to student cam.org. >> next "q & a." >> what's the first thing you ell someone in the

confirmation process. >> i say what is the thing in your background you don't want anybody to know, you can bet on it coming out in the hearing. get an answer because they are going to ask it. what could be you're nightmare question. sometimes they tell you and sometimes they don't. i told that to one guy and he said how do they know that. and then he withdrew his name. >> the reason you ask the question is 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're on your own. that skears the devil out of them and they come forward with a financial disclosure thing or i smoked pot and didn't put it on the report. all kindover things that could

kill your nomination. >> the toughest person you ever escorted through the process. not them being tough but the toughest situation. >> bork obviously. 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 on the floor talking about returning to the seg grated lunch counters and black room abortions. i ran into the senator in the hall and said i'm putting you down as undecide. that was really a brutal rough one that was a gross injustice what happened to that man. >> i want to show you from 1989 weyrich. paul conservative. helped start the foundation and he's testifying against the secretary of defense nominee. >> over the course of many years i have encountered the

of ee in a condition lack so britety as well as with women to whom he was not married. i recognize both of the senators wives because i worked here in the senate for 11 years. and i encountered it frequently enough to the point where 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 is through the years of the armed services committee, he had alienated a lot of people. his personality was a little

abrupt and short. and 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. then there was opposition grown from the armed services committee that was supposed to confirm him. these are the same guys that 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 hagel al a little bit. i guess history being what it is, don't forget tyra said i hereby say that i'll never have another drink. that was a cruel thing to force the guy to say in order to get

confirmed. and i'm a little sorry that that happened. weyrich being weyrich, he had to tell his story and let it all hang out. >> what do you mean by that? >> he was an i'd log who created a lot of conservative little groupies around. he was one of the founder of heritage in the beginning. he was a true believer and he was no cross the line, no knew answer was good enough for him. there are some people today who ave taken on the same mantra and on that one he went over to top. he shouldn't have done it. >> your parents came from greece. they moved to utah. your eastern orthodox religion

but you lived in a state that is 62% today mormon. what was that? -- that like? >> it was interesting. they went to work in the railroads and the mines which my father opened a bar which is not a good place to open a bar. i'm not sure this is in the record, but i was arrested when i was 11 years old for being a minor in the bar. they hauled me off to the politician. my dad came up with five cases of beer and i went home. the next night i was working back in the bar. we all d. all the greek community d. we lived in a certain region of the city. and there was some discrimination. i heard a lot of dirty greek. a lot of fighting. most of the time we got along very well with the mormons because we were so opposite. they had no problem the greeks.

their big problem was those that were on the fringes. so it was an interesting life. >> you went to the university f utah but moved on to get a journalism degree from columbia. where did you get interested in journalism? >> i had a job at a grocery store and they sold the grocery store. i went and applied at the tribune to be in the back shop. there were no openings. the union said it was full. i went upstairs to the newsroom and said can i be a caller: boy. i had heard the term. i had no idea what it was. they hired me as a caller: boy. someone had just left and they hired me on the spot. i would is it around at the desk and write head lipes as a caller: boy. they said this guy is interested. and i started writing headlines on the sports caller: desk and they made me a

sports writer. >> your parents, were they political at all and did they? >> my parents were roosevelts. truman had saved greece. i had an ad agency and they were handling the bennett campaign in 1962. >> father of senator bob bennett? >> father of senator bob bennett and they said his press secretary was leaving in the 1962 election 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. >> why did you stay with this business? what is it that attracts you? >> the freedom of expression and the life of a journalist i

was the ski writer of the salt lake tribune. i was a sports writer which goes easily in the political arena where you have sides taken. and we hit it off with the senator. i enjoyed it. the give and take was there and we had a good relationship. >> how long did you work for him? >> nine years on the hill. >> why did you leave? >> the white house called and said we want you to be a senate liason. year, own in the nixon 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. that 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 next step. so now jerry ford is sworn in. and i should say quickly. there were a lot of other things but that was one of the saddest. ford is suddenly president and we invited the leadership down to meet the new president. they were hanging out in the door and i was talking to president ford. his back was to him and i filibustered a little bit so the leadership could see me talking to the new president. president ford said listen to me. everybody around me is the house person. you're the only senate guy in this building. don't let anybody talk you into leaving. i'd like to think, and i bet i'm right, i'm the first person ford hired as president. now he hired me and i'm happy as could be. we got the leaders in and they shook hands. then i did a mighty thing.

i went to lunch and all the nixon people were down there with your faces in their boles and i said you nixon guys are in a heap of trouble and nobody laughed. >> what did you think of nixon during that time and did you change your mind about him in the midst of those revelations? >> no i thought they were too smart to let that happen the way it did. i had faith it didn't happen that way until it was over. i was doing impeachment vote counts. we had 35 votes until that friday when that smoking gun tape came out and we dropped to about six and we had to go tell the president that his political base was gone. which is when they brought gold water and roads 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 don't quit, adopt quit, don't 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 liasonning in the senate for richard nixon, who was the senator that got mad about this at first for you that said this is not going well? >> i guess i picked it up everywhere. when people like senator long came up to me and said well even the rats have to leave the sinking ship once in a while. d when we started losing senators. we had some faithful that didn't go. senator bennett, we had about six votes there at the end. but i'll tell you we had 35, 37. we would have beaten

impeachment had it come to that. >> needed 2/3? >> they needed 2/3, we needed 32 plus one. and we could have beaten it. but there were a lot of senators that got nervous over it. senator griffen. >> nishnish. >> scott among others. we're getting close to saying enough is enough. >> how long did you work for jerry ford? >> we stayed a year and a half. timmons and i lifted out after a year and a half and opened timmons and company, our lobbying firm. >> bill timmons? >> yes. >> erp founder of that. y didn't you call it korologos and timmons? >> they were trade out fits and

all kind of groups. we wanted to be lobbies and do it all. i didn't pretend to be an area gnat cal expert or a pharmacist for the drug company. we came up with the name federal services u. one of our part nesters in went to register at the district and there is a firm like that that sells toilet paper to the federal government. so we had to quick change our name before midnight to get it in there so we said timmons and company. >> how long did you do timmons and company? >> i was there 27 years in various forms. then we lifted out of there when rumsfelled called and said i was at the university of utah giving their commencement, got an honorary degree and i remember giving this talk i will serve this country wherever called. i was born and raised four blocks from here in my dad's

bar. and the phone rang and i went back to the hotel to change shirts and he said pack your bag, you're going to iraq. >> i left for iraq in 2003. >> when you were a lobbyist, how often did you help get through nominations for the senate? >> probably the first day. it began when i was working with senator bennett. nixon became president in 1972. he sent up two mormons. kennedy and george romney. and senator bennett knew them both and i was his administrative assist innocent those days. we didn't have chiefs of staff. i helped them with their confirmation. which in those days was a piece of cake compared to today. >> what do you mean piece of cake?

>> the president got who he wanted. yes, you had to go to a hearing and answer questions on policy. but there was no two week, three week vetting, witnesses and what have you. they were much more civil in those days. >> william rehnquist went through confirmation twice. we're going to the second time when he was going for chief justice. watch the clip and then you can tell us the circumstances. >> did you confront voters at the presinket? >> confront them in the sense of harassing them in >> no asking them about the right to vote, asking them about the constitution, asking them about their voter eligibility? >> does this cover all years? >> yes. did you ever personally confront -- >> i don't believe i did.

>> could you categorically say you didn't? >> if it covers 1953 to 1969 i on't think i could categorically say 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 sfloom >> i was in that room. have to g back a step. on that confirmation they called me from the white house and chief justice said can you help me, i'm about to be reconfirmed. so i went to see him at the court. and he said why do we need a hearing. i said what do you mean, you're being renominated which he said tom, my opinions are out there for everyone to see. i'm not going to second guess any i did. nor am i going to telegraph how

i'm going to vote on pending cases so we don't need a hearing. i 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 the associate justice going to the chief justice. he said tell them no, i'm not coming. i said that's enough of that. we went to the hearing and we convinced him that he should go. this piece here on the voter arassment was something that senator met enbomb picked up. the chief in his youth was a republican poll watcher. when i went and voted 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 a little

over board than. there was another thing that happened that was interesting. he dug out rengist covenant in his house which is something you don't normally read. that thing is ten pages long. there was a phrase that said this house shall not be resold to anyone of the hebrew faith. there is no hebrew faith. anti-similartism. jewish faith. what do you have to say about that? rehnquist says i have never read my covenant. so somebody on our side dug up the senator's covenant. and sure enough this phrase had been struck down by the courts anded the no validity so that ended that argument. my point is they were going after rehnquist no matter what. he said how many votes are

going to be against me this time. i said probably 36 or 38. that many? >> i said yes but we're going to be all right. first time he lost 26 then the second time 65-33. >> right. >> what was he like up close and how did you learn to tell people to pipe down? >> it was difficult. the first thing that happened when you get a supreme court nominee or any nominee, he is ewe forrick, the president of the united states has asked me to be fill in the blank. you got to bring them back to earth especially for the hearing. rehnquist was a castle guy which he wore hutch puppies and sat back in his chair which he shuffled a little bit. she 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 be disciplined and be differ rerble to the senators. 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? >> a couple of times. 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 beat you. he said i'm sorry. his wife came up to me and said thanks, he needed that. so there are little things that you do. i should say quickly, all of

these confirmation things, number one, i didn't do them alone. there was a lot of help. here was tom body, and nancy kennedy and all were around in various forms and they are probonn no. somebody says how much do you charge. i say 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. this is scoo leah. >> 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 background and the history? and i don't know that you can

really answer that but i'd be pleased to hear your comments? >> well in the first place senator as a teenage ter fact i was a socialist hardly seems to me to indicate fundamental ins stability. because as winston churchill said 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 which i think that kind of evolution is very common in people. scalia.was 1987 and what happened to him? >> on those two characters you saw. one was the ion sign the of the law, bork. and the oofs the ion sign the of the senate. you had two trains passing in the night. he was one of the toughest senators to lobby on anything. he did his homework, he studied. bork on the other hand was brilliant. he was smarter than rehnquist

a lot of ways a brilliant judget which he taught anti-trust law. he wrote the book at yale. they were apassing like two trains. never did they come together on anything. >> how did specer vote in >> he voted no. i recall. during a hearing when i saw this exchange occurring. it happened one saturday we were in there all afternoon. i said to bork will you quit arguing with stecker. nd he said i disagree with him. i said say that is an interesting point you made, that is something i want to consider. you haven't agreed with nifplgt it's fascinating, it's interesting and you're going to consider it and let's get out from under this.

so we went back to the hearing and specter started down that road again and bork said that's a fascinating, interesting and something i should consider but and we started down that road again and another hour arguing about original intent and privacy and the constitution and on and on. and finally it did end. >> you took nominees to meet with the senators. did you ever have a time when the senator wouldn't meet with them in >> all the time. 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.

he cannot 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 ever see a time when there was a confrontation behind closed doors? >> unfortunatelyly. >> bork didn't smooze. he was so learned in the law. i remember the day we took him to see liker of connecticut. it was raining and stormy outside. so the first thing you do is 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'm going to vote against 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 meese was a year. rehnquist took 5eu9 days. >> as meese for attorney general was a year? >> yes because they had a special prosecutor. there were senators that said i can't vote for him. but in the tend special prosecutor report came out and said he was okay on that california case. some smors will tell you i can't vote for you because of whatever.

i think that happened with senator hague al during his con fir inflammation. >> were you in the room? >> i was in the room on the side. let's watch ted kennedy questioning justice scalia. >> if you are confirmed do you expect to overtrule row versus wade? >> excuse me? >> do you expect to overrule the row versus wade decision if you are confirmed? >> i don't think it would be proper for me to answer that question. >> i agree with you. it's not proper for him to answer any question he's asked to rule on. >> i have people arguing to do it or not to do it, i think it's quite a thing to be arguing to somebody whom 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 worked with him and i remember very well that question was going to come up. we had a murder board and i remember saying to him judge scalia could you tell this committee when does life begin. and he looked at me with a blank look and he said we better think about this shouldn't we? >> i said you cannot answer it. there were others in the room that said you must answer this way, that way and the other way. this was an example. you form a little subcommittee. you say okay you three lawyers or you three experts on this expert on this thing or that missile system. go away and come back with a good answer that the nominee can kick around in his head and get a good answer. this is where they came out and

the lawyers figured out of course he couldn't answer a question like that. he won 98 to nothing. >> correct. >> in the same time rehnquist was 65-33. what was the difference. who triggered the 33 votes against him? >> the difference was -- bork you mean in >> no rehnquist. >> the rehnquist scalia vote was very different. why didn't he have any opposition? >> he was under the republican chairmanship and they had just done bork n. and there was no stomach for doing it again. had bork gone up ahead of scalia he would have made it because it was a republican senate. there was no way the senate was going to turn down this nice young good looking italian boy to be on the supreme court. but they sent bork up first who

replaced a liberal on the court. everybody knew how conservative bork was and the scalia vote was a piece of cake. >> i've heard you say in the past that a couple of senators asked you to have mr. bork's beard shaved off? >> correct. >> who asked you to do that? senator authorman, 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 before this. and now your position could be this and now it's that. all of a sudden yesterday your picture is in the paper with a beard and you go to the hearing tomorrow without a beard.

that is the ultimate confirmation conversion. the theet i canses of it won't wash. no you've had your picture in the paper with it for five years so no. and he agreed and didn't shave. >> you mentioned the term murder boards. who invented the term? >> i'd like to think i did but i don't think so. >> what does it mean? >> you is it around in a room and i and others like me ask the worst possible questions you can think of. >> where do you do it? >> in a back room. you not in the agency or the court. you get a room in the executive branch or in the white house in the case of the supreme court people. you get a back room somewhere and you is it around and 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 many days did you do it? >> several days. the problem with with bork is he liked to is it around a kitchen table at his house chi did many times with other lawyers kicking cases around from privacy to original intent. and they went on and on and on. the thing i didn't pick up on bork is his answers weren't washing. as the outsider i'm the one that is supposed to say that isn't good enough for a public hearing. go do your thing in the yale faculty room but this isn't washing and i didn't pick up on that. >> did ninl refuse to do the murder boards? >> no, not if they wanted to

get confirmed. >> did you worry anybody after the murder boards? >> i worried a little bit about bork. one of the things about bork we did one at the executive building at the white house and he went on. there were 30 people which is much too many. everybody wanted a piece of the new justice. so everybody was around this big long table asking him questions. he said something and bork said is this where i get my fourth of july answer, next question. so i laughed a little bit. i was intimidated a little bit by the scene and that's when i should have gone and 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're in the room over the right shoulder. we watch it until the end where ford comes back and pats you on

the back. i want you to comment on this moment. >> mr. chairman and distinguished members, i strong urge the committee consideration and favorable approval by the united states senate. thank you very much. >> we will proceed with senate republican leader. >> what did you see there? >> what happened is president ford when he was president of the united states said i'm going to testify for bork. i said president that's never happened. no, you shouldn't go testify. presidents don't do that. and he said tom, i'm going to testify. did you hear me? >> i said nobody explained it

to me that way before. sure enough, he felt so strongly he went up to testify. one of the things that happened is i should have done a murder board for the president. >> this is after he's president . >> yes. i should have done a murder board. he went to the hearing and there were a lot of questions they asked him. they got into the weeds of cases. did you read this case and that case. nobody has read all the cases and the president didn't come across as well as he should have in some of the answers. nor did i recommend he read the cases. > what's a moment you remember about ford we've never heard about? >> i hope the one i was the first person he hired. he was a hill person. he was castle. 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. i called senator long, chairman of the finance committee to come meet the president. so he came down and russell long and i in the oval office. the president has been president i guess 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 next to the president lyndon johnson style putting his hand on the president's knee, here is what we need to do on this tax bill and that tax bill. and the president is nodding and he thinks he's still in a conference. and he kept sitting closer and closer. and i thought this isn't going

too well. he's president. he's got to transfer his mentality to the presidency from the legislative branch. so fast forward. the president went to some conference in the caribbean. and the tax bill is still kicking around. 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 saying russell here is what we're going to do. during the period of that first meeting and when he had come back from this conference, he had become president. he became an executive branch creature. he was telling long and long was backing away. >> you can see on the web some of your papers -- where did you give your papers? >> i gave them to the nixon library. i gave some to the university

of utah. a lot are still in the water gate tavepbs where the judges put them. >> i read some memmose you sent to bill timmons or maybe i'm wrong about who you sent them to. but there were possibility of pardons and people were upset. what do you remember from that and why were people saying to you things like they didn't want some of these people pardoned? >> the thing i remember about pardons. there were a couple of senators whose staffers had gone to jail that were working the president to pardon. but the one of course was when the president pardoned nixon. and the long nightmare is over and a short time he pardoned nixon and ford's popularity

went down and it probably cost him the election to carter shortly there after. but the pardon came out with hague too because he was chief of staff 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 happened and nobody else does and they are both passed away. >> were you ever asked to lie? >> asked to lie? >> yeah, did you 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. >> a lot of people in the nixon separation went to jail because of perjury. not because they stole anything

but they lied. >> they lied to the f.b.i. i remember the f.b.i. guy came into see me and said what do you know about this and that and who did you tell. remember the tape, the famous tape that was -- >> 18 and a half minutes. >> steve said to me, we've got other problem, somebody has discovered that the 18 and a half minutes were redacted. i went and told two or three people we've got another problem. everything bad in that year happened on a friday. this was a friday and i remember telling somebody we've got another problem. no, the f.b.i. guy came in and said what do you know about that and i said what somebody told me. no, you tell your side. the other thing i did -- i

don't know if i'm bragging for a minute. i would say here is the upside and the opposition is sitting in the waiting room and here is the down side and what they are going to say to you. so i would give them both sides and they appreciated that. and once in a while the lawyer or chemist 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. smars three or four in the current administration. >> i'm not alone in doing these things. the lawyer at state. i was on the fringes of shine who is the under secretary for

public affairs at state. i helped icen stat. >> there is a funny story about that if i may. he was under secretary commerce for about three months 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 thing, the routine paperwork. three months later he goes to tate and says i'm going to get fingerprinted. we just did it. they want to make sure somebody hasn't taken his identity and gone to state. they had to do more fingerprinting and vetting and what have you. >> you were ambassador to belgium, who appointed you? >> president bush appointed me?

>> h.w. or w.? >> w. >> what happened in 2003 i spent a year in iraq. when they asked me to go to iraq. i did confirmations and budget. 275 members of congress came to iraq in 2003 to see iraq and have their picture taken we took them to hospitals and oil fields and what have you. when that was over we passed the $87 billion supplemental. and i went to the signle at the white house. and the president said see me after. carl rove and andy 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. where would you like to go. and i said anywhere that doesn't end in stan and belgium opened up so i went.

>> i want to show you a bit of a video to connect the dots. let's look at this. >> have you not had a particular experience in dealing with labor issues, the issues which come before this committee and that 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. however i would compensate as you put it very wisely as i have done in previous jobs where i may not be an expert in the field and seek the counsel of the congress as a whole but the very fine experts in the field. 1987? lost your wife in >> correct. ann.en vently married an how did that happen? >> i had met her before in the

nixon years and knew her in the reagan years whens she was at treasury and interior and labor. i should say quickly she answered correctly in that hearing. larry handled that confirmation. >> we've talked about it a little bit. we met at two or three different occasions and i kept giving her my card saying call me sometime. eventually we got together for lunch and next thing you know we were married which i have to tell you another story about that. we were going to the kennedy center on probably our first date to one of the galas and ann was on one of the boards. he said tom ann, how long you been going together. and i looked at my watch and said about 20 minutes. >> for the people outside of utah own, you came from a

small father was in the railroad and bar business and all that stuff and here tur power couple making lots of money, representing lots of big corporations. ann served on lots of boards and all of that. what do you say to folks who think you cashed in on all of this. >> what you say is keep your nose clean, be honest, be truthful. this town is so fraught with possibilities. i say to young kids coming in who say what advice do you have for me, what shall i do, the first thing i say is what do you want to do. a lot of kids haven't thought of that. i say the first thing you do is go get a job on the hill, go get a job in the government. 90% of the successes in this

town and there are obviously examples that i'm not right on come from experience. this is a company town. it's called congress. that's the company. it's the executive branch. if you're a lawyer go 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 b. but what 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, 20 years. i'm an executive branch creature. congresses are necessary evils and i respect their work and this day in age however, 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. >> will you please answer the question were you correct or incorrect when you said that the surge would be the most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since vietnam. were you correct or incorrect, yes or no. >> are you going to answer yes or no. the question is were you right or wrong. that's a straightforward question. i would like you to answer whether you were right or wrong then you are free to elaborate. >> what happened there? >> there were two personalities that clashed. senator mccain was running for president and the next time you know hague al is not supporting -- hagel is not supporting mccain. then he got trapped and wrapped around the axle on positions he

should have been answering better in the hearing. i don't want to cast dispersions on him but somebody didn't do a good job in the murder board on that one. he knew those questions were going to come up. the senator had in the washington post former secretary of defense saying defense secretary do set policy. there were little things that should have been answered better and mccain and lindsay graham and others on the republican side were going -- they weren't going after hagel, they were going after the president's policies. that's what the whole thange was about. no matter who you were 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 ad run

>> i have read uff taken on a client al jazeera? >> i am working because i have nothing else to do. >> are you still skiing? >> i am. they've raised the age on a free pass. i still ski and i'm still active. i'm still working because i enjoy what i do. i like the job. and why al jazeera i'm a journalist. i was born and raised in journalism. and finished one two or three in the class.

al jazeera america is not al jazeera english nor is it al jazeera arabic. they are going to have bureaus all over the country. they are going to have news outlets today. today you can go watch fox or nbc p or one of those and it will show on the bottom of the screen al jazeera reporting. that fire they had where all those people were killed in south america had al jazeera reporting. they got more bureaus than networks do. >> should we be concerned as a society this whole network operation is owned by the shake of gutter? >> not really. i tell you why, i'm not sure there is a firewall but no more concern than the bbc is owned by the queen and v.o.a. is owned by the president and the state department. the journalist and you know that and i know that are an

independent soul. i remember when i was on the broadcast of governors senator helm complained why are you advocating this or that policy. and the reporters reply we cannot be intimidated by congress or the state department. they ran stories ha the state department would call me up and say what the hell is this you are running, whose side are you on. i'm not worried about that. those guys are going to be journalists. this is one more clip and whether you advise people being confirmed what they do with the family and all of that. here is cheer justice roberts at confirmation. - chief justice roberts at onfirmation.

sitting next to the chief justice, ed doing what you've done. does that image matter? >> it matters a lot. you have to humanize the nominee. talk about justice robert's adoreable children. and you have to humanize them which we didn't do with bork. the other thing we did i remember in the hague confirmation we sat hi brother on the front row who was a catholic priest. we got his gnative american thrrks we got an african-american on the front row. the prerequisite wife or

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 the sting from the hearing and it's a good idea. you're with d.l.a. piper 3400 lawyers worldwide, 64 offices in this country or worldwide? >> worldwide. >> senator mitchell, senator dashle. >> congressman castle. and 're in this business have been for years. is this a good thing that people come to congress and go downtown? >> of course it is. you have to go somewhere. you don't want to be a hill billy all your life. that's someone who goes to the hill and stays there. since we came in i think the number is up to 3800 lawyers.

it keeps growing. >> who own that is 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 singapore to south america. it's a big term and what i do, i'm a strategic advisor over there. what does that mean? it means they come to me and ask for strategyic advice. 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 made as advisor on confirmation process. >> not taking bork in the back room and beating the hell out of him and saying shut up and listen you're going to answer

it this way. ion that he would have listened. he intimidated me and everyone. >> did you like him? >> i liked him. he was smart as anything. he had a sense of humor. it didn't come across in the hearing. we didn't humanize him. we didn't have any young kids running around in front of him. he had that weird beard which we had kennedy and gregory peck running ads against him. they made him a racist. the washington post had a headline south worried about bork. no way he was going to overturn the racist law that is had passed, the civil rights laws and they beat us. >> do you keep notes to possibly writing a book. >> the senate historian heard me telling stories and he said

we've got to talk. >> over the period of a year and a half and 19 sessions later we created an oral history of these things. he said you got a book here. i said the bad thing about that book is there are too many people alive so we're not going to run it. but the senate is free of the information act so i could say anything i wanted. >> where are they now >> in the senate his or ther cal office. i'm reviewing them now. scholars want to hear about my work in iran, they want to here about the early nixon days and what we did on impeachment. those are valuable things for historians but as i say, there are too many guys still alive. >> we prishte it. > thank you very much.

>> for a d.v.d. caller: of this program call 1-8 7-662-7726. for free transcripts or to give us your comments about this anda.org.isit us at q >> next city chirme michael o'neill talks about the economy. hen remarks from transportation secretary and vice president biden. tomorrow on cournl washington post political editor