and i'm going to touch on this very briefly. marine corps says multitude of factors caused the osprey accident. a combination of human factors and that's the problem, the word, human factors, caused the april 8 accident. general jones' quote, unfortunately the pilot' drive to accomplish the mission

appears to have been the factor. again from marine headquarters, they sent out the press release nationally and internationally, therefore people started believing that the two pilots were somewhat responsible for the accident. about a year later is when connie gruber contacted me and i would like to read part of her email to me. december 10, 2002. i contact you that leaders would have both the intelligence and courage it takes to decide the facts for him or herself. if you do that's correct you will agree the human factor/pilot error findings should not stand in its military history. she further stated in her email, again, i respectfully ask for your support and do not pass this matter along to general

jones without the support of my husband and his comrades deserves. these 19 marines can no longer speak for themselves. madam speaker, that email started a 10-year journey and from that journey, i continue to reach out to experts, which i'm no expert, madam speaker, at all, but i had to believe the wife of the pilot, that she and the wife of the pilot, that they told me that their husbands deserve to have the right to rest in peace. . i'd like to read some comments, i was wrote, the effort in trying to clear the names of john and bruce, i write in an attempt to correct a great unjith justice -- injustice perpetrated on the lunalt

colonel and the major -- lieutenant colonel and the major, the cause of the mv-22 mishap in arizona on april 8, 2000, to the aircraft crew. he further stated ai want to to be stated in the record, i was the principle analyst for the b-22 as a research staff member at the institute for defense analysis. a nonprofit organization supporting the department of defense office of director of operational tests and evaluation. madam speaker, another individual who's an expert that joined us in this effort to clear the names of john brown and mr. gruber is phil and i want to quote what he put in an email to me on november 8 of the year 2000. major gruber should not be blamed for flying his aircraft on a flight path that he was trained -- was not trained to fly and expected to fly. the marine corps knows today

that flight path was lethal but they did not know it then and neither did major gruber. considering it was ignorance on the part of the marine corps that caused the april 8, 2000, accident, the marine corps should make it clear to major gruber's family with no i haves, ands or buts that major gruber was not responsible for the accident. madam speaker, i continue to go on because this has been a 10-year effort for the families of john brown and mr. gruber. madam speaker, the marine corps shortly after the accident assigned three marines, the day after the accident, on april 8, to fly to arizona and to do the only investigation for the united states marine corps. at the time colonel mike morgan was the lead investigator assisted by colonel ryan radish and also major phil stackhouse. in the report that was the official report for the marine

corps of the accident, on page 77, they stated, and i quote, during this investigation we found nothing that we would characterize as negligence delivered pilot era or maintenance/material failure. madam speaker, in this 10-year journey to clear the names of two of these two marine pilots, i reached out to the attorneys. john brow and brooks gruber, their families employed jim furman, an attorney in texas, who himself was a helicopter pilot in vietnam. he's an outstanding attorney and he defended the two pilots when they went and filed suit against bill boeing. in a letter on april 28, 2010, from jim furman to me in this effort to clear the names of john brow and brooks gruber, he wrote, and i quote, it was not

the mission of the operation evaluation crew to discover the new boundaries and limitations associated with the v-22. engineering, excuse me, test pilots on the appropriate test conditions should have done this. it is simply wrong and improper to place this burden on gruber and brow. they did the best job they could have done under the circumstances. he further stated, prior to the march, 2010, crash, this was a separate crash, madam speaker, the navy already had reports of strange aerometric responses in the aircraft. these events should have been completely investigated before any more operational testing continued. madam speaker, i have over seven or -- 78 emails that are two and three pages from jim furman in his effort to help us clear the names of john brow and brooks

gruber. for the attorney for the 17 marine families who were in the v-22 that crashed and these young men were killed in that crash, brian alexander, defended the 17 families. and he wrote me, and i read for the record, please thank congressman jones for contacting me and assuring him that i stand by ready to assist him in any way that i can. as a former army aviator and lawyer who had the privilege of representing the marines who gave their lives in the crash, i applaud the congressman's effort to clear the names of pilots gruber and brow from any and all blame for this senseless tragedy. madam speaker, he further stated, due to these undisputed reasons, the pilots are not to blame and should be fully exonerated. again, the two attorneys, jim furman in texas and brian alexander in new york, they defended the families in the lawsuit that was settled out of

court by bilirakis boeing -- bill boeing. madam speaker, i would also like to share with the -- for the record, you might say, well, if the lawsuits are over, then why won't the marine corps give the families what they're looking for, is a clear exoneration of john brow and brooks gruber? miami, i cannot answer that -- madam speaker, i cannot answer that. but recently about four months ago i had the pleasure of meeting with general rutter who was representing the commandant and he was asking, what would the wives bring this to a -- an end, so to speak? there's no way you can replace the husbands and the 17 ma rinse who were burned to death. so the wives gave me a paragraph that they would like for the ma rib corps to issue them to -- marine corps to issue for them on marine corps stationary and also a press release, madam speaker, and it states, and i read, the united states marine

corps concurs that pilots lieutenant colonel john brow and major brooks gruber were not at fault for the april 8, 2000, osprey accident. the original accident report will officially include the statement of fact. a copy of the official statement will be formally presented to the gruber and brow families as written evidence to this fact. a press release and formal statement will also be publicly issued by marine officials. madam speaker, i don't know why the marine corps has not been willing to give the families this closure that that's they've asked for. i just touched on a few of the letters of many people who were so familiar with the program and the v-22 in the early stages that have joined in this effort, that is hard to understand why the marine corps will not give the families this one paragraph. madam speaker, i will continue to work and to speak out because

that's the least that the marine corps can do for these families. let me also share that i reached out to the investigators, major morgan, major radish, and colonel morgan and colonel radish and major stackhouse and, madam speaker, they in july and august of this year sent me two-paged letters from each one of them stating clearly that if there's anything in the report that has been misunderstood, that they found that it was pilot error, to please have it recanted because that's not what they wrote in the report. madam speaker, i have a copy of the report. i have read from one page what they said about the pilots, on page 77. that nothing was done by the pilots in a deliberate way to cause the accidents. madam speaker, i'd like to read

now just a couple of sentences from lieutenant colonel mike morgan's letter back to me. here again was the lead investigator that wrote the report and he said, and i quote, john brow and brooks gruber performed as model wingmen on this mission. they were doing exactly what is expected of a wingman on a tactical flight. lieutenant colonel morgan further stated, john brow and brooks gruber did their job and did it well. i look forward to the day when d.o.d. officials accurately recognize the sacrifice made by them and all of the marines of night hawk 72. from lieutenant colonel ryan radish, he was the assistant investigator, and i quote, it would be morally wrong to place the blame on the pilots of night hawk 72. prior to the mishap, control measures to mitigate the risk of

vortex restate were deficient, with no knowledge, training or warning consider concerning the possible consequence -- concerning the possible consequences of vortex restate, the pilots of night hawk 72 were essentially on their own uncharted territory. madam speaker, what colonel radish is saying is that they were put into the cockpit flying this plane with 19 marines, counting both pilots, on this plane, and they had no idea of how to react to the condition known as vortex restate, v.r.s. they had not been trained. the plane was not even prepared to warn them of such a happening. and the third investigator, madam speaker, was captain phil stackhouse, and he said, i do not feel that our investigation reflects that the mishap was a result of pilot error and if this investigation was interpreted that way it was misinterpreted. for any record that reflects the mishap was a result of pilot

error, it should be reflected. for any publication that reflects the mishap was a result of pilot error, it should be re can'ted. madam speaker, there cannot be stronger support for this change . to make sure that the marine corps would issue a statement to the families and also issued to the families a paragraph that would clearly state that their husbands were not at fault. madam speaker, some people might say, well, congressman, why have you spent 10 years trying to clear the names of two pilots that you never knew? well, the wife of major brooks gruber, she does live in jacksonville, north carolina. and she and her little girl brook deserve to have this paragraph for the future of their family, to clearly state that the pilots were not at fault.

trish brow lives over in california, maryland. john brow was her husband. and i've been there with one of their sons, michael, who was in my office a year ago in march. when we talked about our strategy to clear the names of these two marine pilots and i never will forget, madam speaker, that michael leaned up after we talked, about five adults including his mom in there, and he leaned up and he said, may i say something? we all said, certainly you can. whatever you would like to say. and he said, will you please let me clear my father's name? madam speaker, the ball is in the marine corps' court. all the evidence and all the experts have joined in this effort to clear the names of the two pilots. and i i think if there's anyone that can see the faces of the two marine pilots right immediately close to me is colonel john brow, pilot. and to -- beside him is major

brooks gruber who was a co-pilot. and i think about what i've said to the wives and to the sons and daughters. it's time that the marine corps absolute colonel john brow -- salute colonel john brow and major brooks gruber and say, colonel and major, you may rest in peace. don't ever worry about your name again. and we've done everything we can as united states marine corps to make sure that the public knows that you, too, pilot and co-pilot, were not at fault for that tragedy on april 8 of 2000. and, madam speaker, just a couple more minutes and i will bring my comments to a close, i had someone to sent in -- send to me a quote by voluntary that says -- voltaire that says, to the living we owe respect.

to the dead we owe the truth. and that's why i wanted to be on the floor to tonight, to share just a few comments by the expert, not by me. i am no expert. i'm just a one man that believes what the wife said, connie gruber. my husband and john brow cannot speak for themselves. someone has to speak for these two men, to clear their names. the lawsuits are over. they were settled out of court. it was a closed settlement. nobody knows the figures except the families. i've never heard the figures so i have no idea. but i know one thing. when a firm as large as bill boeing, who manufactured the b-22, when they settle out of court then they must feel some responsibility for the accident. i hope and pray that soon the

marine corps will close the chapter on the tragedy in the life of trish brow and connie gruber. the reason they want the letter, madam speaker, is so that their children, 10, 15, 20 years from now, whenever there's another article written about the v-22 crash in arizona in the year 2000 and they misstate that this was pilot error, that the families will have an official letter from the commandant of the marine corps that will clearly state that john brow and brooks gruber were not at fault. . i'm going to close in two minutes and i am going to call on the united states marine corps and give the families what they're asking. the three investigators, as i said earlier, have joined in this. jim schaffer, who was a -- in the air at the same time of this crash, flying a b-22, he was a

friend of the pilot and co-pilot. he has joined in this effort. and he believes on the circumstances at the time that the right thing to do is to say that the two pilots were not at fault. i want to thank you for staying a little bit later for giving me this time. i'm not going to take the full 30 minutes. lot more that i can say, butive -- but i've talked about these two pilots and their families until we get the letter from the commappeddant that clearly states that lieutenant colonel john draw were not at fault for the crash that happened in and i ask god to please bless the families of these two pilots and the families of the 17 marines

who were in the back of the b-22, to bless those families as well. and i will ask god to please touch the heart of the united states marine corps so that these two marines can rest in peace. and madam speaker, with that, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentleman from -- mr. jones: i make a motion that we adjourn for the night. the speaker pro tempore: the question is on the motion to adjourn. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it, the motion is agreed to. accordingly, pursuant to house resolution 571, the house stands adjourned until 10:00 a.m. tomorrow for morning debate as a further mark of respect to the

>> c-span's road to the white house political coverage continues. as republican candidates compete in today's supertuesday cawcau cusses and primaries. 10 states are in contention. a world -- we'll have results, candidate speeches and your calls here on c-span later tonight. right now, as part of our coverage, we're going to join "politico" which is following the supertuesday contest. >> now he's just traveling with one suburban small contingent. his wife goes with him everywhere he goes. and the face of the campaign has really changed. it's become a lot more casual in the last few weeks.

>> all right, james. with the ever consistent and candid ron paul. we will check back in with you throughout the evening. in the meantime we want to welcome now our c-span viewers who are joining us from across the nation. already we're broadcasting of course on "politico" live streaming that. as well as news channel 8 here in washington, d.c., area and all night long we encourage you to tweet us with your hash tag "politico" live. we'll be taking your comments and questions to heart and hopefully giving you some good feedback. >> we should let c-span viewers understand how this is different. if you went to cnn, no talking head zone here. everybody here is a reporter. we have about 15 different people, we're going to, throughout the night. we're going to talk to people in the news room, talk to people who are reporters who are with each and every candidate and we're going to really try to pull back the curtain and let you understand the things that we see as reporters, how the news gathering machine works and then hear from people that i think are really smart like maggie paperman who wrote a story this morning on 10 things

you should watch, which she's going to walk us through in a minute. right now we have our reporter who is with knight newt gingrich living us live from the gingrich campaign to give as you sense of what's happening with newt. does he think he's going to win anything other than his home state of georgia tonight? if he doesn't, what does he do next? >> newt gingrich is confident that he's going to perform well in the other states other than georgia. he thinks he's going to take wane here in georgia and all the polling numbers we've seen so far seem to indicate that. but he also said he's hopeful about tennessee and oklahoma, having a strong finish in those two states. he's been working there. they're really the only two other supertuesday states he's spent time in. her main mccain, one of his well known surrogates, was on the road campaigning. >> you can tell us about the newt. we always talk about new newt, old newt. what is the new new new newt? what is he like these days? he seems more tame, not on the

attack, content to just be the man that he is, the ideas machine, not necessarily the logical or obvious conservative alternative to mitt romney. what is he like these days? >> in the last week or two he has found a focus for his campaign which he didn't have before. newt campaigning in iowa and new hampshire, he rambled and wandered. but for the last couple of weeks he's zeroed in on gas prices. it is the new new new newt, the gasoline newt, i guess with can -- we can call him. he's focused his campaign on that one issue. and because of that he's been able to give us some speech that's nearly identical, something he hasn't been able to do so fash -- far. and he's zeroing in on that one issue. it's like he can't help himself, sometimes he does go on the attack and he's done it a handful of times in the past week but it's not a consistent thing. we don't see the kind of attacks we saw in south carolina where he was going after romney. he's trying to focus on a singular issue. >> even then, he's run

30-minute spots now in some states. he actually bought 30-minute blocks of time where he sits in front of the camera. >> how many people sat through that? >> right. 30 minutes of newt looking at the camera explaining how he's going to get you down to $2.50 gasoline. and while it may resonate with the intellectual newt fans, the rest of the country isn't going to sit through this thing. he's still polling very well in georgia. we saw him up 47-24 over romney. but he's not going to wive the -- win the whole state. he's going to lose some delegates. >> that's like romney winning massachusetts. if you lived in the state, you're from the state and you've been an elected member of the state. >> it seems like a low bar. the thing that's really interesting thatgicer -- ginger was talking about, this is the positive newt, newt the gas man, newt the 2.50 plan like 9-9-9. the thing that's striking to me about this is he got an

infusion of cash in superpacs supporting him. >> another $5 million, right? >> a little less. it's not a coincidences i don't think, that newt gingrich is now suddenly not dinging mitt romney the way he had been. they've had a real concern about mitt romney getting really dinged up. he didn't like the attack ad, he didn't like some of the stuff that superpac did on health care. i don't think it's a coincidence that newt gingrich's message has changed. the guy who is keeping his campaign afloat has kicked in some more money. now, how long that can last, we'll see. discipline is not always newt's thing. >> we have astute viewers and now at c-span, they're probably all familiar with your blog. you write it with alex burns. you're in the trench, you're thinking about this stuff all the time. you wrote a piece this morning to look at the things people should watch for tonight. when you have 10 states, i think it's hard for all of us to get our heads around what's most important. you know, beyond a few of the items that we've talked about

already, what are the most important things that you as a political writer are going to be looking for tonight that you will then interpret for your stories tomorrow? >> a couple of things. number one, and do i think we've touched on a bunch of them, right, like can mitt win a plurality of states? but in terms of the numbers, can we see mitt make inroads with working class voters in that's big in ohio. also can mitt reconcile? he's had that urban rural split in a lot of states. we've seen him do well in big cities and then not so well in outer areas. can he finally start doing better there? after his week of, you know, nascar team owner gaffs and a couple of other things, kind of baking in the rich guy narrative, does he start to do better with people earning $50,000 a year or less? how do he and santorum do respectively with women? after we've had this issue with rush limbaugh and contraception and all sorts of social issues, pulling the party right. how do each of them do? is one thing i'm watching. also turnout in lye. i think everywhere turnout's going to be an issue.

there's this growing narrative that republicans are not that excited. we've seen some dips in turnout in some states. compared to 2008. >> when you pause and think about that for a minute, that republicans in an era where you have several candidates, four candidates competing for it against president obama who last time i checked, conservatives kind of hate. >> kind of. >> you would think that there would be more energy inside the republican party now than at any moment over the last couple of years. yet you hit it right on the head. if you look at polls, the gallup poll, pew, others, democrats are more excited about this race than republicans? why? why is that? >> this primary has been narrowing. this primary has made these guys not bigger but smaller. usually you see prime ears make candidates bigger. their ralies get bigger, the rhetoric gets bigger. this has just been a narrowing, narrowing, narrowing. i think a lot of republicans, i think it was like seven out of 10 in the last poll, might have

been "wall street journal," showed that most people -- no, it was nbc, most people think most republicans think romney's the nominee. even if they were backing santorum, they think romney's the nominee. so why come out? >> you talk about that excitement. 40%. we love these studies. because they're so perfect. 40% of g.o.p. voters are less than excited it said that number has dropped 8% since december. so people are growing even more tired which is probably predictable. but then you look at states which we need to talk about now, virginia. i mean, there's a very, very difficult benchmark for anyone to be excited about virginia when you look at how it's played out. you have two of the four main candidates on the ballot. it's ridiculous. we're going to talk about the governor, very important. you have 49 delegates there. we're going to talk to the governor in just about 40 minutes. i want to stay tuned for that. we have tough questions for him. of course he's a romney

surrogate here. but look, virginia is going to see low voter turnout, understandably. and it's a give me. we talked about give-mes earlier tonight. that massachusetts, that's why romney has to have some other symbolic victory because massachusetts he should win, virginia we know it's just he and ron paul, he's going to win. but it would be nice for him to get a rustbelt state in there. >> if he doesn't win ohio, here's the thing for him. is he still likely to be the nominee. even if he loses ohio or tennessee. it's much harder for rick santorum to make the case for continuing. the difference between what we're seeing tonight and what we have seen in the hillary-obama race, for instance, is that around this time if memory, correct me if i'm wrong, at this point obama mathematically sort of had it closed -- close to locked up. there was no way for her to come back and she was doing a superdelegates hail mary pass. she was waiting to coined of move along and see -- kind of move along. that's not the case here.

they have not allocated the majority of the delegates. but it could be that mitt romney opens up enough of a lead, he slaufs a few off in congressional areas and one thing we didn't mention, rick sanner to sum not eligible for all of the delegates -- santorum is not eligible for all of the delegates in ohio. he's eligible for like 18. >> he tonight is going to be making his speech which he hopes is a victory is speech where he can't even win delegates. >> and their argument is in december we were focused on iowa. it's not like newt gingrich was running a great campaign then either and he still managed -- >> chamber of commerce is paying -- >> a lesson that all of us need a sugar daddy who has a superpac? if you don't have a rich supporter -- if we got one, if we spent the next couple of month wes could run for office and probably challenge for the republican nomination. >> why not? >> one of the big stories of

this race so far is that all of the money's coming into these superpacs and the campaigns have no control over them but really do have control because of their buddys that are running them. but it really has changed it. you explained earlier, newt grin >> i -- gingrich's life line is $10 million. from one person. rick santorum, a lot of people haven't paid as much attention to it but santorum gets a lot of money through a superpac. >> from one man, again. >> and that is exactly why many people are calling supertuesday this year for the first time ever superpack tuesday. it is a -- superpac tuesday. it is a much different election. this is politico's live special, we are broadcasting live on c-span, news chabble channel 8 and plilt coe.com where we're streaming live. the republican candidates battling it out for 37 delegates, 10 states, political reporters all over the country

jim will give you a breakdown of who everyone is. they're in boston, atlanta, steubenville, if i can say it again, ohio, and idaho. tweet us your questions and comments at -- with the hash tag politicolive. and -- >> wisconsin. >> he's ready right now. >> i'm from wisconsin. >> there are many who don't know this. >> are you there, boss? >> i'm here, buddy. >> how are you doing? >> i'm doing great. how are you, pal? >> i know you're here to say everything hunky dorry inside the republican party, we're going to preempt you an say you're not alloweded to say that >> i was listening to your erroneous information. >> what's erroneous. give us two pieces of erroneous information. >> you forgot about the gallup

poll and u.s.a. today poll that showed that americans are more enthusiastic in 2012 and this in 2008 an our candidates are either in the margin or ahead of barack obama in almost every battleground state in america. for as much hand wringing as you all think is going on out there, we're raise manager money than we've raised in the history of the r.n.c. and our candidates are beating this president. i don't think things are bad. >> most recent polls show he's in head-to-head matchups that all the can dats are losing to the president. at least up the ones we've seen. >> gallup, i think it was last thursday, and "usa today," put up polling that showed santorum and romney ahead of the president and ahe of the president in almost every battleground state an i think in the case of newt gingrich and ron paul they were in the margin of error. but listen, obviously there are polls everywhere, guys, and we're all involved and in the

weeds on this stuff but ultimately i think at the end of the day, when this process is over, i just remind everybody that's listening that when we get to june an we have a nominee or may when we have a nominee or april, with knows when it's going to be, but my point is when we get in the summer and think about how long a week now feels or a day feels, when you get to june, july, august, it's going to feel like an eternity, there's so much time to make the case. we'll be ready to go, that's all. >> one of your candidates is ready to strap on the title victory belt, newt gingrich. he has indeed now won, big shocker, georgia. that's been declared. but you talk about what's going on around the country, my quick question for you is, how do you galvanize the voter? because we are seeing significant low turnout in some places right now. i know that a lot of people wait for the general to get

really into it but there has to be some level of concern with the fact that we're seeing voter apathy that perhaps you'd like to have curbed by now. >> i think that's scot talking. i don't see that at all. iowa was above 2008, south carolina was, florida was 10% off if you try to compare that to 2008 when it was rudy's last stand and it was the big race that was going to determine the outcome, it really is comparable. nevada, mitt romney had that race from the beginning and everyone understood that he was going to win and then you had three states that didn't award a single delegate, everyone went bonkers over them but they didn't award a single delegate and the party base in many cases weren't really paying attention to those races, washington had record turnout on saturday, so i don't know if you can characterize it with such a broad brush as you are, you've got a mixed bag but once you put barack obama on the ballot a guy we believe if he's

re-elected will destroy this country economically, you'll see some of the highest turnout you've ever seen on the republican side of the aisle come november. >> chairman, it's maggie haberman, you talked about the president going to destroy the country economically. there have been suggestions from mitt romney that he could help destroy the country in terms of global affairs. the president took some real shots today at his press conference at the republican field and scriptions on foreign policy in israel and iran. i wondered if you have any response to what the president said today? >> we've got more jewish american voters flocking to the republican party based on the fact that this president has shown a propensity, for whatever reason, to throw israel urn the bus. they'll claim it's inartful language in the case of the 196 borders or being reckless with the prime minister of france and making comments about the prime minister of rail. whatever the case is, the president has extreme problems

being disciplined with his mouth if he believes -- believes that israel is the bee condition of -- beacon of freedom in the mideast. i would say there's a trust problem we have to with this president and his relationship or commitment to israel an i think in many -- i think many jewish americans are feeling that too. welcome at the bob turner race in thed my tholve new york. don't tell me that wupt a result of jewish americans saying, we don't trust you on israel an we're going to prove it to you right now and put this republican in congress in a district that hasn't elected one for a very long time. >> we'll wrap up after this last one. one thing you hit on earlier, the money has been one of the shockers of this campaign. if we had done the show four months ago, with we'd say president obama will raise a billion dollars, more than the republicans can do. but that doesn't seem true anymore. the fundraising you have done and the emergence of outside

groups, it seems like there's going to be parity. talk viewers through why money matters, why that parity will matter, particularly compared to 2008 when it wasn't necessarily the case. >> the campaign finance laws in this country are a disaster an it's tough an complicated stuff but the reality is in politics, there are two types of money, the hard money an the soft money. that superp.a.c. issue, that's another topic an i'd be happy to talk to you about it, i think it's a bad direction we're going but in the hard dollars, in a presidential election, hard money, i mean d.n.c., r.n.c., presidential candidates, it's preferential. hard dollars are king in politics. there's only two ways to get money into the republican nominee's pocket or barack obama's pocket. you can send the nominee's $2,500 for the primary or $2,500 for the general and the other way to get money in their pockets is bysening money to either the d.n.r. and the

r.n.c. so i think our donors are very sophisticated. we've made that case to our donors on our side. we had the biggest off year major donor cycle in the history of the r.n.c. last year. we're going to post some pretty good numbers for february. this year. simply put, jim, january and february at the r.n.c. will be the two biggest months combined -- combined we've ever had in the history of the r.n.c. and on top of that, we have more cash on hand than the democratic national committee. i just think it's making sure that our donors know although we're having this argument and fight within our own party for the nomination, it's still important to fund the national committee because in the enthe national committee will probably end up spending as much or maybe more than the presidential candidates it's thes. >> thank you for being with us. to show you what a small world we all live in, the last time i saw mr. priebus was at a

fuddruckers, we were the only two there with our kids eating hamburger. >> go packers! >> we leave in unify. and now to gingrich headquarter the first winner of the night, newt gingrich, shockingly winning georgia, as shocking as priebus defending the republican party in our interview. talk about newt -- and their view of this georgia win and whether they think they'll get anything else out of tonight? >> they were confident about georgia. the big question will be by how much they win georgia. a big win in georgia more than 15 points is something they might be able to fundraise on moving into alabama and mississippi the next two stays they go to. close winds or close losses in tennessee or oklahoma is also something they're hoping for that a -- a cheer broke out

when they won georgia, but it wasn't a surprise. they're waiting on numbers and waiting on other states to come in. >> for viewers that are joining us, we have reporters at each and every campaign. as you can see in the shot, what happens is the closer we get to victory, the closer we get to a speech, the crowds congregate. our reporters are usually working the phone, talking to folks in the campaign, making sure when they come on to talk to all of us, they know what's going on. we're going to come back to you in a little bit. hold tight if you can. again for our viewers, especially for those of us joining us from c-span, this is our sixth live show, we'll go throughout the night to different folks in our newsroom an different reporters on the campaign trail. mike allen will be stanning by. before that, scot, what's on your mind? you saw the big win for newt gingrich, not unexpected but he needed to do that. >> yeah. he needed to because otherwise he's putting all his hopes on tennessee, oklahoma, states

like that praying for a win. good to see him probably seal that up quickly and now focus on the future. but he's been campaigning in alabama, got a schedule already set for kansas for this weekend. he's looking forward no malter what. but i have a question for both of you, we have been encouraging people all night long to tweet with the hashtag politicolive, and speaking of newt gingrich's win, we have a question from cody ewing who wants to know are you looking forward to any other opportunities where he has a chance. >> of winning? maybe tennessee. because the polls have shown it to be a tight three-way race. santorum is looking a bit ahead, romney closing in, gingrich in the hunt. i think the big question is where can he come in second. >> do you think he can go anywhere else? >> i don't. not tonight. this whole race is really about momentum. . it's how do you do in debates, there's a lift if you have a

good debate performance an then people writing about you and talking about you. newt gingrich rises and falls it seems like weekly. it's possible he rises fen, i don't think it's super likely. >> are you following his tweets, he tweets, thank you, it's great to win georgia. >> one of the interesting things about gingrich, if we can get the folks behind the scenes to get mikey on in a sec, one of the interesting things about newt is he actually does engage with reporters more than any candidate we've seen in some time. he'll email with you, he'll respond. despite the debate performance where he's always talking the press on, he likes reporters. he likes dealing with them, he likes dealing particularly, he said in an interview with politico, he likes dealing with beat reporters and he doesn't like talking heads. an what won't you find here

today? >> no talking heads. >> we encourage everyone to go online at politico.com an see behind the scenes with newt. can we get mikey? >> you've got mikey. >> it's like christmas. >> one of the ways newt gingrich won georgia, 2/3 of the voters there were evangelicals, according to network exit polls. closing at 7:00, we had georgia where newt gingrich won big. two other states closed at 7:00, vermont, which romney will win, and virginia, which he's going to win, too, but the networks are being cautious about virginia. just to pull back the curtain a little bit, strange things can happen with exit polls, they can make people nervous who are making those calls. throughout the day, it looks like -- looked like romney had a 20-point lead over ron paul in virginia. all of a sudden, new wave of poll, it dropped to 10 points. so that makes folks nervous. they're holding back on a

formal projection in virginia. at 7:30 we'll have ohio, the romney war room believes that will go to him. they weren't sure of that a few days ago, but they believe it will go to him. romney believes he'll win at least five of the 10 states. as maggie pointed out in her 10 things to watch this morning, will romney win six states in that's what we don't know. the two states that we don't really know are tennessee and oklahoma. those both close at 8:00. if rick santorum is going to win tonight, it'll be in tennessee or oklahoma. and the early exit poll data looks strong for him in tennessee and oklahoma. look at these figures on evangelical voters tonight. evangelical voters in oklahoma, 75%, evangelical vetters in tennessee, 70%. georgia, 66%. ohio, where romney is strong, less than half. so that shows that the other guys just didn't have the

opportunity there that they did in the other states. >> especially for the c-span audience, mike allen is in our newsroom, downstairs, we're upstairs, our sister station here at a.c.c., we're working with them in their studio, mike is down tears where politico headquarters is, we have about 150 different people involved in the edtorial processes, write, editing, gathering information. what's the scuttlebutt in the newsroom? a lot of reporters working the phone. what are people picking up? >> what we're picking up is that romney, tomorrow, is going to -- thinks he'll be able to look like the commanding nominee this will go on for a while, this will go on at least until illinois later in march. but the romney campaign, beginning tomorrow, is going to make the argument that it's mathematically impossible, not difficult, the romney campaign will argue it's mathematically impossible for rick santorum or

newt gingrich to go on to become the nominee. they're taking a page from the play book of david pluck, the campaign manager for barack obama, who on endless conference calls with maggie and glen and others were on said it was impossible for hillary clinton to catch up in the delegate map. that's what the romney campaign will argue about their two. they argue that newt gingrich is a regional candidate. they'll say you're not running for a regional chancellor, you're running for president of the united states. but santorum is not going to get out, especially if he wins a state or two tonight. so the romney campaign is going to continue on a dual track. they have to pay attention to the delegates but you can see them beginning to pivot to focus much more on hitting obama. the santorum campaign, in an effort to show that they're going to keep their foot on the gas, has put out their schedule for the next week but to pull pack the curtain a little bit

on how news gets made they didn't put out their schedule to us an put it in morning score or playbook, just so they could show that santorum is going to keep going. as a side light, their superpac reads morning book, so the superpac is supporting them. they give their schedule to us, we print it, the superpac reads it. >> that sounds shady, dirty or illegal. >> it's not illegal, i can tell you that. >> we have this cool magic wall where we can get a shot of what we see on the website of politico as live returns come in. take it over, joe. >> we've got the magic wall, or our proximation of it -- or our

approximation of it working away. newt gingrich claims georgia and the biggest electoral prize, 76 delegates to be awarded. they will be awarded proportionately but he'll get the lion's share based on the fact that he's won a large portion of the popular vote. ohio, as mike mentioned, closes in about 10, 15 minutes, give or take and there, 66 delegates are at stake. if you want to click on opolitico.com, we've got the states listed up here. as the results come in, they'll be even more details. you can click on the maps and find out county by count co-y what the results will be, what they'll look like, what the projected totals will be going forward. basically, speaking to something that priebus said, early data coming in from ohio, one of the early questions being asked is, how enthusiastic are you about your

candidate? according to the a.p., results show that 4-10 are enthusiastic, only 4-10, jumping up and down, ready to go vote for who they think the presumptive no, ma'am nea might be. that speaks of the enthusiasm gap that's one of the many statistics we'll be tracking tonight that will give us a more nuanced picture, a better, closer picture of what's going on in the mind of the republican primary voters. so again, hit politico.com, all the states are up there now, we'll have more and as the results come in, the more detail will be on the board. also with that, we're going to be working on a question we got in via twitter, why some candidates appear on ballots in some state bus not all. here in georgia, in addition to the big three, we've got buddy roemer on the ballot who is still in the race as an independent candidate, but michele bachmann, rick perry and jon huthsman also on the

ballot. we'll have an answer for that coming up shortly. right now, still watching for more totals to come in about 10 minutes, give or take, ohio will close, after that massachusetts, north dakota, tennessee at 8:00. idaho not until 10:00. we'll have the results and signal to you when we get the results in. >> those are daunting numbers. 4-10 for enthusiasm. that's not a good sign. granted, when it comes to the general election, things change, people galvanize, even if they don't like romney they dislike obama enough they circumstance they will wagons. but that's an imposing figure. >> that part is true but let's pull back the curtain for one second on barack obama. i'm in the camp that thinksing this going to be an extremely tight election. i'm not in the doom and gloom camp for the republicans at all. here's why. number one, he's not going to have a financial advantage he had it last time, he won't this time.

there are too many rich business men and women who will spend tens of millions of dollars to beat him. we had a fantastic scoop that harry reid and nancy pelosi went to the obama campaign and said we need $30 million, reminded them, that's how much you gave nuss 2010 an 2008. an the campaign said no, that's not what you're getting. you're getting this much. why? because they need the money. they're going to have the money. independents are still down on president obama. don't buy the polls in the last three weeks. this is the ugliest, silliest, goofiest season for republicans. it will soon be forgotten. what's not been forgotten is health care. there was a great poll the other day in "usa today," 38% of voters in the swing states that mat for the presidential leches, think that the health care law was a good law. 53% said no. 75% think that the individual mandate that mandate all of us have to buy insurance, they

think it's unconstitutional. those are terrible numbers for the landmark achievement of the president. those two things will be tough to overcome. >> don't disagree with anything you just said. >> crow not allowed to. i'm the executive editor, your the political writer. >> i thought this was a no talking head zone. but here's the one mild and deferential pushback i would make on that, though i agree with what you said. >>s the first time you've been mild. >> i think we generally hit reset once there's a nominee. i don't think totally. i think romney has some serious deficiencies as a candidate. i think president obama goes in with deficiencies as well. but romney care is a serious problem. obamacare is a major base generator for republicans and i don't know how that plays out when romney is the nominee. i think that's a big x factor. >> when you watch and i'm not on the road as much as you all are, i sit with my panel of three tv's and watch speeches all day but i watch several and

the lines that get the biggest applause is obamacare or romneycare or any health care. >> you have to ask why. sit just the health care bill? i don't think it is. people feel that under barack obama the government has gotten too big, too fast. think about nurs we don't talk about now because it's just the primary but in the yen lech you'll talk about how when with the president came new york we had about $10.5 trillion in accumulated debt for the country. by election day, we'll have $16 trillion. that's a lot of coin, folks. that's a huge expansion of the federal government. that's a huge expansion of our liabilities. and i think that is going to -- that is going to, i think, get independents thinking again about, do we really want a second term? winnable but not a slam dunk like so many democrats in town think these days. >> democrats are getting cocky.

they have to be careful about this. i would say that i think romney has skated through this primary pretty remarkably without getting dinged up about romney care. gingrich never really tried. so i don't think he's been quite that tested on how he's going to hannle that as an issue. that to me still remains a very big question. >> an the romney camp has some excitement tonight as a result an they have skated by somewhat significantly on that issue. let's get to royce lois -- to lois romano, i'll be a little louder here because i hear it's getting louder there. big news for you, romney has won virginia, not a huge surprise but i'm sure people were surprised about getting one under the belt. >> they're shouting, as you can see. this has to feel a victory tonight. i think they know something we don't know. i think they're tracking polls might be telling them something. they're really packing this room this room is going to hold 2,000 people. they have a loud band and people are feeling very upbeat

here. from the polls, we know the romney campaign has more money than everyone else and does more polling but we were picking up supreme confidence. i think the romney camp has usually had a good thought on how this unfolds. sit turnout? what are they seering sensing that's giving them the self-confidence? >> you know, my guess is that they are doing tracking polling and the reason i am saying that is because romney has seemed very calm in the last couple of days. he has been focusing on opaw ma more. we think -- we hear that the exit polls are showing that he's up a little bit in ohio right now. so i think they're feeling very good tonight. that this could be a moment for him to sort of put it away.

and to step out ahead of the pack. and his biggest issue, of course, is when -- santorum will step aside. i don't think they're concerned about gingrich anymore. i don't think they're concerned about ron paul. but the question is going to be, for them, is santorum going to make it difficult for them? >> we come -- can you please turn down your boom box? we can't hear you. we'll be back to you soon. >> poor lois. >> there's another politico we here online for both of you on the twitter. the twitter. it's from colin s. jackson who whans to know, even if romney takes ohio and things are looking good for him will -- him there, would a strong santorum win make a case to

stay well? >> they'll all make a case to stay in. there's no incentive to get out yet. and maybe -- if the control room cowl take us to our editor, an say why it's so important for them to win. what people don't understand is the mechanics of politics really matters. can you get on a ballot? do you have the money to compete in every state? romney, just like obama, has been talking about it. we see it in virginia. we announced that romney won virginia. thuman finished third why? two of the leading candidates weren't organized, didn't have enough money or time to be able to get on the ballot and get their ducks in order. you have to do that in politics. we've got charlie, this is a true story, he wrote the

almanac of american politics nasm doesn't make you smart what does? >> true story. >> it's huge, it's thick, he knows tons about politics. you look really good on the high definition camera. he's at his desk in the newsroom he run ours political coverage. help all of us, help viewers understand the difficulty for santorum and gingrich when it comes to the math. the money and the math. as this campaign unfolds after super tuesday. >> well, i think after super tuesday, money always changes miami um. there's not going to be momentum for these guys without victories. it's going to be tough for san rorfum if he can't win ohio that resembles the state he represented in the senate for so long. he won't have a big state to point to. i think the same problem will be true for newt gingrichle. best case scenario, he wins his home state, which is a wash because everyone expects it, but maybe he takes tennessee and oklahoma as well but he

gets pigeon hole as someone who can't win outside the south. the other problem they have going forward they don't have the infrastructure to compete in the upcoming caucus states and across the map. that's the argument the romney campaign makes, the on sthirks rivals, aren't situated to run a national campaign in the same way they are. >> one of your great gifts is you're counterintuitive in your thinking about politics, we have been obsessed with ohio, tennessee and georgia, which has been called already for gingrich, what other state that we haven't paid as much attention to should we be pay manager attention to and why? >> are you talking about tonight? >> tonight, yeah. >> i think massachusetts is interesting, for example. none of the home states so far have been gimmees in the sense you'd expect. gingrich wins georgia, romney won michigan but michigan was tough for him. massachusetts, if you remember back in 2008, was not a total

gimmee for romney either. mccain made it respectable for a place where romney had only recently been governor. that's interesting. i think if you look back at the results in massachusetts in 2008, you'll find that mitt romney lost the wen part of the state. i think that'll be interesting to see with what the percenting an is romney will run away with it, he's well-suited far northeastern republican but i'd be interested to see the county by county breakdown d to see what kinds of places he has appeal and what places have rejected him. >> we'll check back with charlie throughout the evening. in the meantime for viewers just downing us, it's 7:30, polls closing in ohio two states declared, virginia now in the romney column an georgia in newt gingrich's column. neither is a shocker but it's going to be an interesting night on this super tuesday because enough delegates hanned out to surpass everything we've seen so far this year. of course jimen vandehei, mag

fee haberman and a team of reporters across the country. what to do you make of it so far? we'll have bob mcdonald going -- joining us in a moment to talk about -- what do you make of this so far. we are seing a moment um shift based on what your reporters are saying a about places like ohio? >> i feel lick 2/10 of our work is dope. we have 80% to look forward to. virginia was going to go for romney. i guess a better question i put to you, maggie, is, what if, what if gingrich and santorum had been on the ballot in virginia? it's an interesting state, one of the 10 most important states, i think, in presidential politics, probably about five now given that it's been competitive an obama was able to do so well last time arn. do you think a santorum or gingrich would have done very

well in the state given the large number of social conservatives? >> i think they had the opportunity to. it's now gingrich's home state. this is the place where he lives. i think it has an interesting electorate. i think they would have run into the same problems, they would have been outspent, i think they would have been jut spent heavily by the romney campaign an superpac. i think that's been a big x factor but i think it could have been a different night if either of them or both of them managed to make it. >> perhaps no one better to talk about virginia than governor bob mcdonell. talking to us from richmond tonight, thanks for joining us, let's talk about tonight's results. you being a surrogate for governor romney, you've got to be happy there. but jim just posed a great question, hard to look at this as a fair race with only two candidates, what if all four were on the ballot? >> same result but closer, i think. i'm very disappointed. we were hoping to have all four candidates, it would be a

robust competition, we'd have a bigger turnout among the republican base, that gives us the names of volunteers and people interested in winning in november. it's disappointing. unfortunately two candidates condition qualify, they didn't get enough signatures an that's the rules. it's still a good night for mitt romney. it's been called for him, he wope -- we hope he'll have a big margin and take all 49 delegates tonight. >> did it hurt that we didn't have a big turnout, that that will affect november? or will there be a reset? and what about the thought that this will be an extended race? >> depending on what happens in a couple of states tonight, it could short then race. naturally, i'm a supporter of mitt romney. ic he's the best candidate to attract indents -- independents, best one to go toe-to-toe with the president, best record on both leadership, spending, and jobs, which will be the determining factor in

this upcoming election. i don't think long term that a spirited primary like this really hurts us that much there's more pitty quotes that one of the candidates might have made that might turn up in october or november but everybody's got to remember, hillary clinton and wraukbrauk were duking -- and barack obama were duking it out until june and president obama won it hanly. i think people will rally around our candidate, and i hope that's mitt romney, in part because they like our candidate and because they're worried about the leftward shift of the country under president obama. >> whoo is it so hard to find romney supporters who are super enthusiastic. it seems there are a lot of people who say, he's a fine nominee, he'll be a good guy, it's hard to find ones that are

like, i love mitt romney, he's my goo. >> here's one here, i love mitt romney, he's my guy. i've got ton know him well the last several years, particularly these last months on the campaign trail. he's a very generous, decent, honest guy with a phenomenal record of creating jobs, believes in the american dream. that's why i believe in mitt romney, he understands what's made america great. he's not afraid to tell people he's been successful and wants more people to be successful. that's what we need. we've got four people that are very good, that are competing for the nomination. each of them have their own constituencies. they agree, at least three of them adepree on a lot of issues. they have different styles, different tones, different records. while they're duking it out an beating each other up a little bit, i think there's pros and cons that you're hearing about in the media an so it dampens

enthusiasm a little bit and nobody has laid a glove directly on president obama. i think that's going to change and the enthusiasm will change a lot then. >> speaking of needing to lay a glove on the president do you think after tonight, is it time for the race to start wrapping up soon, is it time for gingrich and santorum to move on? >> that's obviously a question for the candidates. i was hoping it would happen a while back but mitt hadn't quite closed the deal yet but i think tonight he'll go in with the most delegates, he'll come out with a larger percentage of delegates, winning in hopefully massachusetts an idaho an hopefully a couple of others. i think once people clearly see that the writing son the wall that mitt romney will be our candidate, i think the people will begin in bigger numbers to coalesce. look at this week, eric cantor, my congressman, john ashcroft, for him, tom coburn, there's a lot more people. several other governors are

coming out recently for mitt romney. i think you're seeing more and more conservative leaders who understand politics who want to win and know that mitt romney is the best guy with the best record to say, we are broke as a nation and we've got to have leadership to get spending under control an barack obama doesn't understand how to create jobs and wealth and tun for the american people. he's had three years so far, unemployment over 8 pk every month but the first month. it's time for a change. i think people will get enthused and will get behind romney in a big way. hopefully others will paycheck the decisions accordingly. >> do you have any interest in being the vice-presidential candidate? you've thought about it. would you want the job? >> i got the job he will by patrick henry and thomas jefferson right now, whock want more. it's up to governor romney or our nominee but i've got my hands full right now with a

legislative session. i'm going to let them decide who they think would be the best running mate. in the meantime, you can toss that arn. >> we appreciate your time an insight on the campaign an look forward to talking to you throughout the year. >> ok. >> i heard an interesting theory. from someone in the romney world. that one of the reasons mcdonell might not be the vice-presidential candidate is because they're too good looking, to have two good-looking white guys would anger people because we're not that pretty. >> an interesting quote here, gingriches were on the trail today, neither newt nor calista voted. the quote from r.c. hammond, in this republican primary when

given a choice between ron paul or mitt romney, they could not pick either one. >> cuff been a third choice if they'd got on the ballot. >> he's getting secret service protection starting tomorrow, newt gingrich. >> we go to mikey in the politico news room. he has insight on ohio and what they're hearing from campaigns on what might unfold in ohio. >> 7:30, polls are closed in ohio. networks are being cautious, not calling it because it's not a blowout but the romney camp believes they did well there an believe they will win it. the romney war room saying that turnout very high in the northern counties around cleveland. this is romney country. turnout is high in counties where he's expected to do well. chi hoe ga, claremont, up over 200% from where they are in -- they were in 2008. mitt country is coming in big, according to the romney war room. i was talking to charlie about how to pronounce these thing,

we learned the chi hoe ga river is the only -- the cuyahoga river is the only river to catch on fire. and romney says santorum's wheel house is not doing well. there's a sense that akron could be a sleeper tonight. it's not being caud for romney, romney campaign believing they will strongly live ohio. as one of their at least five states they win tonight. big reason, according to exit polls is electability. you ask ohio voters who is most likely to beat obama, romney, 53%. santorum, 23%. a 30-point gap in the electability question. gingrich down there at 11%. ron paul 1%. don't know what that 1% was thinking. also, it was not a frenly issue

for rick santorum. santorum who talks a lot about social issues, certainly the media played up anything he said about social issues, his campaign complained to us it was being overcovered. his campaign complained and politico reporters say there's some truth, that rick santorum could talk all he wants about energy or job but as soon as something was said about social issues, that would be played up. but you ask ohio voters what issues they cared about, half of the voters said the economy was the most important issue to them, three in 10 said the federal budget deficit. only 10%, one in 10, of highway voters said abortion was your most important issue. those are santorum roters. they did not turn out big tonight. >> we want to turn now to fargo, north dakota.

that is where ron paul has taken the stage. >> only sending people to washington who have actually read the constitution and will obey the constitution and take their oath of office seriously. [cheers and applause] which would do so many wonderful things for us. for instance if you're tired of the war, i hope you're sick an tired of the wars we're involved in, what if we had the return to the constitution they are founders made sure in the document, in the constitution, that the wars would only occur not by the executive branch but only by the people through their representatives in congress. that's the way all wars should be declared. if necessary, they should be declared, won, and get it other

with and come home. that's the way it was supposed to be done. [cheers and applause] but since world war ii, we have gone to war without a declaration. for that reason, we essentially have not won one of those wars that has added a lot of tragedy just in these past 10 years, these wars in the mideast, over 8,500 americans have died, 44,000 have come back with serious injuries an amputations and all kinds of problems, hundreds of thousands looking for health because of post-traumatic stress syndrome. at the same time, economically, it's been very damaging. it has added $4 trillion to our national debt. that is what you're inheriting. this is the reason why it is so important if you're talking about peace an prosperity, you have to change the constitution and have a lot less war and make a lot more sincere effort to promote the cause of peace. [applause]

>> there he is in fargo, north dakota, still looking for his first win in this primary season. he has a shot tonight, three states out west where he has some semblance of a possibility of picking up that win, a big libertarian block in a lot of states, alaska, idaho, north dakota. we've got more to crunch tonight, don't we, jim. >> we go to joe, our number guy, to talk about what we're hearing on the economy and ohio. one of the neat things is, you get different waves of exit polling data throughout the night, you get the typetop line who is winning in a state and the bottom line numbers what voters thinking about, what do they care about? what type of voters are showing up? and they're often great inkators of the spirit and mood and mind set of the republican party. take it away, joe.

>> the economy is on many people's minds. a will the of early exit poll data reflects that. interestingly enough, in the south, where there are a lot of rural areas, not a heavily developed transportation system like you might have here in d.c. or new york, gas prices. gingrich's message was hitting home in georgia from what we've seen so far. a lot of people coming away from the polls are talking about the fact it costs too much to drive, they want somebody to do something about it. it illustrates another vulnerability for the obama white house which i am pretty sure is tracking these polls, these exit numbers as closely as we are. certainly they'll be talking a hard look at what's going on and what's on republican voters' minds. with that, we've got a couple of figures about unemployment in some of the states voting tonight. georgia, 9.-- 99.7%, the highest among -- 9.7%

unemployment, then tennessee, idaho, ohio, cay at 737b9%, massachusetts has the lowest at 6.8%, virginia follows closely in the 6%, 6.2% range with the am of jobless rates. there's a lot to talk about with the economy for these candidates. what will be interesting to see is how well their economic message resonates not only within cities but also in the suburban an ex-urban areas where people might have difficulty finding jobs beyond farm or factory work, a lot of which has died up in the last 10 or 15 years. so these numbers, those exit polling data, will give us a more broad or colorful picture about where people's minds are with the economy. that provides more of a template for what we might discuss, think about where the

president might go and talk about his mess amming. if that's resonating more than with the republican voters and whether or not there's more work to be done there to get them onboard. so we're still continuing to track that as it comes in. the next batch of state wills close in 15 minutes. ohio closed at 8:30, that's the closest one but it's going to be some time for taos sort that out and figure out who won, where they wop, what the trends were in voting. as soon as we get that info, we'll bring it to you. back to you in the studio. >> for all of you at home who want to play joe, you can go to politico.com on the website or on your iphone app or ipad, we have these fantastic maps we put together where they break down into the tiniest detail, down to the downies what the vote tallies are. you can find out where are different candidates performing

strongly and where are they performing weakly. a gripe that i hear a lot from republicans is that everybody is focused on social issues, the media keeps jamming social issue into the die plog. most republicans aren't sitting around talking about contraception. they're talking about the economy, they're talking about jobs. and i do think we've seen it in every single poll so far, yes, social issues are interesting, they're more divisive, santorum likes to talk about them but state after state, they're not even a top tier concern. it's the economy. >> i think you hit exactly what it is, this is what voters wanned to talk about, the economy. it was always what the election would be about. we don't know what's going to happen with greece, we don't know what's happening in israel or iran, there are factors mitigating what this will play out. it is going to be the economy but i think you also made an important point. santorum likes to talk about

social issues, he likes to say that the immediate qua likes to make him talk about it. i think it's not just he substance of what he says that turns people off or raises red flags for some republicans but the rhetoric he uses. >> one of the things we promed viewers is we're going to try to take you behind the scenes with what's happening tonight but also with reporting. all day you're working the phones and talking to campaigns, which campaign is the tough toast deal with, is the most combative in your day-to-day life? >> this is no pressure involved in this we at all. i think i would say and i think most reporters, fankly, at this point would say the romney campaign is probably the tough toast deal with in the sense that romney does not frequently take questions from the press. he has been more recently, the last week of so, he's done a couple of press avails. he does not have an at-ease relationship. newt gingrich likes dealing with reporters, he'll do this all day long. santorum is fairly accessible

to reporters. >> does it matter? do you think that affects the coverage of the candidate? >> i don't think reporters are out to get a candidate, love using my air quote here's, i don't think that's -- and that is often what you hear exirnse candidates say, i don't think it's that but i think it can't help a candidate, you know, when off toxic relationship with the media or a tough relationship with the media. i think a lot of things are judgment calls and at the end of the day what's the point of constantly doing battle? it makes it easier for yourself, not everything has to be --? why doesn't romney do more press conferences? he seems like -- you heard me say a million times, his job for the last five years is professional presidential candidate, he's mastered the answer to most questions. why don't they want him in that free-wheeling discussion? he does well in debates, he does well in most interviews. >> but debates aren't free-wheeling discussions. they're pretty much arenas where you can predict what the

questions will be. >> it's all about control zphsm press conferences are not like that as we have seen with mitt romney, he does have a tendency to make gaffes. he does have a tendency to make mistakes. >> but he does those when it's not a press concern he talks about his wife having a garage full of cadillacs. >> a will the of that has to be the fatigue factor. >> that's not an excuse. >> when you're doing a 5:00 a.m. to midnight schedule every day, seven days a week. >> it's grueling. >> it's an absolute grind. those errors, as you put together pieces on, they're going to happen. they're inevitable, especially when aries started is early an every four years they say, this is the longest race in presidential history. they get longer, they start earlier, romney has been doing this forever. getting back to your point about it's the economy stupid, you look at four important states that are going to go, these are interesting numbers. talk about homes that are under water. georgia, 33%.

virginia, 23%. ohio, 24%. idaho, 25%. those are big numbers. that's why you're right. people hear these speeches on social issues but they're not sitting arn the dining room table worried about what's going to happen with contraception. they're worried about how to pay the mortgage. when it come time to put their name on a ballot an choose someone, ultimately it's who is going to help me pay the bills. >> here's where the contraception thing becomes a factor in this conversation. i can't remember if we said this earlier or not. we have seen that the obama re-election effort will be fought very heavily in independents and on women. that's where the contraception debate is something that democrats are happy to keep pushing along, even if republicans weren't doing it for themselves, the democrats will stir it up as much as possible. the announcement over the weekend that the president will be speaking at barnhard for their commencement speech.

it's not because he likes new york city. consequently, you're seing a couple of very narrowly defined areas where this election will be fought. there are people who want to keep this conversation going. it may not be republicans. >> it's called precision politics you see it almost every day now. the speech, the commencement address at an all women's college is an example of that, where this white house is totally political right now. in all their -- all they're thinking about are indepents, hispanics an women. every move they making the words they use the announcement when they said he bumped the head of the "new york times" from that commencement address, he talks in the announcement about how he wants to help foster another generation of women leaders. >> he clearly wants to but he also wants to jam republicans on an issue when he knows

independent women in their internal polling are say, we didn't like that contraception debate, what we were hearing from the republicans. >> it's tough to be louder than the guy with the bully pulpit. we've seen it every four years. if you're to against barack obama, that's a challenge. there's also the thing called air force one. he gets to fly around. as long as he's making some official business somewhere on the trip, you've got the $200,000 fee for if air force one and do three or four fundraisers in a night. >> i will say this for mitt romney, this is not a discussion he wants to be having. >> let's go to the romney camp. reid is ready to join us. >> we have so many report thornse trail, we have three reporters in boston. including reid who is our beat reporter who spends most of his time, most of his life, with the romneys. he's basically one of the romneys' kids now. he's been with them so long what do you make of this night and the mood and mind set

you're seeing in talking to romney folks? are they confident ohio is a win? what is the next week look like if that is the case? >> they seem pretty confident about the ohio win. after that introi'm hoping they write me into the romney inheritance somehow. but -- you could see from the way romney acted the last couple of days in ohio, they think they're going to wip. they know the numbers are good. they know that the late-breaking voters an public polls were going to romney by about a 50-point margin. and the exit polls we know of are showing that romney has done well in ohio. it's very upbeat in the romney crew, everyone you talk to is in a very good mood. as opposed to last week going into michigan. they were very nervous going into the last stage. he was attacking santorum up until noon on election day. today the only wors he spoke in

public today after the aipac meeting were a brief press conference late in the day, 5:30 after he voted. rick santorum and newt gingrich didn't come up. it was all about president obama and foreign affairs an answering president obama's press conference today. >> in addition to having the intergalactic audience at politico and the local audience at news channel 8, we have c-span viewers joining us. tell them about the pageantry behind you. what is happening? what is the campaign doing? what are they trying to project and how do they do that on a night like this? >> this is a bigger room than we've seen on many of the other romney election nights. you can see over my shoulder there's a live ban playing. it almost likes -- looks like a weding or bar mitzvah more than a political rally. the room is, i would say it's about twice the size what we saw in south carolina. and in florida an even last week in michigan. there's a lot more press, it's

open, a couple of hours in advance of when romney is going to come out and speak where before they didn't really let people in until a half-hour or 45 minutes before romney came out. it's a much bigger, much sort of more elaborate, opulent type of night than what we've seen the last few election nights if for romney. >> we saw, or for lack of camera movement didn't see this week, we heard more than anything, kind of an emotional moment for mitt romney when he was speaking with a father of a fallen service member an his voice cracked and there were questions about whether or not he grew emotional. his campaign clarified yes the governor started to get emotional. we don't see a lot of that out of mitt romney are we going to see a little bit different mitt romney as we continue to watch him and the campaign moves on? >> the campaign has made an effort to make him more accessible to people. not so much in a way that he is

out and about but he's taking questions at town hall style meet frgs the last week and a half that didn't really happen for the six weeks preceding. it's an attempt to make him look like he cares and understands about the concerns of regular people by putting him in front of them an answering their questions. that poses a risk to the campaign as well. you know, yesterday in youngstown, two of the questions were people who basically told him they don't trust him on health care because of what he did in massachusetts. so it both bricks him closer to people by having him answer their specific question bus it also can be -- bring roadblocks up for romney because it's possible that the questions won't always be on the message the campaign is trying to put out. >> thanks, reid. just to update our viewers who are not multifasking, using a bunch of devices while they're watching this wonderful program, so far, newt bing dwing riff has won georgia,

mitt romney has won vermont and virginia, we don't know what's going to happen in ohio, the most important state. also breaking news, the colts are going to release peyton manning tomorrow morning, the $28 million man, this is not a sports pam, it would be if i had my say in things but i don't. so maggie if you look at the night as we go through the next hour, other than ohio, what are the states you want to keep an eye on to see either if romney wins or how he performs in a specific state. >> i want to see how he does in tennessee. this is a major question. i think romney had a chance to win there, has a chance to win there. i think it would be really important for him to win a southern state. >> talk about tennessee. what are the expectationers in three main campaigns? put paul to the side for right now. >> santorum has been doing well there. he was believed to have bagged a fair amount of the early vote, something that helped mitt r