museums. i found nothing else remotely troublesome about the smithsonian. it is a fabulous place to work. the thing most gratifying, not entirely surprising but gratifying, is how proud and engaged the people are. who work there for money. and the over 6000 who work there for love. the pride the people take and working with and for the smithsonian is breathtaking. it is amazing. the other thing i have been doing which bears on both of the questions is, when i can get away from my schedulers, i have been walking around the museum without my name tag on, just meeting people. much as volunteers, but tourists, visitors. i have had some fascinating experiences and some straight from the shoulder criticisms about how things have are done when they figured out i was the top man.

it has been gratifying in the sense that matter how serious the criticism may be, that they the, the visitors view museum as their museum. their organization. their gallery. their science unit. that is our chief goal. for the american people to view this as their organization. i know people are thinking about it as their organization. john: what is your single personal favorite item and all of the smithsonian's? orton: well, this is dangerous. there is no way i cannot give in trouble with this. but i will tell you what i think anyway. so, my dad, who passed away 35 aars ago to month, he was russian immigrant and i grew up in los angeles. he was a nationalized in the sun

and it was the biggest a in his life when he became nationalized. he wanted to do anything americans did. whatever americans did, that is what he wanted to do because he was an american now. we used to go to shove as ravine to watch the dodgers play. towould say, we are going watch a left-hander strike out a lot of guys. when i was visiting the national museum of american history, they showed me sandy koufax's mitt. his glove. it meant a lot to me, not because it was sandy koufax's, but because of my dad. it also showed me who is in power at the smithsonian. i said, can i touch the sink. he said, yes, i can touch it. i said, can i put my hand in? and they said, no. you may not. [laughter] said, let me remind you i

am the secretary of the administration and he said, congratulations, that is fabulous, you may not put your hand in it. john: how about a round of applause for our speaker? [applause] i would also like to thank the national press club staff including its journalism institute and broadcast center for organizing today's event. if you would like a copy of today's program or if you'd like to know more, go to the website, press.org. thank you. we are adjourned. >> on the next washington journal, daniel of the weey