captioning funded by cbs and ford-- built for the road ahead. >> stahl: jack abramoff is the most notorious and corrupt lobbyist washington has ever seen, buying congressional votes with lavish gifts and large campaign contributions. i'm sick to my stomach. >> right. evil. yeah. terrible. >> stahl: because it's hurting our country. >> shameful. absolutely. it's the worst thing that could happen. >> stahl: i'm mad at you. >> i was mad at me. >> stahl: i'm not kidding. i'm not kidding. >> i was mad at me. >> stahl: abramoff has become a symbol of how money corrupts washington. and tonight, he opens up his playbook for the first time. >> pelley: why did you come back here?

>> to try and let it go, something that haunts me every day. >> pelley: steven cornford was awarded the silver star for valor after fighting in iraq. he is one of the thousands of young americans wounded in body or spirit who are being invited back to the war zone for a new kind of therapy. >> my wife brought up a good point when i told her i wanted to do it. she said, "what if it makes it worse? what if it brings it all back?" >> safer: it's a sad day for us here at "60 minutes." our friend and colleague andy rooney died friday night. he was 92. >> why does every piece of clothing have a different size scale? why is it... >> safer: there have been many commentators on television over its long history, but none have been so long-serving, so grumpy, and-- dare we say-- more beloved than mr. rooney. tonight, for the last time, we give him the last word.

>> i'm steve kroft. >> i'm lesley stahl. >> i'm morley safer. >> i'm bob simon. >> i'm lara logan. >> i'm scott pelley. those stories tonight on "60 minutes." i had enough of feeling embarrassed about my skin. [ designer ] enough of just covering up my moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. i decided enough is enough. ♪ [ spa lady ] i started enbrel. it's clinically proven to provide clearer skin. [ rv guy ] enbrel may not work for everyone -- and may not clear you completely, but for many, it gets skin clearer fast, within 2 months, and keeps it clearer up to 9 months. [ male announcer ] because enbrel suppresses your immune system, it may lower your ability to fight infections. serious, sometimes fatal, events including infections, tuberculosis, lymphoma, other cancers, and nervous system and blood disorders have occurred. before starting enbrel, your doctor should test you for tuberculosis and discuss whether you've been to a region where certain fungal infections are common.

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>> stahl: jack abramoff may be the most notorious and crooked lobbyist of our time. he was at the center of a massive scandal of brazen corruption and influence peddling. as a republican lobbyist, starting in the mid-1990s, he became a master at showering gifts on lawmakers in return for their votes on legislation and tax breaks favorable to his clients. he was so good at it, he took home $20 million a year. it all came crashing down five years ago, when jack abramoff pled guilty to corrupting public officials, tax evasion, and fraud, and served three and a half years in prison. today, he's a symbol of how money corrupts washington. in our interview tonight, he opens up his playbook for the first time, and explains exactly how he used his clients' money to buy powerful friends and influence legislation.

>> jack abramoff: i was so far into it that i couldn't figure out where right and wrong was. i believed that i was among the top moral people in the business. i was totally blinded by what was going on. >> stahl: jack abramoff was a whiz at influencing legislation, and one way he did that was to get his clients, like some indian tribes, to make substantial campaign contributions to select members of congress. >> abramoff: as i look back, it was effective. it certainly helped the people i was trying to help, both the clients and the republicans, at that time. >> stahl: but even that, you're now saying, was corrupt? >> abramoff: yes. >> stahl: can you quantify how much it costs to corrupt a congressman? >> abramoff: ( laughs ) i was actually thinking of writing a book, "the idiot's guide to buying a congressman," as a way to put this all down. but first, i think most congressmen don't feel they're being bought. most congressmen, i think, can, in their own mind, justify the system. >> stahl: rationalize. >> abramoff: rationalize it. and, by the way, we wanted, as

lobbyists, for them to feel that way. >> stahl: abramoff would provide freebies and gifts, looking for favors for his clients in return. he'd lavish certain congressmen and senators with access to private jets, and junkets to the world's great golf destinations, like st. andrew's in scotland; free meals at his own upscale washington restaurant, and access to the best tickets to all the area's sporting events, including two sky boxes at washington redskins games. >> abramoff: i spent over a million dollars a year on tickets to sporting events and concerts and what not at all the venues. >> stahl: a million dollars? >> abramoff: yeah. yeah. >> stahl: for the best seats? >> abramoff: the best seats. i had two people on my staff whose virtual full-time job was booking tickets. we were ticketmaster for these guys. >> stahl: and the congressman or senator could take his favorite people from his district to the game. >> abramoff: the congressman or senator could take two dozen of his favorite people from their

district. >> stahl: was all that legal? >> abramoff: we would certainly try to make the activity legal, if we could. at times, we didn't care. >> stahl: but the "best way" to get a congressional office to do his bidding, he says, was to offer a staffer a job that could triple his salary. >> abramoff: when we would become friendly with an office and they were important to us, and the chief of staff was a competent person, i would say or my staff would say to him or her at some point, "you know, when you're done working on the hill, we'd very much like you to consider coming to work for us." now, the moment i said that to them, or any of our staff said that to them, that was it, we owned them. and what does that mean? every request from our office, every request of our clients, everything that we want, they're going to do. and not only that, they're going to think of things we can't think of to do. >> neil volz: jack abramoff could sweet-talk a dog off a meat truck, that's how persuasive he was. >> stahl: neil volz was one of the staffers abramoff was talking about.

he was chief of staff to congressman bob ney, who, as chairman of the house administration committee, had considerable power to dispense favors. abramoff targeted volz and offered him a job. you're the chief-of-staff of a powerful congressman, and jack owns you and you haven't even left working for the congressman. >> volz: i have the distinct memory of, you know, negotiating with jack at a hockey game. so we're, you know, just a few rows back, the crowd's going crazy. and jack and i are having a business conversation. and, you know, i'm... i'm wrestling with how much i think i should get paid. and then, five minutes later, we're... he's asking me questions about some clients of his. >> stahl: when you look back, was that the corrupting moment? >> volz: i think we were guilty of engaging in a corrupt relationship. so there were several corrupting moments. there isn't just one moment, there were many. >> abramoff: at the end of the day, most of the people that i encountered who worked on capitol hill wanted to come work

on "k" street, wanted to be lobbyists. >> stahl: you're telling me this, the genius of figuring out you could own the office by offering a job to the chief of staff, say. i'm having two reactions-- one is "brilliant," and the other is i'm sick to my stomach. >> abramoff: right. evil, yeah. terrible. >> stahl: because it's hurting our country. >> abramoff: shameful. absolutely. it's the worst thing that could happen. all parts of the system. >> stahl: i'm mad at you. >> abramoff: i was mad at me. >> stahl: i'm not kidding. i'm not kidding. >> abramoff: look, i did things and i was involved in the system i should not have been in. i'm ashamed of the fact i was there. the very reason why now i'm speaking about it, and now, i'm trying to do something, in recompense, is the fact that i thought it was... it was wrong of me to do it. >> stahl: one of the offices he keyed on was that of his good friend, the majority leader, tom delay, eventually hiring his deputy chief-of-staff and his press secretary, and going into business with delay's chief-of- staff.

did you own his staff? >> abramoff: i was... i was as close to his staff as to any staff. i had a very strong personal relationship with a lot of his staff. >> stahl: how many congressional offices did you actually own? >> abramoff: we probably had very strong influence in 100 offices at the time. >> stahl: ( gasps ) come on. >> abramoff: no. >> stahl: a hundred offices? >> abramoff: in those days, i would view that as a failure, because that leaves 335 offices that we didn't have strong influence in. >> stahl: did he own you? >> bob ney: oh, i don't believe jack abramoff owned me. but were we involved in the culture of corruption together? absolutely. >> stahl: former republican congressman bob ney was ambitious, and looked at abramoff as a way to build alliances with the white house and the majority leader. >> ney: i wanted to be speaker of the house, and jack abramoff was the beautiful light of day

for me to get to the person who i had had some conflicts with, tom delay. >> stahl: abramoff began inviting ney on golf trips, including one to scotland, and to his restaurant, signatures, where ney was given food and drinks on the house, a violation of the congressional gift-limit laws. ney says he was hardly the only one crossing the line. >> ney: but i will still tell you, at that point in time, in order to get a drink at signatures, you had to shove white house staffers of george bush the heck away from the bar. and it was packed with people. and there were members. now, that doesn't mean everybody did everything for jack. but if you want to talk about strict interpretation of violation of the... of the laws of drink and food-- katie, bar the door. she was wide open, two shotguns blaring. >> stahl: after months of taking handouts, ney was approached by neil volz, his former chief-of- staff-- by then, a lobbyist for abramoff. >> volz: i let you down, man, and i'm sorry. >> stahl: volz asked ney to insert some language into a

reform bill that would give a backdoor license to an indian casino owned by one of abramoff's clients. you often hear about lobbyists getting special secret deals for their clients like this. it's an insidious technique that abramoff perfected. >> abramoff: so what we did was we crafted language that was so obscure, so confusing, so uninformative, but so precise to change the u.s. code. >> stahl: here's what you tried to get tacked onto this reform bill. >> abramoff: yeah. >> stahl: "public law 100-89 is amended by striking section 207 (101 stat. 6668-672)." >> abramoff: right. now, isn't that obvious what that means? ( laughs ) it was perfect. it was perfect. >> stahl: so that's what you tried to get inserted? >> abramoff: yes. >> stahl: and that was going to provide for a casino? >> abramoff: yes. >> stahl: and who on earth is going to know that? >> abramoff: no one except the chairmen of the committees.

>> stahl: who stuck it in there? >> abramoff: yes. >> stahl: and that's one of the things you used to do? >> abramoff: yes. >> stahl: and it was deliberately written like that? >> abramoff: precisely. yes. >> stahl: and that's done a lot? >> abramoff: members don't read the bills. >> stahl: you didn't even know what it was for? >> ney: had no idea. and then, when we got the written language... >> stahl: well, why didn't you know what it was for? >> ney: i didn't... i didn't care. >> stahl: oh! >> ney: it was a great big shell game, and i was in the middle of it, whether, you know, knowing or not. i... i was dumb enough to not say, "what's this thing do?" >> stahl: ney would eventually serve 17 months in federal prison, the only congressman who was ever charged in the scandal. but abramoff says there were many other members that did his bidding that could have been charged. was buying favors from lawmakers easy? >> abramoff: i think people are under the impression that the corruption only involves somebody handing over a check and getting a favor. and that's not the case. the corruption-- the bribery,

call it, because ultimately that's what it is-- that's what the whole system is. >> stahl: the whole system's bribery? >> abramoff: in my view. i'm talking about giving a gift to somebody who makes a decision on behalf of the public. at the end of the day, that's really what bribery is, but it is done every day and it is still being done. the truth is, there were very few members who i could even name or could think of who didn't, at some level, participate in that. >> stahl: abramoff prided himself on being a man who did good. he was devoutly religious and exorbitantly charitable, and he says he gave away 80% of his earnings. when he fell from grace, his reputation was in tatters, because it was not just that he had corrupted congress; it was found he had cheated his clients, like the indian tribes. >> abramoff: most of the money i made, i gave away to either communal or charitable causes.

so i thought, frankly, i was one of the most moral lobbyists out there. >> stahl: things began to unravel for abramoff when the "washington post" published a largely unflattering portrait of him in 2004, reporting that he charged his clients ten times more than any other lobbyist in town. >> abramoff: my first response was, "what's the big deal? i don't understand what this is about. this is what lobbyists do." >> stahl: what he didn't understand was the part that said he and a former aide to tom delay had over-billed four of his indian casino clients by $45 million. in the end, he was brought up on federal charges of tax evasion and ripping off indian tribes. on the day he went to court and pled guilty, abramoff looked grim. the judge sentenced him to four years. i really think what you were doing was... was subverting the essence of our system. >> abramoff: yes, absolutely right. but our system is flawed and has to be fixed.

human beings populate our system; human beings are weak. >> stahl: you preyed on that? >> abramoff: i did. i was one of many who did. i did and i'm ashamed of that fact. >> stahl: he was sent to a medium security facility in cumberland, maryland. when he was released last june, he began working as an accountant at a kosher pizza parlor. turns out jack abramoff was broke, partly because he is paying off nearly $24 million in restitution to the indian tribes. today, he lives in his old house in maryland with his wife, five children, and the two doberman pinschers mrs. abramoff bought to protect the family while he was away. after the scandal, congress instituted a package of reforms making what abramoff did, like plying members of congress with free expensive meals, illegal. but he doesn't see the new reforms as being very effective.

>> abramoff: the reform efforts continually are these faux reform efforts where they'll change... they'll tweak the system. they'll say, "you can have a meal with a congressman if they're standing up, not sitting down." >> stahl: is that serious, or are you joking? >> abramoff: oh, no, i'm not joking at all. >> stahl: so, it's okay if you pay for lunch, as long as you stand up? >> abramoff: well, it's actually worse than that. you can't take a congressman to lunch for $25 and buy him a hamburger or a steak of something like that. but you can take him to a fundraising lunch, and not only buy him that steak, but give him $25,000 extra and call it a fundraiser. and have all the same access and all the same interaction with that congressman. so the people who make the reforms are the people in the system. >> stahl: could you do the same thing today? i'm asking you whether you think the system's been cleaned up? >> abramoff: could do the same thing that i...? yeah. no, the system hasn't been cleaned up at all. >> stahl: at all. >> abramoff: there's an arrogance on the part of lobbyists, and certainly there was on the part of me and my team, that no matter what they come up with, we're smarter than they are and we'll overcome it. we'll just find another way

through, that's all. >> stahl: he says the most important thing that needs to be done is to prohibit members of congress and their staff from ever becoming lobbyists in washington. >> abramoff: if you make the choice to serve the public, public service, then serve the public, not yourself. when you're done, go home. washington's a dangerous place. don't hang around. >> stahl: former congressman bob ney now works part-time as a radio host. his former chief of staff neil volz is currently working as a night janitor at a florida restaurant. and jack abramoff has written a memoir called "capitol punishment." >> cbs money watch update sponsored by: >> mitchell: good evening. greek leaders are working on a new coalition government that would clear the way for another european bailout. protesters outside the white house urged president obama to

block a proposed $7 billion oil pipeline from canada to the texas gulf. and "puss and boots" won the weekend box office again. i'm russ mitchell, cbs news. [ female announcer ] from an earache...

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>> pelley: the war in iraq is nearly over for america, but not for the americans who fought there. the legacy of wounded warriors will be with us for a generation. recently, we heard about a therapy program that takes troops who have recovered from their physical wounds and brings them back to iraq-- back to

confront the memories, back to work through the feelings of anguish many soldiers have when they head home, leaving their buddies to fight on without them. a total of 68 soldiers and marines have been on this remarkable journey. we went along with the latest group of eight as they returned to the battlefield for what they call "operation: proper exit." for most of them, it had been a long time since they'd flown on a military transport or worn the uniform. they'd been wounded years ago and several were civilians now. but for one week, in operation: proper exit, they were proper soldiers and marines again. as the c-130 lumbered over the desert, they crowded the windows to look across the battlefields and the memories of the war that had changed their lives. ♪ ♪ an honor guard awaited them in baghdad, and so did uncertainty. they didn't know how, or whether, this program would help

them. first off the plane was marine corporal matt bradford, returning to the place that has haunted him the last four years. >> matt bradford: i wake up in the middle of the night and can't go back to sleep, because i keep thinking about, you know, getting blown up, laying there on the ground. >> pelley: bradford was blown up in 2007. he was 20 then, inspired to join the corps by 9/11. the last thing he saw in iraq-- the last thing he ever saw-- was the wire that turned out to be a roadside bomb. he was blinded and lost both legs. bradford came back to re-imagine that final vision of iraq. >> bradford: still, i'll always have that picture in the back of my head, you know, of, you know, looking down and seeing, you know, the wires going into the pipe, that, you know... shrapnel going straight in my eyeballs. >> pelley: some folks would think that, after what happened to you, you'd never want to get anywhere close to this place again. >> bradford: you know, ever since i've been hurt and stuff,

i've had a lot of people tell me i couldn't do something. so i told them i would return back to iraq, you know, someday. i don't let people get me down on anything. if they tell me i can't do something, i want to go find a way to do it. >> pelley: "no" means "go". >> bradford: "can't" is not in my vocabulary. >> ed salau: he trusts only a handful of people with the job of being his eyes. >> pelley: ed salau came to be matt bradford's guide. but he also served in iraq and paid for it. in 2004, then army lieutenant salau was leading a patrol of armored vehicles, and on the way back to the base, they were hit. he and his gunner each had a leg blown off. >> salau: we won that fight; we lost a couple of legs. life's different. i jokingly say, "i had ten really good months and one really bad day." >> pelley: salau blames himself for leading his patrol into an ambush and, like a lot of soldiers and marines we've talked to, he feels guilty about leaving his men when he was medevaced out of iraq. you felt like you let them

down... >> salau: absolutely. >> pelley: ...by leaving. >> salau: absolutely >> pelley: when you first heard about operation: proper exit, what did you think? >> salau: i had to come back. you know what? this... this place doesn't take from you what you don't give it. >> steven cornford: coming back here means a lot to me. >> pelley: of the eight, returning may have been toughest for steven cornford. to look at him, you don't see scarring. there are no amputations. he left iraq and was awarded the silver star for valor. but they don't give away silver stars for nothing, and when we sat down with cornford, we learned what post-traumatic stress disorder is all about. when you were coming over here, for operation: proper exit, did you wonder whether you were doing the right thing? >> cornford: sometimes. my wife brought up a good point when i told her i wanted to do it. she said, "what if it makes it worse? what if it brings it all back?"

because for a while, i... i would sleepwalk and scream in my sleep and stuff, and i... i haven't been doing that a lot lately. but when i found out i was coming back, for about a week before, i... i started doing it again, and it really scared her. >> pelley: his nightmares are rooted in easter sunday, 2007. steven cornford's platoon assaulted an enemy machine gun nest. he was hit in the left shoulder. his lieutenant, phillip neel, sprinted forward to help, but was cut down. through enemy fire, cornford reached the lieutenant, and he tried to stop the bleeding from the artery in the lieutenant's leg. >> cornford: i didn't have much pressure with my left arm, so once i found the spot on him that had the worst injury, where it was bleeding the most, i... i tried to stop it by laying on it with a pressure dressing on it. >> pelley: and this whole time, you're returning fire?

>> cornford: yes, sir. >> pelley: cornford threw two hand grenades into the machine gun nest. then, he carried lieutenant neel a mile to a medevac helicopter that took them both to a field hospital. the lieutenant didn't make it and cornford cannot forgive himself. >> cornford: and they pronounced my lieutenant dead. i... i just... the last thing i remember before they put me out for surgery and blood transfusions and stuff like that was they all salute when they pronounce somebody dead. and i... i was fighting the nurses and the doctors with the one good arm i did have to get up and salute. and they wouldn't let me get up. and finally, i just blacked out, and woke up the next morning in a lot of pain. >> pelley: how old were you? >> cornford: 18 years old. >> pelley: why did you come back here?

>> cornford: to try and let it go. it's something that haunts me every day. >> pelley: what is it that you're trying to let go? >> cornford: i... i see his face every time i close my eyes to go to sleep at night. i blame myself a lot, because i got hit first and he was coming to get me. i... i just... i want to be able to lay it to rest, like he is. because i know he's in a better place. i just... i know he would want me to. >> we want to welcome you back. ( cheers and applause ) >> pelley: operation: proper exit helps cornford and the others lay down some of the burden by bringing them back not just to a place but to a time, a time they were proud of.

the trip is a tour, and every stop is part of the therapy, back with the troops, the machines, and the weapons that were their strength. >> rick kell: they all love putting the uniform back on. it motivates them, it takes them back to something they love, absolutely love. >> pelley: rick kell started operation "proper exit" and leads the trips. in iraq, he's in uniform, but he's never been in the military. kell is a retired advertising executive who was a volunteer at walter reed army medical center. how did this idea occur to you? >> kell: it really didn't occur to me; it was presented to me by a corps of wounded warriors at walter reed that i saw frequently. in every conversation, it came up-- "i want to go back, i need to go back."

>> pelley: in a sense, for many of these young men and women, they didn't leave iraq, they were unconscious. >> kell: they were taken from iraq. when they arrived home last time, there were no homecomings. many woke up after comas of three weeks or more, significantly different in many ways. a lot of it's a blur. and they have to put those pieces back together. and they do, many do. and... but the one piece they couldn't put back was the... the piece of exiting and leaving the way they thought they would leave-- with their team, with... with their battle buddies. >> pelley: in 2008, kell brought the idea to the pentagon and they turned him down. then, ray odierno, the commanding general in iraq, heard about kell. odierno's son had been wounded and the general gave kell the go-ahead for operation: proper exit. today, a total of 68 troops have been on kell's journey.

the tour that we joined was the ninth proper exit. the hardest stops on the itinerary confront that day, years ago, when they were wounded. first stop, the air force theater hospital. lives were saved, and their friends were lost in this emergency room. the medical staff had changed, but everyone understood what these men had survived. >> bradford: i don't remember coming through here. >> pelley: for matt bradford, it was more than a chance to say thanks; it was a step towards peace of mind. >> bradford: i lost both my legs and also my vision. i know a handshake or a hug ain't enough, but you all are pretty much... i mean... you know, i owe y'all my life. ( applause ) >> pelley: the next step back in time was to fly over the places

where they were wounded. >> i'm relieved. >> pelley: for ed salau, it was an opportunity to see what iraq had gained from his sacrifice. >> salau: i needed to see. i... i needed to see what was going on here. the newspapers weren't telling me what i was looking for. how many schools were being built? how many wells were being dug? because that's what i was trying to get done. how many imams were getting water trucks of fresh drinking water to their villages that i'd promised them so many times? but i.e.d.s kept blowing them up. i needed to see that was fixed. >> pelley: is that what you saw? >> salau: that's exactly what i saw. i saw people looking to their government for solutions. it was finally becoming iraq's iraq. and they were working to make sure the u.s. would leave and they would be okay when it happened. i needed to see that. >> pelley: of all the troops, the man most determined to see the scene of his battle was steven cornford. >> cornford: my whole life, since i came home from iraq, has been hell because of that night.

>> pelley: perhaps it's impossible to understand if you haven't lived it. cornford scoured maps and strained to see. he was grasping for something, eye contact, with the night his nightmares were made of. and touching it again let him begin to let go. >> cornford: i feel a little more relaxed with myself, because one of the things i deal with on a daily basis is i don't even like being myself. i... i want to get out of my own skin. i... i don't like being me, because i feel bad constantly. and it's starting to go away, a little bit. i feel a little more comfortable with myself and with what i've done in my life. >> pelley: when you go back to the states this time, how do you think you'll be different? >> cornford: i know i'll be a lot less angry. i'll treat my wife with a little more respect.

i won't be so, i guess, snappy with people. i'll... i'll be a little more understanding. because i always hear people complain about stuff, and it just makes me mad, because a lot of people don't understand. they don't see the stuff that... they just go about their daily lives, while there's still people dying every day... for them. and it... it upsets me a lot. and it... just i... i'm... i'm starting to feel a little better about it. >> pelley: each man came for a different reason-- to remember peace of mind, to see again, to walk out of iraq.

before their return, the enemy had had the last word. now, after a week, they'd rewritten that history. this was their proper exit. they were guided by the eyes of others or walked on artificial legs-- those things would not change. but as they left on their own terms now, the enemy was retreating from the battlefield of their minds. >> go to 60minutesovertime.com to see what life has been like for troops after they've returned home after operation: proper exit. is a big deal... thanks... so i'm glad it's with fidelity. they offer me one-on-one guidance to help me choose my investments. not just with my savings plan here at work. they help me with all of my financial goals. looking good, irene. thanks to fidelity, i can stay on top of my financial future, huh?

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>> safer: as you may have already heard, our friend and colleague andy rooney died after a brief illness. it was only a few weeks ago that he made his farewell appearance on this broadcast. >> andy rooney: i've done a lot of complaining here, but of all the things i've complained about, i can't complain about my life. >> safer: andy was 92 and he truly had a wonderful life. as we end tonight's broadcast, we take another look at that life, and the man who had the special gift for speaking for every man. when you first started the rooney piece on "60 minutes," what was the immediate response? >> andy rooney: well, how you going to hate andy rooney on television? i mean, i... i don't recall having much negative comment from anybody. >> safer: did you have any idea, though, that you would become iconic on this broadcast? >> rooney: well, i hope you're right. i don't know the... whether

you're right or not, but i like hearing you say it. ( laughter ) >> rooney: i don't know anything off-hand that mystifies americans more than the cotton they put in pill bottles. why do they do it? >> safer: for over 30 years, andy rooney has held court, dispensing his wit and wisdom from his desk turned pulpit, soapbox, or whatever you want to call it. >> rooney: i make my living having opinions. all i'm saying is... >> safer: as america's favorite grouch-in-chief, he was the voice... >> rooney: will you please tell me why... >> safer: ...the loud, whiny voice speaking on behalf of citizens fed up with nearly everything... >> rooney: that's what's wrong with what's going on in washington. >> safer: ...and a watchdog... >> rooney: look at these boxes of stuff. >> safer: ...our junkyard poodle protecting consumers. >> rooney: check the size of those things. they not only puffed the wheat, they puffed the blueberries. i think of it as work. i love to come in and sit down at my typewriter. >> safer: you think of it as work. people watching this say, "and

you call that work?" >> rooney: i know. ( laughs ) i know. that is true. but i do think of it... it is work. there's no doubt about it-- dogs are nicer than people. >> safer: people say, "is rooney really like that?" ( laughter ) you know, about the character they see on the screen. "is rooney really like that?" i say, "he's exactly like that." for example... well, i've been out with you, just walking the street. and people come up asking for an autograph. >> rooney: oh, what kind of an idiot...? >> safer: and you can be... you get very prickly with... >> rooney: oh, what kind of an idiot wants my name on a piece of paper? >> safer: it's not a question of what kind of idiot. i've you heard say to people, "look, i get paid to write." ( laughter ) you've... >> rooney: i suppose you're right. but i still do it. and i have no intention of stopping. i just don't sign autographs. >> safer: andy was born in 1919, just as the first world war ended. he grew up in albany, new york, during the depression, but the rooneys never had to stand in a bread line. what was your childhood like? what was it like up there?

>> rooney: well, it was good. my father traveled, so he was away a lot. and i had a good mother, she took care of us. >> safer: and you weren't a poor family at all. >> rooney: no, no. my father made... i think he made $18,000 a year. and that was a lot of money, and my mother spent it. she... she... yeah, he gave it all to her, i guess. when i was about 15, i went to a very good school, one of the best schools in the country, albany academy. i was not a good student but they were good teachers. >> safer: he was good enough to get into colgate university, until... world war ii comes along... >> rooney: uh-huh. >> safer: you lost a lot of friends, correct? >> rooney: oh, i did. i lost three or four close friends from the albany academy. >> safer: you weren't in combat, although i'm sure you saw some. >> rooney: i worked for the army newspaper. and i could go as far up as i dared, and i dared go pretty far up. it was... it was dangerous. >> safer: and you made some life-long friends in... >> rooney: oh, i made some life- long friends, yeah.

>> safer: cronkite? >> rooney: walter cronkite. i can't believe i got to know walter. he was one of my best friends. i mean, he was until the day he died. he was a g... a great friend. >> safer: after the war, andy tried his hand at comedy, writing for the popular radio- turned-television personality arthur godfrey. >> arthur godfrey: this is mr. rooney's joke. "the favorite dish of the men from another planet who pilot the flying saucers is 'venus - schnitzel'." ( moans ) >> safer: godfrey presented himself as the nation's kindly uncle, but... >> rooney: he was nasty, sometimes. but this was 1949, '50, '51. i was making something like $500 a week-- i mean, a fortune. >> safer: but you were writing for somebody else to read... >> rooney: yes, but that didn't bother me then as it would now. i can't imagine writing for anybody else now.

but i was perfectly happy, and when he used something of mine on the air, i liked it. >> safer: from working for a fake good guy, he went to work for a real one, correspondent harry reasoner here at cbs news. >> harry reasoner: no thought has much meaning until it is written or spoken. >> rooney: i worked for harry reasoner for eight or ten years, and wrote a lot of what he read. >> safer: tell me about that relationship, that partnership with harry. >> rooney: we were very good friends. i liked harry a lot. and he obviously liked me. >> safer: he was a pretty good writer, himself. >> rooney: oh, he was a great... that was the darndest thing. i mean, he was a better writer than i was, and yet, he let me do it for him. >> safer: laziness, do you think? >> rooney: oh, he was lazy. harry reasoner was a lazy person, no question about it. and it was lucky for me, because it enabled me to do so much writing. >> safer: but he was one of the most companionable men... >> rooney: oh, he was a great... great guy to be with. >> safer: and he liked to put the... he liked the... the...

>> rooney: he drank a lot. are you trying to say he drank a lot? >> safer: something like that. ( laughter ) >> safer: then, "60 minutes" creator don hewitt, desperate for some kind of post script to his broadcast, decided to put andy on the air, at least his shadow. >> being elected president of the united states is the highest honor in the world. >> aren't you being chauvinistic? >> no. >> safer: they were anonymous silhouettes. andy was the guy on the right. >> rooney: a man who wants to be loved greatly, greatly loves people or he wouldn't care what they thought of him. >> thank you. >> rooney: thank you. ( laughs ) oh, god, i'd forgotten those, yes. >> safer: and then, in 1978... >> rooney: we were curious about the car death figures... >> safer: ...andy emerged from the shadows to begin his long run as the last word on "60 minutes." >> rooney: something's got to be done about phone books. you know something i don't like? chocolate chip cookies. i've got a lot of paperweights. what's a paperweight for,

anyway? papers don't blow around in here. nothing seems funny this week... >> safer: and it wasn't just doorknobs and desk clutter. there were times when he spoke for the nation. >> and lift-off. >> safer: he shared our sense of helplessness when the space shuttle "challenger" exploded in 1986... >> rooney: we can all be prouder to be human beings because that's what they were. they make up for a lot of liars, cheats and terrorists among us. >> safer: ...and in 1995, our anger over the oklahoma city bombers. >> rooney: i could kill the bastards. >> safer: and in 2003, he said this about the war in iraq. >> rooney: we didn't shock them and we didn't awe them in baghdad. the phrase makes us look like foolish braggarts. the president ought to fire whoever wrote that for him. >> safer: do you ever get any flack for being too political? >> rooney: do you think i'm too political, sometimes? >> safer: yeah.

>> rooney: well, i suppose i am, sometimes. it's hard to conceal the fact i am more of a democrat than i am a republican. but i'm absolutely open-minded about it, i think. and i would... i would object to being called either. >> safer: in 1990, though, he was pilloried for making some questionable observations about race and homosexuality, which led to a suspension from cbs. the controversy that you got involved in, which led to a three-month suspension. you made some remarks that the homosexual community in this country took as offensive. and you were... you were pretty nasty about... about their outrage. >> rooney: well, i suppose i was. if i was, i'm sorry. >> safer: do you look for trouble? >> rooney: no, i don't. it comes naturally to me. ( laughter ) >> safer: he was not exactly

"mr. congeniality," even to his most ardent fans. you've gotten tons of mail over the... >> rooney: i get a lot of mail. i get more mail than most people. >> safer: do you answer any of them? >> rooney: not much, no. i mean, who would want to answer an idiot who was the bad sense to write me a letter? i mean, it's a certain kind of person who writes you, and they're not my kind of people, usually. >> safer: well, they are your kind of people. >> rooney: well... >> safer: they're the people who are... >> rooney: ...i suppose. but i... i... every once in a while, i answer one. but not very often. >> safer: most people tend to mellow with age. not our andy. he became even grumpier. the only thing golden about the golden years may be memories, and andy has plenty of those. >> rooney: the interesting thing was, i really liked all of them, and that doesn't happen very often when you work with a group of people. imagine, being on "60 minutes." it has just been such a show over the years.

>> safer: if you had your life to live over again, what would you do? >> rooney: if i had my life to live over again, i'd be on television. i'd get on "60 minutes," if i could, and i'd do a piece every week of my own. i'd write it and say it. and that's what i'd like to do best. >> hello, everyone. welcome to the cbs spores update. i'm james brown in new york. the unbeaten packers lead the n.f.c. north. the patriots, bills and jets are tied atop the a.f.c. east. the giants lead the n.f.c. east by. two new orleans retains half game lead in the n.f.c. south. indians 0-9. the niners have won six straight. tim tebow rushed for more than 100 yards in denver's win. the dolphins win their first game of the year and the texans have won three straight. for more sports news and information, go to cbssports.com. follow the wings.

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