net yellen, then interiors with secretary of the interior secretary ofnd tom is week on q & a korologos, former u.s. mbassador to belgium and secretary assistant to president's nixon and ford. >> tom korologos, former ambassador to belgium. what's the first thing you tell someone what needs to be confirmed by the senate they are going to face as they go through the nomination process. >> the first thing i say is what is there in your background that you've done that you don't want everybody

to know, you better bet it coming out in the hearing. get an answer. you don't have to tell me but get an answer. it will be your nightmare question. i said that and he said how do they know that and he withdrew his name. >> how often is it they say somebody has got a problem? >> it's relative. it's not big, little or small which the reason you ask the question. i say to him if you tell me what it is, i might be able to help you but if you don't tell me you might be on your own which and that skears the hell out of them and they come forward with some disclosure thing or college thing or smoked pot and didn't put it on the report that could kill your nomination. >> the toughest person you ever escorted through the process. i don't mean them being tough

but the process. >> tom bork. we lost. we didn't see the opposition coming. we knew it was going to be fears ten minutes after the nomination was made. senator kennedy was talking about returning to the seg grated lunch counters and back room abortions. i said i'm putting you down as undecided. i haven't given up. that was a brutal rough one that was a gross injustice that would happen to that man. >> i want to show you a clip rom 1989 a clip from paul, conservative that helped start the foundation and he's testifying against secretary of defense. >> over the course of many years, i have encountered the of ee in a condition lack so britey as well as with women

with to whom he was not married. i recognize both of the senator's wives because i worked here in the senate for 11 years. and i encountered it frequently enough to the point that it made an impression. i don't go looking for this sort of thing. i didn't obviously make any records of the times and places. but i did encounter this on a number of occasions. >> what went on there? what was going on? >> that was a sad state of affairs. i think what happened to tyler was through the years as chairman of the armed services committee, he had alienated a lot of people. his personality was abrupt and short. yeah, he had a drink or two and we all know he divorced and remarried and so on. but that was a little too over the top for him to do that.

and i'm afraid it cost us. it cost tyler which then there was opposition grown from the armed services committee that was supposed to confirm him. these were the same guys he had been digging into over the years in an abrupt way and it was a rare thing for the senate to turn down one of its own. that was very unusual. i'm not sure it's happened before or since. we had the haguele confirmation where senators turned down hague gallon a little bit but not so fears. in the end don't forget tyler said i'll never have another drink. that was a cruel thing to force the guy to say in order to get confirmed. i'm a little sorry that happened.

weyrich had to tell his side of it and he felt so strongly he had to let it all hang out. weyrich you mean by being weyrich? >> he was one of the founders of heritage in the beginning. he was a believer. and he was no cross the line, no knew answer was good enough for him. there are some people today who have taken on the same man tra and i'm afraid that than one he went over the top. he frankly shouldn't have done it. >> your parent came from grease and moved to utah. your eastern orthodox religion but you lived in a state today that's 62% mormon. what was that like? >> there was a big greek community in salt lake city

that came to work on the railroads and the mines. and my father opened up a bar which is not a good place to open a bar. frankly, i'm not sure this is in the record but i was arrested when i was 11 years old for being a minor in a bar. they halled me off to the politician. i'm not sure if the statute of limitations had run. dad came up with five cases of beer and i went home and the next night i was working in the bar. all the greek community did. we lived in a certain region in the city. and there was a lot of discrimination. i heard a lot of dirty greek. most of the time we got along well with the mormons because we were so opposite. they had no problem with the greeks. their big problem was those who were around the fringes. so it was an interesting life. >> you we want to the iversity of utah and got a

journalism degree from columbia. where did you get your interest in journalism many. >> i applied to be in the back room of a printing shop after they sold the grocery store. the union said it was all full. i went upstairs to the newsroom and i said can i be a caller: boy. i had heard the term and had no idea what it was. they hired me as a caller: boy. someone had just left which while a caller: boy i would fool around and is it in the slot at the desk and right headlines as a caller: boy. and they said this boy is interesting. and i started writing headlines on the sports caller: desk and they made me a sport writer. >> how did you get interested in politics? >> my parent were roosevelt

democrats because truman had saved grease. and then an interesting thing happened, i had a job at an ad agency part time and they were handling senator wallace bennitt campaign in 1962. >> father of senator bob bennett. >> father of senator bob bennett. and they said his press secretary was leaving and i applied for that job and they hired me as press secretary to senator bennett and i came to washington 50 years ago thanksgiving friday last year. >> and why did you stay with this business? what is it that attracts you? >> the freedom of expression and the lack of a jumpleist i was a writer at the try bune. was a sports writer that is

very easily into the political arena with side taken. and we hit it off with the senator. the give and take was there and we had a pretty good relationship. >> how long did you work for senator bennitt? >> nine years. >> why did you leave him in >> the white house called and said we want you to be a senate liason. went down in the nicks exan ar, 1971 and became senate liason handling senate relationships. >> what moment in your experience working for richard nixon do you remember the most? >> the day he left. it was the saddest state of affairs. he got up in the east room and said goodbye to all of us. and then to take it to the very xt step, so now jerry is

sworn in. ford is now president and we invited the leadership down to meet the new president. i was talking to president ford. i was seeing what was happening, i filibustered a little bit so the leadership could see me talking to the new president. and president ford said you listen to me. everybody around me is a house person. you're the only senate guy in this building. don't you let anybody talk you into leaving. so i'd like to think and i bet you i'm right, i was the first person jerry ford hired as president. so now president ford has just hired me and i'm happy as you could. and they brought the leaders in and they shook hand. but then i did a mighty things. i went for lunch and all the nixon people were down there with their faces in their boles. and i said you nixon guys are

in a heap of trouble. nobody laughed. >> what did you think of him at the and did you change your mind about him in the midst of all the revelations. >> no, i thought they were too smart to let things happen the way it did. we had 37 votes until that friday when the smoking done tape alleged came out and we dropped down to about six. and we had to go in and tell the president that his political base was gone which is when they brought gold water and rodes down to tell him that his political base had eroded and he said well, i guess we better call it quits. his family kept saying to him don't quit, adopt quit. and he'd get up in the morning and say this may be the day.

and finally it caught up with him and he had to say that's enough. >> thinking back to that time when you were liason in the senate for richard nixon, who was the senator that got mad about this at first that you said this is not going well? >> i guess i picked it up everywhere. >> we had -- when people like senator long came up to me and said well teen rats have to leave the sinking ship once in a while. when we started losing senators. but we had some faithful that didn't go. senator bennett, we had about six votes there at the end. but we had 35, 37. we would have beaten impeachment had it come to that. >> needed 2/3. >> they needed two third, we needed 32 plus one. we could have beaten it but

there were a lot of senators that got nervous over it. senator griffen and scott among others were getting close to saying enough is enough. >> so how long did you work for jerry ford? >> i stayed a year and a half. tim mons and i lifted out after a year and a half and opened our lobbying firm. >> you were co-founder of that why didn't you call it the tim mons company instead of korologos and timmons? >> we were trying to find a name. there were tax lawyers, environment lawyers, trade outfits. we wanted to be lobbyists unlimited. we did it all. area t pretend to be an gnat cal engineer nor a

pharmacist for the drug company. so we came up with a name of federal services. one of our partners went to register federal services and there already is a firm like that that sells toilet paper to the government. we had to change our name before midnight to get it in there so we did timmons and company. >> how long were you there? >> 27 years. and we lifted out of there when rumsfelled called and i was at the university of utah giving their commencement. i remember giving this talk that said i will serve this country wherever called. i was born and raised in my dad's bar. and he said pack your bags you are going to iraq. so i lifted out of there in

2003 and went to iraq. >> go back to the time you were a lobbyist, how often did you help shepherd through nominations in the senate? >> probably from the first day. i really began when i was working with senator bennett. nixon suddenly became president in 1972 and he september up two mormons. david kennedy for treasury and george romney for had you had. and senator bennitt knew them both so i was his administrative assistant. we didn't have chiefs of staff. and i helped them with the confirmation going through paperwork and confirmations which in those days was a piece of cake compared to today. >> what do you mean by piece of cake? >> the president got who he wanted. yes, you had to go to a hearing and answer questions on policy. , t it was no two week vetting

witnesses and what have you. they were much more civil in those days. >> william rehnquist went through confirmation toys twice -- twice. >> did you ever confront voters at ba than precinct? >> confront them in the sense of harassing them or intimidating them in >> no asking them about their right to vote, asking them about their constitution, asking them about their voter eligibility. >> does this cover the prepsinth for all years? >> yes. >> i don't believe i did. >> would you categorically say you didn't? i f it covers 1953 to 1969

don't think i could categorically say about anything. >> what do you mean when you qualify your answer? >> you're talking about 1953 would have been 33 years ago. >> were you in that room? >> i was in that room which i have to go back a step. on that confirmation they called me from the white house. i went to see him at the court. d he said why do we need a hearing? i said you're being renominated. he said tom, my opinions are out there for everyone to see. i'm not going to second guess any of them that i did and nor am i going to telegraph how i'm going to vote on pending cases so we don't need a hearing. i looked at him and thought he was kidding. but then he was serious. i had to calm him down and say

yes, you need a hearing. he said there has only been one hearing of associates justice going to the chief justice and that was forus the. tell them i'm not coming. i said that's enough of that. we went to the hearing and we convinced him he should go. this piece here on the voter harassment was something that senator picked up on that the chief at his youth was a republican poll watcher. when i went and voted here the other day, last november there were poll watchers there making sure i was a republican. you go to the desk and they want to see your drivers license. i was akin to that and the senator went overboard on that. there was another thing that happened in that hearing that was interesting. the senator dug out rehnquist's covenant in his house. which is something you don't

read. that thing is ten pages long. and he found in there there was a phrase that said this house shall not be resold to anyone of the hebrew faith. faith. no hebrew it implies jewish faith what do you have to say about that. rehnquist said i've never read my covenant. somebody smart dug up the senator's covenant and sure enough this phrase had been struck down by the courts and had no validity so that ended that argument. my point is they were going after rehnquist no matter what. he said to me how many votes are going to be against me this time. and i said probably 36 or 38 and he said that many? i said yes but we're going to

be all right. >> he got 65 to 33 the second time. >> right. >> what was he like up close and how did you learn how to tell people to pipe down. >> it was difficult. the first thing that happens when you get a supreme court nominee or any nominee. he is euphoric the president of the united states has asked me to be fill in the blank. and you've got to bring them back to earth, especially for the hearing which rehnquist was a casual guy. he wore hush puppies and sat back in his chair. he shuffled a little bit. he was just a normal brilliant lawyer that read cases. he was over at justice and he read the cases. when the selection process was being made, when he was associate attorney general over there. so you had to get them in the

disciplined, be difficult rerble to the senators and in fact i may have said to some of them, have you to grovel before your true masters. so once in a while -- and there have been three or four i had to grabby the lapels and put them against the wall and say shut up and listen. >> did anybody kick back to you? >> sometimes, bork did. one guy i did that to was a nominee for a state department job. i said you answer the question or i'm personally going to go beat you. he said i'm sorry. his wife came up to me and said thanks, he needed that. so there are little things you do. i should say very quickly, all of these confirmation things number one i didn't do them alone. there was a lot of help. there was tom body and nancy

kennedy and john boll on the all were around in various forms and they are probonn know. somebody says how much do you charge. i said my only fee is i want to go to your swearing in and smile. >> it would be to your advantage to do that because you get your foot in the door? >> of course. on the other hand who is going to go lobby the supreme court? >> here is another supreme court incident. >> and the concern i have are are is where is the predict ability in judge bork. what are the assurances that this committee and the senate has as to where you'll be given the background and the history? and i don't know that you can really answer that but i'd be pleased to hear your comments. >> the first place senator as a

teenager in my twenty i was a socialist hardly indicates fundamental instability because as winston churchill says any man who is not a socialist before he's 40 has no heart any man who is a socialist after he's 40 has no head. and i think that kind of evolution in people is common in people. >> what happened to him? >> what happened on those two characters that you saw, one was the ion sign the of the law, bork and the other was the ion sign the of the senate. you had two trains passing in the night. spec or the was the toughest senator to lobby on anything which he did his homework. he studied. bork oh was brilliant, he was smarter than rehnquist in a lot of ways, a brilliant judge. he taught anti-trust law. he wrote the book up at yale.

here these two guys were meeting and passing like two trains. never did they come together on anything. >> how did specter vote? >> he voted no. >> was it 52? >> 52-48 as i recall it. >> one time during a hearing when i saw this exchange occurring and it happened every day. one saturday we were in there all afternoon, i said to bork for heaven's sake will you et quit arguing with specer. and he said what am i supposed to do, i disagree with him? >> say that is an interesting point, that is something to consider. you haven't agreed with anything and let's get out from under this. we went back into the hearing and specer started down that road again and bork said senator that's a fascinating interesting and something i should consider but and we

started down that road again and were there for another hour arguing about original intent and was privacy in the constitution and on and on and finally it did end. >> you took a lot of nominees around to meet with the senators. did you ever have a time when the senator wouldn't meet with them? >> all the time. and the reason for that is they would never turn down a supreme court nominee. that's a big deal. they call in the camera and the lights and the media to meet with the nominee. but a lot of them when you take around assistant secretary of state and the b.l.m. director. they say i'm fine. but you have made the request of the committee. then you take the member in. the nominee shouldn't go alone. you tell him to be careful of the questions that the senator is going to ask because that will telegraph what he's going to ask you in the hearing.

>> how often were you in the room when they were meeting with a senator? >> a lot. >> did you see a time when there was a confrontation behind closed doors in the office? >> yeah, i'm afraid so. when i took bork in to see senator wiker. he didn't smooze. e was so learned in the law. i remember when we took him in to see the senator from connecticut. it was raining and stormy outside. you talk about the rain and how cold it was and how long it took to get here. he brought that up and i thought bork was going to cite some statute about weather forecasting. and it didn't go well. and i could sense he was nervous and he didn't smooze. that's the only thing i can tell you. >> have you ever had somebody

you took in and the senator said i'm going to oppose you. i like you and this isn't personal? >> that happened quite a bit. sometimes they would say to me on the side, i can't vote for him but if you need me, call me. if there was a close vote but most of them were long -- for instance rehnquist took 95 days. >> mace for attorney general took a year. >> because he had a special prosecutor -- there were senators who said i can't vote for him. but in the end the special prosecutor report came out and said he was okay on that california case. some senators will tell you right up front i can't vote for you because of whatever. i think that happened with senator hague gell during his hearing. >> where were you? >> i was in the room on the

side. >> let's watch ted kennedy this time. >> if you are confirmed do you expect to overrule the row versus wade? overrule xpect to the row versus wade decision if you are confirmed? >> i don't think it would be proper for me to answer question. >> i agree with you. i don't think it's proper to ask any question he may have to act on. >> let's assume i have people arguing before me to do it or not to do it, i think it's quite a thing to be arguing to somebody who you know has made a representation in the course of his confirmation hearings and that is by way of condition to his being confirmed that he will do this or will do that? >> did you work with him? >> i did and i remember very well that question was going to

come up. i remember saying to him could you tell this committee when does life begin? and he looked up at me and had a blank look on his face and said i think we better think about this a little bit. i said you cannot answer it. others in the room said you must answer this way or that way. this was an example. you form a little subcommittee. you say okay you three lawyers or three experts on this thing or that thing, go away and come back with a five by seven card with a good answer that the nominee can kick narned his head and get a good answer which and this is where they came out and the lawyers figured out of course he couldn't answer a question like that. he won'9"-0 >> correct.

>> and the same time william rehnquist. what was the difference. what triggered the 33 votes against him? >> bork you mean? >> no the rehnquist vote was very different. why did scalia i can't have no on position? >> they had just done bork in and there was no stomach for doing it again. if bork had gone up against sca lie he would have made it. there was no way they were going to turn down this nice good looking young man to be on the senate. but they sent bork up to replace a liberal on the court. everybody knew how liberal he

was. en scalia was a piece of cake. >> you threatened to have his beard shaved off? >> who asked you to do that? >> senator authorman i think. i can't remember two or three others and a lot of staff said this weird beard of his is becoming a factor, he must shave it. and bork said to me privately do you think i should shave. i said judge, you have been accused of confirmation conversion and now you're position could be that. and all of a sudden yesterday your picture was in the paper way beard and you go to the hearing tomorrow without a beard that is the ultimate confirmation conversion so no you can't shave that beard. you've grown it. you've had pictures in the

paper for five years so he agreed with me and didn't shave. >> you mentioned murder boards. >> who invented the term? >> i'd like to think i did but yonkets. >> what does it mean? >> you is it around in a mock hearing and i and others like me ask the worst possible questions you can think of. >> where do you do it? >> in a back room. not at the agency or the court. you go get a room in the executive branch somewhere, in the white house in the case of the supreme court people. you get a back room somewhere and you is it around and you throw questions at him. the point being that when the hearing is over, he comes to you and says they weren't half as bad as you were. >> what was the longest murder board you ever had? >> the bork ones. >> how long did you do it? >> the problem with bork was he

liked to is it around a kitchen table at his house which i did more than ten times with other lawyers and i became a constitutional expert kicking cases around from privacy to intent and they went on and on and on. the thing i didn't pick up on bork were his answers weren't washing. . as the outsider i'm supposed to say that's not good enough for the public hearing. do your thing in the yeal faculty room but this isn't washing. >> did you worry about anybody after you had listened to them over a number of days doing the murder boards? >> worried a little bit about bork. one of the other things that happened on the bork confirmation we did one down at

the white house and he went on and on. there were 40 people which is much too many. everybody wanted a piece of the new justice. so everybody was around this big long table asking questions. and senator baker said something, something something and bork said is this where i get my fourth of july answer next question soifment blast a little bit and i was intimidated a little bit by the scene and bork and that's when i should have danged him on the head and said shut up and answer. >> here is an interesting piece of tape where ford is introducing bork to the committee. you are in the room over the right shoulder and we watch it to the end when ford comes back to you and pats you on the back and all. i want to show this and get you to comment on this moment. >> mr. chairman and members of this united states senate, i

strongly urge committee consideration in favorable approval by the united states senate. thank you very much. >> now we will proceed with senate republican leader -- >> what did you see there? >> what happened is that president ford said one day when he's president of the united states, i'm going to go testify for bork. i said mr. president that's never happened that i know of. no, you shouldn't go testify which presidents don't do that. he said tom, i'm going to go testify. did you hear me? >> and i remember saying nobody explained it to me that way before. and he went up to testify. one of the things that happened in that hearing was i should have done a murder board for

the president. >> this is after he's president though? >> after he's president. >> how do you say mr. president we're going to do a murder board, you listen to me. >> he went to the hearing and they got into the weeds of cases did you read this case or that case? nobody has read all the cases. and the president didn't quite come across as well as he should have in some of the answers nor did i recommend he read the cases and answer some of that. >> you worked for jerry ford in the white house. that's a moment you'll remember about him that we've never heard about? >> i hope that i'm the first person he hired. he was a hill person. he was casual. he left the door open. you walked in and out until when they suddenly realized he was president. one of my favorite moments when he became president he said we should call the leaders down

and have a session. so i called the chairman of the finance committee to come down and meet the new president. so the president came down and russell long and i and the president in the oval office. the president has been president a week or ten days. and russell long was one of those that pulled his chair forward which i'm looking up and all of a sudden he's right next to the president putting his hand on president's ford's knee. we need to do on this tax bill. the president was nodding which he thought he was still conference on something. russell long kept getting closer and closer. and i thought this isn't going too well. he's president. he's got to transfer his menity into the presidency from the legislative branch. so fast forward.

the president went to some conference in the caribbean. and the tax bill was still kicking around which and he said we better bring russell long back to talk about that tax bill again. back comes russell long. this time it was amazing. president ford had become president. he's looking forward to long saying russell here is what we're going to do. during that period of that first meeting and when he had come back from this conference, he had become president. he was now telling long and long was backing away. >> i read in some of your -- you can see it on the web, some of your papers -- where did you give your paper sners >> i gave them to the nixon library. some to the university of utah and a lot of them are in the water gait cavins wherever the judges put them. >> i read online some you sent

to bill timmons but you had picked up in the senate some of the complaints that people were making about the possibility of par dons, about jerry ford pardoning people and maybe even pardoning the president. why were -- they had a strong message they didn't want some of these people pardoned. >> there were two or three things about pardons. there were two or three staffers that went to jail. the big par dan was when president ford pardoned nixon. the long nightmare is over and short time later he pardoned nixon. and the popularity went down and probably cost him the election to carter shortly there after. but the par on the came up with

hague too. hague was chief of shaff to nixon when he went to ford and said are you ready to take the presidency, the president is going to resign period. i don't know what else happened and nobody else does and they are both passed away. >> were you ever asked to lie? >> asked to lie? did you ever knowingly know you were telling somebody on the hill an untruth that the white house said go up there and tell them this? >> no, there were a lot of things i didn't say. somebody would ask and i would say i don't know which is an acceptable answer. >> there are a lot of people in the nixon administration because of perjury, not because they stole but because they lied. >> they lied to the f.b.i. i remember the f.b.i. guy came to see me and said what did you know about this and that and

who did you tell. and i remember the tape, the tape. rosewood steve bull said to me we've got another problem. somebody has discovered that the 18 minutes were redacted. and i went and told two or three people we've got a problem. everything bad in that year happened on a friday. this was another friday and i remember telling somebody we've got another problem. the f.b.i. guy came in and said what do you know about that and said what somebody told me. you tell your side. the other thing i did -- if i'm bragging for a minute. the thing i'd do when i go to lobby somebody is say here is the upside of our issue. the opposition sitting in the waiting room. here is what they are going to

say to you and here is why i think they are wrong. i would give them both sides and they appreciated that. once in a while they would give you something to use in your lobby talks that was wrong. i would find out about it later. i would chase senators down at airports and dinners and say i was wrong this morning. when i told you nine, it should have been six. >> who on the other side of the aisle has done what you did and have you represented a democrat? >> i have in confirmations. in fact several in the current administration. >> who? >> i'm not alone. >> the lawyer up state. i was on the fringes of shine o is the under secretary for public affairs at state. i helped ines stat. he was under secretary con no,

sir for about three months and then he went to state to be something. three months earlier we went through a murder board and he was fingerprinted by the f.b.i. to do the routine paperwork. three months later he goes back to state and he says i'm going to get fingerprinted. i said we just did it. the system was one they wanted to make sure some guy hadn't taken his identify and gone to state so they had to refingerprint him and fill out more papers and do more vetting and what have you. >> you were ambassador to belgium what years and who appointed you? >> president bush appointed me? >> w. or h.w.? >> w. in 2004. >> in 2003 i spent a year in iraq. they asked me to go to iraq and

i did budget. 275 members of congress came to iraq in 2003 to see iraq and have their pictures taken and we took them around to sewer places and oil fields and what have you. when that was over we passed the supplemental and i went to the signing at the white house and the president said see me avenue. they said we want to thank you for what you did for us in iraq. you gave us a year of your life, others have given you a million dollars. the president would like to make you an ambassador and where do you want to go? and i said anywhere that doesn't end in stan and belgium opened utch. >> i want to show i a little video to connect the dots. look at this. >> you have not had particular

experience in dealing with labor issues, the issues which come before this committee and are the central responsibility of this committee. and i'd be interested in how you would compensate for that. >> mr. chairman it is true i have not had direct experience in labor issues. i would compensate very wisely as i have done in previous jobs where i have not been an expert in the field and seek counsel of congress and committee but very many fine experts in the field. eventually married an mack graph lynn. how did that happen? >> i knew her before in the nixon years and i knew her in the reagan years when she was at treasury and interior and labor. and i should say quickly she answered correctly in that

hearing. larry hand that would confirmation. >> bright's son? >> yes. we talked about it a little bit. we met at two or three different occasions and i kept giving her my card and saying call me some time. eventually we got together for lunch and next thing you know we were married. we were going to the kennedy center on probably our first date to one of the galas and an was on one of the boards. and he saw us in the elevator and he said tom and ann how long have you been going together and i said about 20 minutes. >> for the people outside of this town, they see -- you came in a utah small father was the railroad bar business and all that stuff and here you are the power couple, making lots

of money, representing lots of big corporations and served on lots of boards and all of that. what do you say to folks that think you just kind of cashed in on all of this? >> what you say is some of the things -- keep your nose clean, be honest, be truthful. this town is so frouth with possibilities. i say to young kids coming in, mr. korologos what advice do you have? what should i do? >> what do you want to do? the first thing you ought to do is go get a job on the hill in the government. 90% of the successes in this town are obviously examples i'm not right on come from experience. this say company town. it's called congress. that's the company and it's the

executive branch. if you're a lawyer be a lawyer at justice or somewhere but get experience on the hill. you go to the hill and you think you know everything. we're in a whole lot of issues and i'm smart as can be. but what ha happens to you on the hill you only know about 15 minutes on the clock. when you go to the executive branch it fills out the other 45 minutes. i've been on the hill nine years and in the government another 10 or 20 years. i'm an executive branch creature. congresses are necessary evils and i respect their work. in this day in age i'm afraid not so much. >> explain this. i'm about to show you a clip. you've probably already seen this. you've got a man who used to be a republican and a man who is a republican questioning a nominee. they both were warriors in vietnam.

explain what is going on here. >> were you correct or incorrect when you said that the surge would be the most dangerous foreign policy blunder since vietnam. were you correct or not? >> my -- >> the question is were you right or wrong. that's a pretty straight guard question. i would like you to answer if you were right or wrong and then you are free to elaborate. >> what happened there? >> there were two personalities that clashed. don't forget senator mccain was running for president and next time you know hague gallon is not -- hagel is not supporting mccain. then he got trapped and on positions he probably should have been answering better in the hearing. somebody didn't do a very good

job on the murder board on that one. he knew those questions were going to come up. the senator had -- >> former secretary of defense. >> saying defense secretaries do set policy. there were little things that should have been answered tter and mccain and gram and others on the republican side, they were going after the president's policies. that's what the whole thing was about. and no matter who you're going to nominate. they left carrie alone because he was more smooth in his hearing and he didn't have the record of opposing republicans after he had run for president. >> you have lived on this earth 80 years and i just read that u have taken up a client

named alga zero ra? >> correct. >> why are you working and why that clinet? >> i have nothing toles do. i'd like to be a sky instructor. tructor.n -- ski ins are you still skiing? >> i am. they raised the age on a free pass. it's now 80. it used to be 75. i'm still skiing and working because i like what i do. i'm a juremmist. i was born and raised in journalism. i got a graduate degree from olumbia journalism school. i'm for 23r50ed m of the press he more the merrier. they are going to have euros

all over the country. they are going to have news outlets. today you can go watch fox or nbc or one of those and it will alga zero ra ttom reporting. they have more bureaus than networks do. >> should we be concerned this whole network operation is owned by the shake of gutter? decpwhrl not really. i'll tell you why. i'm not sure there is a firewall but no more concern than the bbc is owned by the queen and vva is owned by the president and the state department. the journalist are an independent soul. i remember when i was on the broadcast board of governors. senator helms used to complain why aren't we doing more

propaganda for america. and the reporters would come we cannot be intimidated by congress or state department. i remember they ran story that is state department would call me up and say what the hell is this that you guys are running? whose side are you on? >> those guys are going to be journalists. i'm not worried about that. >> this is a clip whether or not you advise what to do with the family and all of that. here is chief justice john roberts at confirmation. -- sitting next to the

chief justice. ed doing your job or the same thing that you've done. did that image mat senator >> it matters a lot. you have to humanize the nominee. we still talk about justice roberts adoreable children. and you've got to humanize them which didn't do with bork. the other thing we did i remember in the hague confirmation, we sat his brother on the front row who is a catholic priest. we put him right behind hague with his priest collar on. we have a gnative american and african-american on the front row. the prerequisite wife or the whoever it is. you humanize them by having the people closest to him blind him. first of all, it gives him comfort and takes away a lot of

the sting from the hearing and it's a good idea. >> you're with with a company called d.l.a. piper 3400 lawyers worldwide, 64 offices in this country or worldwide? >> worldwide. >> senator mitchell, senator dashle, others that dr >> congressman castle. >> bernard who used to work for senator musky. >> you are in this business. is this a good thing people come to congress and go downtown? >> you don't want to be a hill billy all your life in this town. that is someone who goes to the hill and stays there. >> i think it's up to 3800 lawyers. >> who owns that company? >> it's a conglomerate of law firms they have been buying and

expanding. their motto is everything matters so we do everything from here to china to south america. it's a big firm. and i'm a strategic advisor over there. what does that mean? well, it means they come to me and ask for strategic advice and i give it to them. they wanted to make me senior advisor and i said that implies old. everybody is entitled to representation. it's in the constitution. >> biggest mistake you've ever ade in all this time as an advisor on confirmation process? >> not taking bork in the back room and i'm about to say a naughty word -- beating the hell out of him. saying you're going to answer it this way. he intimidated me and all of us. that was one of the worst losts

we've ever suffered. >> did you like him? >> yes. it didn't come across in the hearing. it didn't come across in the hearing. we didn't humanize him. we didn't have any kids running around in front of him. he had that weird beard. he had people running ads against him. they made him a racist. the washington post had a headline south worried about bork. there is no way he's going to overturn civil rights laws and all of that and they beat us. >> do you ever keep notes to possibly writing a book? >> don richy the senate historian heard me telling stories and he said we have to talk. over a period of a year and a half we created an oral history of a lot of things. he said you've got a book here.

i said the bad thing about that book is there are too many people alive and we're not going to run it. the senate is exempt from the freedom of information act so i could say anything. >> where are those now? >> they are in the senate historical office. i'm reviewing a bunch of them. he want me to release a bunch of it. they want to hear about iran, my work in iran. they want to hear about the early nixon days and what we did on impeachment. those are valuable things for historians but there are too many people still alive. >> thank you very much. > i appreciate it. >> for a d.v.d. ller: of this program call

1877-662-7726. us free transcripts visit t q & a.org. by federal ks resurn vice chairman. at 11:00 p.m. another chance to -- & a with colorado korologos. >> they had a political marriage much like john and abigail so she would lobby in the halls of congress. she was always very care