>> production assistance for "inside washington" was provided by allbritton communications and "politico," reporting on the legislative, executive, and political arena. >> we are not going to get all 8 million jobs lost back overnight. it is going to take time. >> this week on "inside washington," i'm happy economic news and docs president obama on this -- unhappy economic news dgos president obama on his summer vacation. why is the governor of mississippi getting so much attention? after 7.5 years of war, the last american combat dead leaves iraq.

-- combat brigade leaves iraq. >> i will not comment on the decision to put a mosque there. >> the rhetoric he top. >> nazis don't have the right to put up a sign next of all cost -- next to the holocaust museum. >> i have been lied about and you have been lied to. captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> as president obama took the stand at martha's vineyard for summer vacation, he took with him the news that jobless claims rose unexpectedly last week to the highest since last november. more bad news from the congressional budget office, all the -- which estimates that 9.5%

unemployment will not fall of 5% until 2014. mark, if the economy continues to cool like this, how badly will voters punished the president and his party? >> when the economy is bad, it is the only issue. we are seeing that the the reality of 2010. the president's only hope, absent improving numbers, which we're getting late in the game, is the congestion can make between democrats and of publicans and -- the contrast he can make between democrats and republicans on the past record. that is about it, as far as i can see. >> charles? >> whenever the economy is weak, the president and his party will suffer. the president is worse this time around because he purchased the economy, he owned it when he passed stimulus a month into the presidency. is tt the republicancan

make a very strong argument that you get $1 trillion on of the stimulus and it failed. >> nina? >> americans and everybody really has a very short memories. i am not sure that the stimulus is what people paid as much as the tarp, which is as much as the budget administration's doing -- in fact, more so, then the obama administration's, and we wouldave got off a cliff without it. bu it makes th a very sour taste in people's mouths, that they are in tough times while people are prospering. >> evan, he is going to be blamed for this nonetheless, isn't he? >> there's not much he can do to fix the economy. remember, he ran on "i am outside washington at." he allowed himself to get sucked into washington, to the talk-

show nonsense. they always denounce these talk shows but then they deal with them. he has got to find some way to step away from and find a new way to get out what is the long-term answer, dealing with the problem that america does not want to pay for the government it gets. you have to find some way to address the problem. >> not for the first time, the president is blaming republicans for obstructing his blueprint for recovery, in this case, a jobs bill for small businesses. >> there will be plenty of time between now and november to play politics. but small business owners i met with this week and the ones i met with across the country this year don't have time for political games. >> does he get any mileage out of that, mark? >> not much, according to the

numbers. the republicans are playing -- they're busily not engaging him other than saying that things are bad and he is in charge. the other problem is the democrats face is that when your party controls the house and senate and the white house, the only way of order who is disgusted and disappointed can expect his or her -- can express his or disapproval is to vote against the party. >> the democrats have had control of the presidency and house and the senate and they imposed their programs. it is not as if the republicans opposed it, but the democrats had a majority and they passed it, the stimulus, health care, financial reform. it is not as if just conditions happen. we are a year after the the the residency and the economy is worse. -- the year and half it to the presidency and the economy is worse.

>> you pass health reform but it takes years to kick in. >> charlie took estimates that 35 to 45 seats and the house go to republicans. anyone to argue with that? >> note. -- no. >> never argue with charlie cook. >> haley barbour is the most powerful men in politics. he has more money to spend on the 2010 election than any other republican leader. the one to watch? >> he is the anti-obama. he is a rumpled, have become a lobbyist, a good o'l' boy, does not pretend to be so liberal, very much a creature of washington and mississippi --

does not pretend to be cer ebral, very much a creature of washington and mississippi. he is allowed to raise money from corporations, which candidates cannot do. he has raised $1 million from the fair and balanced source, news corp. of rupert murdoch and fox news, ich is a little bit of depture. >> the other reason he is so powerful is the republican national committee under michael steele is so weak. he is the shadow that has overcome the being that cast the shadow. everybody is giving money to him and not the rnc because he knows how to better do it than michael steele. >> a lobbyist with seem like an unlikely choice, but if he is the guy who could pull off the deal that everybody knows we have to make but nobody wants to admit to, which is that the only way out ofhis mess is to raise

taxes and cut spending, a one- for-one trade, the only way out, and if he is the deal maker who could make the republicans including charles agree to raise revenues, i would be for him. >> what do you think? do you think h hwould be a good president attended a? >> -- presidential candidate? >> actually, i do. the country is looking for anti- charisma. they ve a charia a shot, and they have a president who does not appear to govern well. i don't think it needs arugula. >> last combat brigade leaves iraq. >> it is the finality of it. pack the trucks, we are done. we are leaving. >> an army sergeant, as the last combat brigade rolold out of

iraq back to the united states. they leave another 50,000-plus troops in ira and an unstable political situation five months after the elections. "a the new york times" reported that the state department is using civilians and contractors to fill the void left by the troops. have they ever done this on this scale before? >> no, and they are worried about it. they don't have the same military discipline as the military does. but this is the world we are in. they end up doing all the work. it is a perft coda for this war, which it turned out better than we expected but it has all these messy lose ends hanging. >> first of all, there is a contradiction here. the state department says it will cut down on contractors, but overseas it will build on

contractors. i wish i could be as pleased as evan is. i cannot see enormously what we accomplished. we got rid of at saddam hussein, but we no longer have a untealance to iran, and all those troops are leaving at the same time we are adding troops to afghanistan, where we should have been originally, in larger numbers. and it is better than it was two years ago, but i am not sure what we really accomplished. >> evan talks about loose ends hanging. was it worth the price of over 4000 americans killed, 7000 injured for life? >> no, i don't believe so. i come back to general tony zinni's admonition before the congress, who did not even debate the issue before we rush to war in 2002, saying that we will be the first western,

kristin, protest israeli invading and occupying -- christian, pro-is really invading and occupying power of of muslim country. saddam hussein was evil, and no doubt about it, but removing eagle pass this around the world is at different bill of goods to -- removing evil despots around the world is a different bill of goods. it is not just a mite-resistant and ambushed-proof vehicles they have, operated by private contractors. we now have to train the iraqi army in the use of m1 tanks, f- 16 planes to fly and protect their own air space, which they are acquiring from us. this is really wonderful that the troops are leaving, but it is that the united states

leaving. we are deeply and complex -- it is not the united states leading. we are deeply and complexly involved. >> same question, charles? >> history will decide. it is l -- the comparison to the korean war -- we lost 10 times as many soldiers in korea at that iraq. than iraq. it is a question you can never answer. if you have a member of the family among those who died, the answer is no. if you ask what it did strategically to the united states, i think it helped. i want to add to what mark said about the first time we occupied a muslim land. when osama bin laden issued a declaration of war on the crusaders and the jews, 1998,

was the first item of a grievance? it was that america was occupying the holy sites of saudi arabia as a result of the success of the war in kuwait, where we had 50,000 american troops in what he called the land of the two shrines. in fact, the success of a good war, the kuwait war, resulted in occupation. exactly the one that mark is talking about an analogous to, the proximate cause of 9/11. >> we did not invade and occupy it the leadership of kuwait. we drove the invading army out of kuwait. it was entirely different, and that is the way it -- >> unfortunately, osama bin laden saw it differently and that is why he attacked. >> now the u.s. must controversy. >> this is an attack on the innocent victims of 9/11. >> we do not want to turn in an

act of hate against us by extremists into an act of tolerance of those of religious faith. >> ted olson's wife died in the crash on 9/11. the president stepped into this with a speech he made to muslims. then he qualified and qualified it again and now he is right in the middle of it. >> there are two separate issues. one is how president obama handled it, which is badly. and then there is the issue of the mosque itself, which makes me terribly sad both for the lack of fact about this. it is not at ground zero. it is four blocks away. >> two blocks. >> it is an islamic center that is supposed to be multi-cultural and supposed to bridge bridges. it was originally endorsed by christians and jews in new york. and now is being portrayed as a

terrible slap at americans and those who died. the kind of rhetoric we hear on cable news, that if you substitute the word christian or muslim, -- or jew for muslim, there would be a fear reported it saddens me. we are better -- there would be a furor. it saddens me. we are better than this. it may not be wise, but it saddens me is all i can say. >> don't listen to cable tv, all the chatter -- he walked rig into this. firs wit the speech, and then by qualifying it. this did not need to be such a big draw, and now it is. have -- having taken the position, i don't think you can back away. >> charles, you wrote to double

columns about this. -- two columns about this. >> the proponents of the mosque say that the opponents have attacked it as the ground zero tagged it as the ground zero mosque. the imam says he chose it because of its proximity part of the landing gear of the plane hijacked by mohammad khaatta lodged into the roof of this structure. it was a point of attack of 9/11. it is not a creation of the opponents that it has a connection. i think the fact that there was a crime committed here by muslims, a small minority, absolutely, who do n represent the rest of islam, but however in the name of islam, and the

attacks are continuing to this day, makes it imperative on the co-religionists to think about establishing -- think again about establishing a monument on that place. it is on mark of great insensitivity. >> let me hear from mark on this. >> it is a rancid debate that the president entered. i do not know if he could do avoid it and i don't think you should begin the second day with let me explain what i said last night. you don't say to a muslim group -- you say it to an inter-faith, christians and jews, and that would have been far better. that said, the internet radio debate, talk radio debate on this, is -- according to pew

research, most american muslims are assimilated, consider themselves americans, and this is equating to often -- nobody has been at more reckless and republican presidential candidates, including newt gingrich, who said that the president is pandering to radical islam. public opinion is on the other side. barack obama is not naive politically. he took the position, can yoyocould argue with him or not, and for newt gingrich to say this and confirm what the jihadists -- conflict with the jihadists did with other muslims is irresponsible and inflammatory. >> the nuns at auschwitz leaving the convent -- it is not that they were responsible for

what happened at auschwitz, is that the pope understood it was a matter of sensitivity and it was not a place for christian at monuments to be established. he was not a bigot or demagogue. he made the right to decision. people ought to learn from the wisdom of the pope. >> i not think it is the right analogy. >> explain to us why. >> this whole debate has gotten so rancid, as mark says, that 1/3 of republicans this is relieved to see. -- 1/3 of republicans think obama is muslim. this is really lunacy. >> notwithstanding the fact that the government for everything but the kitchen sink at me, on every count except for one, every charge except for one, they could not prove i did

anything wrong. >> that is a former illinois gov. rod blagojevich. he was charged with trying to sell president obama's senate at. a bum rap, he says. >> only in america. i covered a couple of a criminal trials years ago. the law can take something that is relatively simple and make it so complex and complicated that 12 ordinary americans cannot figure out what is going on. >> i have been on a future release. i know what you are talking about. -- i have been on a few injuries. i know what you are talking about. >> he got convicted on one count. >> lyingo thfbi. >> he faceses up to five years r that. >> he says it is a bum rap, charles. >> fitzgerald, the prosecutor, charges him with 24 charges.

he gets one count returned, which was a secondary, a process count, not any of the actual crimes, but something he said about them to the fbi. mickey mouse. everybody understands it. this is a huge embarrassment for fitzgerald. did that with scooter libby. he did not get him on a charge of leaking, because he was the actual weaker. he got him on processed charges. this is the guy who went after conrad black and all those charges are now in question. the supreme court reviewed that a debut. he has a bad losing streak. >> half a corrupt politicians in illinois in jail -- >> including the republican -- >> republican governor who was his predecessor. patrick fitzgerald, the son of a doorman in new york, got a

scholarship and has been a distinguished public. -- distinguished public servant. what looks like it is some of the total loss of confidence in -- institute -- brought the boy -- rod blagojevich is a symptom of the total loss of confidence in institutions. >> roger clemens is charged with lying to congress. >> one is tempted to say if there is a similarity between these two people who cannot bear to admit that the public reputations have been solid terribly by private conduct. -- sullied terribly by private conduct. but roger clemens has not been tried. we have not seen witnesses against him. >> we saw one during the hearings. >> mitchell did not believe the

clemons, and a grand jury did not believe roger clemens, his account. but maybe when there is a trial, this will turn out differently. having been in the position of prejudging people before and eating my words, i think i will just cool it on this one. >> the real indicator is that almost no one in baseball believes what did clemmons -- believes roger clemens. the other one is barry bonds, a seven-time mvp, and no one has ever approached that did the best picture of his era, the best hitter, and they are so out of proportion, out of line with the best of their contemporaries, everybody in baseball understands that this is not natural ability. everybody is suspicious, even though the standards of justice are high and you may not get a jury to convict.

but neither of them will ever get into the hall of fame. convicted or not. everybody suspects that these guys we cheaters. >> bobby thompson died this week. he was 86. the shot heard around the world in 1951. when it to the world series. bobby thompson looked like the man you stand next to on an elevator. baseball went through a period of total denial -- commissioners, owners, the players, and the union. barry bonds, roger clemens, there was something going on ms. ellicott pharmacologically -- medicinal lly, a former college t pharmacologically. were it not for henry waxman and tom davis, who forced these people to go on the record, we would never have confronted this

issue. but charles is right, all of them are tainted by that era. >> there was criticism when those hearis have been that maybcongss suld not be poking its nose into this business. >> you mentioned bobby thomson. we think about the good old days when athletes were clean. as i recall, back in 1951, they were cheating, too. there was a guy who signaled to thompson that he was -- >> i thought it was stealing -- >> no, not stealing signs. we can mythologize the good old days. cheating -- >> if you are on second base and you'd steal the sign of a catcher and he signaled a batter, the next time you are up at bat, they hit you on the back of the head. >> they were very methodical about this -- >> i don't think the two charges

are at all comparable. changing the entire physical composition of people. barry bonds' head size was enlarged by a full-size -- >> look, i am not dending steroids, i'm just saying -- >> the other message is to listen to a good lawyer and do not talk unless you can tell the truth. >> tom hanks said there is no crying in baseball but see you next week. -- no crying in baseball. see you next week. for a transcript of this broadcast, log on to insidewashington.tv.