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on. more news today violence is once again flared up the film these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada from china corporations are on the day. stories this hour lawsuit calls the latest spy scandal in georgia but it's go far as saying thirteen people accused of recently secretly working for russia are innocent victims of

a stunt by president saakashvili attention seeking before i made systemic. rampant or was he wrong forces locals to take desperate measures to make in their day some have resorted to smuggling alcohol into neighboring rwanda risking death across the border in a country would lose this trick if a bit. for the first time in history the united states has been accused by the united nations human rights council of human rights abuses the allegations come after it emerged that ex-president george w. bush passed away authorized torture in interrogations while the glass is also accused of racial discrimination after. there's the headlines up next sixty five and a world war two we hear from those who managed to survive the nazi death camps our special report is up next.

and you can. follow me and welcome to cross talk i'm peter lavelle after the us elections the start of a brave new revolution or inevitable and destructive gridlock the victorious republicans claim a mandate to slow and even reverse obama's legislative agenda will anything get done from january two thousand and eleven through at least january two thousand and thirteen. and you can.

discuss the u.s. midterm elections i'm joined by robert weiner in washington he is a national democratic strategist and columnist also in washington we go to ford o'connell he is president of project virginia and in new york we have niall standage a journalist and author of redemption song an irish reporter inside the obama campaign and another member of our crosstalk team on the hunger all right gentlemen crossfire grows in effect and we have a lot of a difference of opinion on this program first of all i want to go to you robert bobb that is in washington in the wake of this election that the american people give the keys back to the folks that crashed the car in the first place. well there is some truth to that because you have a fast and serious set of accomplishments which is why we got blamed for doing too much but we had to we had to rescue the audio auto industry rescue the financial industry to sions we had to stop wall street from causing the crash in

the first place we had to allow student loans because we're losing students and colleges we had to get health care to catch up to europe where we allow preexisting conditions and we don't stop lifetime illnesses from stopping people for health insurance we had to give veterans health care we had a consumer financial printing agency and we had to take troops out of iraq so if you do all of that and you get blamed for doing too much you've actually done what you had to but i talked to senator reid the majority leader who won his race and he said and then obama president obama said yesterday in the news conference that i had the privilege of attending that we had to act fast and furious to get out of the ditch ok for you aren't you in your folks the republicans certainly weren't satisfied and you probably very quickly fell with your victory what's going to be different this time what's the difference you know a lot of what is a little a little surprised i finished my question a little supercharged tea party stuff and who knows where that's going to lead to i

mean if we just heard here bob just said that the president was punished for doing too much what do you think. well i would say that the president's agenda was punished but i'm not exactly sure this was a vote of confidence for republicans either the bottom line is we were not the victors yesterday we were the beneficiaries of voter anger a lot of people are going to put this on the tea party and say particularly the us media these are a bunch of crazies they're not really crazies are average americans are concerned about the fiscal plight of this country yes we are going to have gridlock but i'm going to tell you something right now if we do not focus on the domestic economy all incumbents from both parties will be on the chopping block in two thousand and twelve by the way bob i have to say it's a little questionable outsider reid pull that out in nevada i think the unions had a lot to do with it all right if i go to you know actually the answer and there's an answer to that we're going to jump in and give their hands here the hispanic vote had a record turnout the hispanic vote had a record turnout because of the republican anti immigration rhetoric and in the conference call they had with the white house and national democratic strategist

along the course of the day watching the exit polls the has family go was higher with early turnout than it was in the entire last election ok that may explain it also helps when you're going to have a dream bag vote and i want to go to iowa now ok now i hope you're going to be in the middle that's why we want as you the very go looking at the campaign here. in an outside observer and i sometimes i think outside observer outside the country being an irishman yourself can give a unique perspective go ahead what was your perspective on the election results here and the have a debilitating season where i think there was a lot to be said for the argument. and yeah i think there's a lot to be said really for the argument that the thing that precipitated this kind of republican sweep was principally the state of the economy i mean if people don't have a job it doesn't really matter so much what the minutia of the policy is if you're the government and i'll be asleep the democrats hailed both the white house and both houses of congress until tuesday you're going to get blamed when conditions

are not as they should be i think it was. that that really drew to the election and i was interested that told in fact made the point that you know it's not necessarily a massive vote of confidence in the republican party or the republican platform and i certainly don't see it that way i think the republicans benefit from being the norm and incumbents the perceived outsiders now whether they should have benefited given that it's only two years since obama came to power that's another question but i think it was an. incumbent vote principly you know ford and i have to ask bob this but i think that i'd like to ask you both the same question and getting at least this tea party thing and it's you know we're way it's still a long ways off before they're sworn in but how much of power do you think they'll have and how much of a spoiler that would be i mean because during the campaign after we've heard you know we're going to stick to our ideals even will even vote against our fellow republicans in the case of the tea partiers i mean this is what

a lot of people are worried about you have gridlock anyway ok now you have this extra element so if i go to you forward about that what about your fellow republicans drinking tea are you worried about them are they going to go along with you are going to lower the majority. why don't i don't think you know the big question washington right now is will the tea party you know take over the republican party no i do not see that but what i do see a lot of the tea party candidates that have been newly elected to congress doing is sort of serving as our fiscal conscience they will keep us on the straight and narrow and if we stray from it they're going to let everybody know they're also going to be pretty hard on a lot of moderate democrats folks like joe manchin and west virginia as well ok what do you think about that bob i mean do you see do you look forward to i mean on a positive sense obviously that the tea partiers are just going to make sure that nothing happens to forward the obama agenda into the presidential election in two thousand and twelve they would hope they would they hope most likely will be thrown him. well don't forget that the republicans the leadership and the and the rank and

file actually blamed the tea party for costing the republicans the senate when sharron angle said she wants to abolish social security and medicare and divorce is a wicked way and she wants to abolish the e.p.a. and the wall street crash misbehaving was because there was too much regulation not too little that's fringy and when christine o'donnell came out with her ridiculous i'm not a witch and that's where they are that showed her views then and so she cost me biden see in delaware that would have been won by a mainstream angle cost the seat nevada that reid was able to win so the the tea party will be perceived like the blue dogs are to the to the democrats they will be perceived as the fringe but yes they will move the agenda a little bit and there will have to be some commendation but the republicans know that they will get blamed if they don't do anything that they will have what happen to the democrats will happen to them if unemployment remains at nine point six

percent so now they are going to have as i talked to the president's poster and he told me they have the responsibility of co governing and with that they can get blamed if nothing happens now if i go to you bob you are right all right when are you going to jump in there and i do it and i'll go ahead but. you really are the first of the retorts just going to jump in there and say i think it is a real issue with the tea party in terms of what i would perceive its dangers to be in terms of the electability of the republican party the democratic commentator mentioned some of the fringe things but there's also this idea that you know there is this idea that the tea party are so strong on the idea of government spending in buffalo that's that's the thing that people support in the abstract sense when you get into things like dismantling social security or drastically downgrading medicare that's a very different argument now yes i think you can say that the tea party to an

extent. they sort of emphasized are energized the republican base but going forward into nationwide elections and into two thousand and twelve if i were a republican i would have serious doubts or serious skepticism about their influence on the republican party electability nationwide will forward your republican you know what i mean apply that i know it's going to florida go ahead well i want to say one thing though i think that the international perspective on the tea party slightly skewed to the mainstream media the democrats were trying to nationalize the tea party were member in the us were under one flag but were fifty different states and the tea party varies from state to state county to county so therefore it's very hard to pin them down as to bob's point larc angle lost o'donnell lost and bob i don't know if there was a perfect candidate valid because harry reid is tough as nails and i wouldn't bet against him i'm telling you you could have run a candidate from mount olympus and somehow he would have pulled that out dot on the other hand was a train wreck we know it she stole the feet from the jaws of victory with regard to

mike castle white castle was in there we'd win but mike castle be on the chopping block with a lot of republicans too because he's extremely liberal for our brand you know bob if i go to you what's to stop hypothetically going forward we get this gridlock which i think a lot of people are expecting and reasonably so what is what is your thoughts i mean could we get even more extreme tea partiers going forward say because we need more tea party. i'll say my opinion it's more of a fringe stuff you know i'm not a witch stuff i mean is that what's going to energize people to vote again because if there is great lock somebody is going to be blamed and it will be a plague on both your houses do you worry about that as a democrat. well you know you can say the tea party is a bunch of individual ideas and individual states when you have one vote in congress you can have to vote on it and then suddenly you have a national issue so for example i watched the tea party press one of their leaders talk about they might even have to compromise on the debt ceiling in the way they

would do it is if there's also stated a limitation on spending that can joins the fact they have to raise the debt ceiling so even the tea party is going to have to compromise but they haven't got a clue about their positions because they will not be able to stop spending on social security and medicare those are desperately necessary to stop poverty in the state about what about defense and exactly right and they will not be able to and they refuse they refused to say that the fence spending can be cut even though secretary gates says it can be so they have no clue as to how to really stop government spending ok let me ask you this does anybody have a clue on it is anybody going does anybody have a clue let's be honest neither do i agree oh no good outline maybe i'll give you the answer i don't want scars and haley barbour mississippi but nobody has a viable plan our guys are in because of the editor and the pressures on us as much

as it is on you. last word bob before we go to the break finally as as finally and we're on russia teeny teeny teeny as russia learned you have to cut the fence spending and when we leave iraq and we leave afghanistan we're free up what we spent four trillion dollars all right i'm going to jump in here as actually discussion going after the break after a short break we'll continue our discussion on u.s. politics today with our team. keep. the close up team has a piece of beach where russia's first free elections were held a thousand years ago. party goes to the area that used to be a place of exile since the seventeenth century. where businesses take advantage of

the wild growing product. by rich academic life gives birth to an update of idea come to come screeching such a close up on our. millions died. and millions looked forward to be helped and say. the pain and suffering will never be forgotten. as well as the joy of not ration. your a spring of ninety and forty five on r g. h our cell phones would be useless without this mineral. a tiny

these is needed to make them work. but every piece of culture and is extracted at a cost to shipment life. welcome back to talk about to remind you we're talking about the u.s. after the election. but before let's see what russians think about american major political parties one of the most polarized election cycles in u.s. history is coming to a close the tea party is rise and vote is this in testament president obama's politics handed the majority in the house of representatives who republicans

analysts believe americans now want real change in government and the end of business as usual in washington but at what cost to policy according to a lot of sun a poll russians tend to side with the democrats thirty nine percent of respondents believe they're on better terms with the russian government only eleven percent take sides with the republicans but with a shift in congress and attacked a senate man it will be watching for changes in u.s. foreign policy peter ok now i'd like to go to you in light of what we heard in the first part of the program how much of the election again maybe because i'm looking at it from the outside what how much of it was irrational because you know the way we looked at it outside looking in is we looked at some of these i'm not a witch comments and if you had the things that were just quite hilarious in american politics are quite entertaining even from an irish perspective i would imagine but you know i mean how much is this just

a reaction of trying to find solutions because a lot of things that were said when i looked at it closely are just irrational i mean getting rid of social security which i mean very few people talked about the wars ok and their expenditures which any rational person that what he wants to balance the. and get us out of this economic slump which is far far worse than a lot of people more people think and people that are unemployed know that ok but the future doesn't look good i mean was just just a burst of anxiety because everyone's going to have to come down and realize you're going to have to work together to get out of this mess because it's only going to get worse when he thinking. well absolutely i think that's a really important issue that you raised the idea that there should be bipartisan cooperation but i think one of the unfortunate things about american political culture though conversely it also makes it kind of entertaining is that there is so much sort of politics as bloodsport as we say here politics as

a game and so in the media culture that we live in here in the united states i mean i certainly find it quite different from from the irish political culture and media culture there's so much mudslinging and there's so much so-called soundbite culture and it's a lot easier in a certain kind of way to say i'm going to abolish social security or on the other side for a democrat to say all republicans are evil or want to bankrupt the country that sort of following politics as if it is almost a team sport and people put on a red or blue jersey depending on who they're support and that's a real problem in this country and the issues that we have spoken about a little bit in the first half of the program about the deficit and so on those frankly are not going to be solved by any party and they're certainly not going to be solved by that kind of hyper partisan approach to politics on fortunately it's one thing to say it it's another to get past that culture and to convince people of

all political persuasions that they will actually have to make substantial sacrifices in order to address these issues you know forward if we're going to you i mean this was a very polarized midterm election. how does everybody come down from their high if i can put it that way ok you know again i don't want to harp too much on the tea party but that was kind of the significant difference in this election that mean that it's an interesting phenomenon if you agree with them or disagree with them but i mean when they're all sworn in and they sit down if it's in the governor's seat or in the senator in the house of representatives you know we hear sounds that you know it's not going to be business as usual so we're not go. to cooperate which is a very obstructionist. trajectory i mean that's obviously saying you know we're not going to work with you that is that something different from this election than past ones because we saw when when bill clinton was president he actually did better when they were the democrats did worse in congress he actually could start legislating better because he didn't have to worry so much about the you know so

many powerful interests in the democratic party can we see this kind of somehow repeat after this election that we had. no i don't think so and here's why twenty ten is twenty ten it's not nineteen ninety four it's not nine hundred ninety six really what we saw was the fact that the dinette the voters were telling us that job one for everybody is the domestic economy partisan bickering when we may have to stop the political theater a little bit more like the british but we have to stop the political theater and we're going to have to come together because what people don't realize is we can't be obstructionist and we can't play the get blame game yes obama is probably in a better situation because now he has somebody else to pass the buck on to but really what the voters told us on both sides the aisle is that if we don't come together we don't restore confidence in the domestic economy all incumbents will be up in two thousand and twelve one thing to watch for in the united states senate is a lot of democratic senators that are incumbents they'll be up in two thousand and twelve watching how they push what i call economically rational issues through

congress will really be the telltale sign of what we're going to do moving forward you know bob if i can go to you a lot of people and again i'll tell the panel and my audience i lived in communist east europe for many many years in the one nine hundred eighty s. and visited the soviet union and when i hear a republican or anyone in the united states say well obama is a socialist i just have to wonder if they anyone knows what socialism really is so i'm really i feel you know they discourse the united states is really insane sometimes but you know. is this election going to make obama more moderates because i can't understand what that is extreme situations demand extreme action and so years we have extreme situations and you have to have a moderate reaction if that's the logical i mean how does he move forward or is it just perception. well yes he'll be more moderate but in terms of the socialist

label it's so absurd because one of the criticisms is that he did health insurance not like europe does with with national provided health care but through the private insurance industries and he rescued the auto industry and he rescued the financial institutions that's not exactly socialist but you know of course he will moderate and i talked to david axelrod the president's senior adviser about this three days ago and he said if the republicans take the congress of course we're going to not be able to move as quickly or as broadly and of course we will work toward compromise even though we did so much compromise and offered and had meetings and did one hundred sixty republican amendments on the health bill but yes we will compromise and watch these two things because president obama at the news conference i was at yesterday's said electric cars three times and he said that's an area we can do some compromise to get off the compulsion and the addiction to energy and watch free trade because that's an area with the republican majority in the house that now free trade and economic competition and opening it up around the

world in places like colombia that also will be an area of compromise that could happen so there will be areas of compromise and even on tax cuts i bet you what they do is a one year extension to say let's bring the play let's get a one year extension include passed all of the tax cuts and then let's have the debate after we go past that so i think there's going to have to be compromise and the reason is that now everybody is scared they say if you don't get something done what's going to happen if you don't produce and if you don't compromise and all these new republicans are now incumbents and they too will be scared that they're going to lose in two years so watch we're going to have a surprise of accomplishment now if i can go to you but one of the interesting things i've been watching american politics though as far away the obama always goes into a situation it seems to me and he says i'm willing to compromise and so he goes with that position because you covered the campaign you go. then with the position that i'm willing to compromise so he has to compromise his compromise if you see

what i mean ok instead of coming in and say i'm the president of the united states this is my position what's yours ok then let's sit down if you think you'll change is his approach now because compromise didn't help his party but it's quite pop. and yeah i think it's quite possible that he will i think obama is temperamentally a guy who's inclined towards compromise and and clanged toward seeking consensus and that can be a good thing in life and politics in the political climate at the moment i'm not so sure that it is the other thing is you know in a way obama you mentioned earlier on the whole idea of obama socialist and a lot which is you know a pretty crazy idea i think that you know when you're confronted with opposition lighting vast attack on all position those as for front is that it's not really the time in my view to be saying well i'm reasonable i'm willing to compromise

a lot of the charges that are being made against obama are actually themselves on reasonable it was interesting you know bill clinton has held up now as this model of someone who you saw a so-called third way which he did to an extent but clinton also had a very very aggressive so-called war room off democratic aides and people who were really there to rebut and to strike back against republican charges that sort of sort of i was one of them has not been a very noticeable during obama's time in the presidency ok for if i think i want to add one i don't know i want to add i want to ask you ford is a republican on the program here what does it take for you as a republican to work with the president of the united states as a republican what would you expect him to do to be a partner to help fix america. absolutely i think the number one of the top areas it didn't talk about is we have to help small business owners small business is the backbone of our economy but the other thing that we really have to work on is

simplifying the u.s. tax code the u.s. tax code is more convoluted than the world golf rankings ok nobody knows what's going on and if you cannot guarantee business is an individuals that they'll have a sort of stable regulatory environment when it comes to what you're paying we're going to be in trouble because again we're ghar this of which party you are job one of the domestic economy and we have to sort of restore confidence in it it doesn't really matter whether president obama or the republican house because the spotlight is on both of us the pressure is equal if we don't shine either one of us and we don't shine together and stop the partisan bickering which is clear you continue anyway but if we don't really come together and fix these two items small business and the tax code i'm telling you incumbents on both sides the aisle including the president will be on the chopping block in two thousand and twelve ok gentlemen we've run out of time here i want to ask bill really a real question when he said you're going to twenty seconds go ahead bob ok does

does ford concede that president obama did give a tax break to ninety five percent of small businesses because that's what he did and i gentleman we i'm sorry for you can't answer that but i got to say that it's great it's really nice think it's very good on cross talk to get a republican and a democrat and a independent observer to agree on some things many thanks to my guests today new york and washington and thanks to our viewers for watching us here at r.g.p. see you next time and remember across the. street. the admiral knew he was a passenger liner sailing in the black sea. this thirty three just fine.