>> what do you think of when you see a tree? a treatment for cancer? alternative fuel for our cars? do you think of hope for the environment, or food, clothing, shelter? we do. weyerhaeuser, growing ideas. >> this is not a decision i have made lightly. >> this week on "inside washington," president obama gives the green light to offshore oil and gas drilling. environmentalists are not pleased. >> back into irreversible damage that ecosystem.

-- that could do irreversible damage the ecosystem. >> i have no greater honor than serving as your commander-in- chief. >> and with americans fighting and dying in this country, what is president karzai's game? also, in the cash strapped economy, states swimming in red ink are talking about taxing everyone. and is the party over for rnc head michael steele? >> this is not a vacation. captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> so why are we so invested in the middle east? trust me, it is not the climate. but president talks about achieving energy independence by proposing exploration and drilling for oil and gas off our own coast. there was something to offend almost everyone, from the environmentalists on the left to

the hard core drillers on the right. why did he do it, nina? >> it is sensible politically and scientifically to find out what effect this will have before you do it, and sensible economically. do i agree with all of it? i don't actually know. but it is an actual approach to getting something done. >> charles, drill, baby, drill has been the republican rallying cry back to the 2008 election. what is your reaction? >> this is more labeling than drilling. this is a very, very small step. he has excluded the entire pacific ocean, a birpretty big slice, the western coast of alaska, anwr. this is only about exploration. the bureaucracy has not been helpful in all of this. we will not see a drop for 10 years. it is a small step. i commend the president for shattering a taboo on at the left, but as a practical step,

it is about 10% of what is out there and will have a very minimal impact. >> colby? >> it is an important step in the right direction, and something that he had signaled he was going to do in the campaign -- not at the outset, but at the end of the campaign he signaled he would do it. it is the right thing to do. >> evan? >> to break the deadlock, you have to make the first move, and i commend him on this. washington is hopelessly frozen. this is an act of saying that you have to do compromises. i don't think he loves doing this, he is doing it anyway. it is the right move. >> few people know more about this stuff than t. boone pickens. here is his reaction. >> there are big oil fields all over south texas and south louisiana. off the coast of virginia and south carolina, there is no oil field on shore there. why do you think they're going to be oil field offshore?

>> so why bother? the governor of virginia loves the idea, thinking jobs. so virginia's two democratic senators did maryland's two democratic senators do not like it. >> we know that there is a time, saudi arabia of oil in alaska, largely untouched anwr remains shut. if we started in 1996 when clinton shut it down, we would have 1 million barrels a day, 5% of our entire consumption, 10% of our imports. the oil is in the west, and that is why it is so odd. >> it is interesting that the oil and gas industry actually seemed pleased by this. of course they would like more, but they are pleased by this, while the republican leadership in congress is sort of pooh- poohing it.

i think there is a lot of stuff in this proposal that has not gotten much attention. they are talking about opening up some solar stuff in the desert that would be the equivalent of 30 cold-fired -- colt-fired utility plants, electricity plants. this is a very big interesting proposal. i am sure it has flaws, i am sure it does not please the environmentalists or the hard core drill, baby, drillers, but it is a serious proposal. >> it is the beginning of long negotiations. the idea is to get away from rhetoric and yelling and drill, baby, drill, the polarization. it is more a political statement than it is a geological or economic -- >> does it give him any help with the climate bill that is gathering dust? >> i think there are some members up there who think they could reach a compromise on the climate bill. but this kind of issue is so

washington. everybody has some stake in it, everybody gets something out of it. i get two mailers this week. the first was one really deploring what the president has done, and the second was a fund- raising appeal. everybody has got something in this. >> there is a chance that they can shake loose enough republicans like judd gregg, lindsey graham, and some other people. and the liberal democrats, some of them are furious, but i suspect they will get over if they can get an actual crime bill. >> that is the point -- if they can get an actual climate bill. >> that is the point, this is a political move. they could get some conservative or republican support on cap- and-trade -- >> shocking. >> but the logic of the proposal is -- and the president himself made the case -- if we put our

own oil, we will not be importing it and sending dollars into the treasury of saudi arabia, venezuela, russia, to be a, other unfriendlies. we will be keeping it at home. it will help our economy, creating jobs, and in terms of the environment, they will consume oil one way or the other. it is safer for the planet it is done under our strict control and high-technology in america as opposed to in nigeria. the niger delta is polluted, the amazon basin off the coast of ecuador real new guinea -- a equatorial new guinea. in every argument, we ought to be doing here. what do you restricted and shut down the entire pacific ocean and alaska? >> what about the northeast, north atlantic? >> because this is a political and sensible statement. if it is successful and it does not cause horrible environmental damage, and the studies show that it is feasible, we move on.

if it does, you stop. >> al gore said that fossil fuels are destroying our environment. >> well, he says that, yes. >> all the time. >> it is not destroying our environment. these things can be controlled. president obama has proposed -- nina is right. this is a prototype effort. it works, we will expanded. the pacific is not off limits for ever and ever, amen. >> what are we testing? we have a ton of dueling happening every day in the gulf of mexico, in a hurricane area, and it is successful. >> it is whether we can neutralize this as a political issue and take away drill, baby, drill as the theme song. >> and there is even deeper drilling, and gas drilling off the shores.

there is stop to find out about, and the bush administration did not do any scientific -- >> anwr is not even offshore. it is on land. no testing required. >> you are all in trouble with al gore. the president pays a surprise a weekend visit to afghanistan, but president karzai has an attitude. >> you will be backed up by our clear mission, the right strategy, and you will have the support to finish the job, to get the job done. i am confident that all of you are going to get the job done right here in afghanistan. >> president obama made a secret trip to afghanistan over the weekend, his first as commander- in-chief. he met with the troops, but he also met with president karzai, who was the subject of a killer article in "the new york times" on tuesday. "even as mr. obama pours tens of thousands of additional troops into the country to help defend mr. karzai's government, mr. karzai now often voices the view that his interests and the

united states' no longer coincide." when it comes to president karzai, there is a well known corruption issue, and there is also a corrupt brother issue. the brother, as has been strongly suggested, may be into the drug trade. evan, what does this remind you of historically? >> vietnam, propping up dictatorships, did not like us, they steal from us. it is very demoralizing for the troops. i know from talking to them that we do have a military strategy, they are reasonably confident about that, but who are they doing it for? they are very down at about that. >> the parliament in afghanistan really unanimously it just socked it to karzai, who wanted to change the entire election structures so that he would be totally in command. they said no, we are not doing that. >> karzai is saying that the west was behind election fraud in elections. >> oh, right.

>> and the u.n. and the west won a puppet government. >> the u.n. and the west want to see democracy, and he wants to keep a kleptocracy. but that is not why we are there, for karzai. we are there because of al qaeda and the taliban. those pose a direct threat to our own security, and that is why we are there, and because -- that does not mean we ignore the situation in afghanistan. we do have to build a government. but, as i is playing this thing against -- what karzai is playing this thing against both ways. he entertained ahmadinejad from iran earlier in the month. why? because he wants to ensure that he has a line open there. the u.s. cannot get bogged down with that. that is a big problem, if we get bogged down with karzai. >> and he did not get the

indication that the white house he wanted. -- the invitation from the white house that he wanted. >> the biggest part of counterinsurgency is governance, meaning that if the locals do not trust the government, they will not be on your side, and if they're not, you will not in counterinsurgency. >> karzai's brother is a big deal in the south, makes deals with the taliban, reportedly. >> you have a client state in counterinsurgency, as we had in vietnam, and i think worse than the corruption issue is the thing with iran that colby talked about, the president of iran. the afghans are thinking about the day when america leaves. america will be gone, this president made it clear that he wants to get the job done. it is not exactly clear what the job is, but he wants it done, he wants to start beeping, and he

repeated it again -- wants to start leaving, and he repeated it again, a summer of next year. if you are an afghan, you know that the iranians will be around forever, who ascended a lot of weaponry to the taliban. pakistan will be around for a long time. they will ultimately be left to fight the americans. if you watched our actions in iraq, -- they will ultimately be left by the americans. if you watched our actions in iraq, iran is exerted more influence on the winners of the elections because iran will be there and this administration indicates no interest in staying and exerting any influence. >> the latest unemployment numbers are out. >> it is like every time you turn around, they are asking for more money. you are trying to take everything out of my pocket. >> that is a customer in a michigan barbershop. michigan is talking about

taxing haircuts, among other things. we learned that the unemployment rate is still 9.7%, but the economy gained 162,000 jobs last month, the first time it has gained rather than lost jobs since 2007. i don't think the public is going to embrace this warmly. >> if you start taxing care cuts, michiganders are going to be the shaggiest people in the united states of america. we had fairly good news, a stable unemployment rate, an increase in employment of 160,000. the only negative is about 1/3 of those jobs is census, which is a one-year deal and will go away. it looks like the economy is slowly coming out, but not as rapidly as the 1981-1982 recession, which means it will be years before we recover the number of jobs lost in the recession.

>> the hair cuts are a little sign of a bigger thing. the power of the public employees union -- they are getting these unfunded liabilities, pensions, basically, enormous overhang of debt on the the states. and no clear way out of it. i don't think there is a way out of this. >> i don't is just the pensions. the pension situation is terrible. >> the growth in state spending -- >> but the problem is that the more trouble at stake is in, whether it is michigan or, if any, the more public services are demanded, whether it is medicaid, police services, or that -- the more money you need to spend to help people in trouble. nobody in the united states seems to think that you have to pay for public services. >> i did my taxes. i think i do. >> let me put it in a political

context. according to a "usa today"- gallup poll, americans worried about joblessness and the economy are starting to blame president obama for the hard times rather than his predecessor. half of those polled say he does not deserve to be reelected. the president is trying to sell health care again. >> the farther you get away from his inauguration, the more people are going to say that it is his problem, this issue. and it is this issue and in terms of what he can do about it. we see some improvement in the economy. the auto industry has stabilized, something that we had written off for dead over a year-and-a-half ago. we have seen some improvement in manufacturing, not nearly enough. consumer confidence is up. but it is going to be a very slow recovery, and that is where it is going to fall to the obama administration -- >> in the poll i mentioned, over 60% of the people said they are

more in these siesta than ever over the november elections. -- more enthusiastic than ever over the november elections. >> obama might get lucky and the economy improves and he survives. but if he wants to be a leader, he has to face up to this larger issue overhanging, and one way to look at it is that the public pays about 20% in taxes, but by 2020, 20% of the economy in taxes -- they will get 25% in government services. it is the gap between what we pay in taxes and what we get, that is a huge gap in some way he will have to close that gap or we will have massive inflation or a real recession. >> last week charles set to get ready for the value added tax. >> that is because obama added to the gap with the stimulus, a 1-shot deal, and health care, an enormous new entitlement in the middle of the time that the gap is increasing, and in the

absence of health care, the cbo is estimated at $10 trillion increase in the debt of the next 10 years, 90% of gdp, which makes us like greece. when that happens, everything collapses. that is in the absence of the new entitlement, which will be at least $1 trillion. >> some of the stimulus is actually starting to pay off. we made money and some of the bailing out of the bank's. >> that is not stimulus. >> that is the tarp. but the symbol of having hedge fund managers make on average $1 billion a year is the kind of thing that just sticks in people's throats. >> i understand, but how to you avert what gaza talking about? -- what charles is talking about? >> you cannot just to shake

things about unemployment. you have to confront it centrally and directly, and make americans aware of the central trip, which is that you will have to both raise taxes and cut benefits. >> the only answer will be eight european-style vat. if we want european-style entitlements, which we are now getting, we will have to have european-style taxation, which is 50% of gdp. >> it also means following through on what they're talking about when they are talking about the deficit, dealing with problems of medicare, dealing with problems of social security, stepping up and getting at the entitlement programs. when you bring them down, you will have to -- >> and dealing with the undervalued currency. >> enough about voters and politicians. let's talk about us. cnn is tanking, apparently.

>> it is so discouraging. cnn tries to play it straight, and the others are more ideological. i would hope that the mushy middle does ok, but they are doing terrible i don't know if it is because they're just not interesting enough, but it's fascinating how badly they are doing. >> fox is making money hand over fist better message? is that its? >> full disclosure, i actually appear on fox. i think the genius of rupert murdoch and roger ailes is to discover a niche in american broadcasting, half the american people. what you had is the monopoly, all the networks and cable stations were all liberal, and people got sick of that, and they had something different. that is why they have a huge audience. cnn's issue is not that it is straight, it is that it is the mushy, "new york times" clopper west side, maybe -- upper west

side, lazy liberalism delivered in a dull way. at least msnbc does it with flair. the fact that we have a center- right country indicates that at least, if you look at the polls, 40% of americans are -- no, i am answering a question -- 40% of americans are conservative, 20% are liberal, and about 36% are moderate. when you have for years broadcast news appealing only to american liberals, and all of a sudden an alternative is established, it gets a huge audience. >> there is a certain amount of horse manure. look, i did a lot of credit to roger ailes, who i also think is a genius. but whenever you have the en -- have the ins on one side, the

outs always flourished. they have something to campaign against three we have a country where people love hearing exactly what they believe. >> abc, cbs, "new york times," "washington post," all liberal. >> all liberal, and they are not really americans, because the real americans are people who keep this country strong or watching charles on fox. -- are watching charles on fox. >> well, i do have a following. >> you do have a following. some might call it a mob. you have people marching in your direction. look, fox is entertaining. it is political entertainment. i'd look at fox, i watch fox, i watched charles, the people who are on. i can take it in small doses. i want to know what they are up to, what they are talking about. what they are doing is having

one national pity party every day. it is a big pity party about what is happening to the country that used to have come out that did not have any more, and they want it back and they're getting it back, and god bless them. >> if you watch the 6:00 news show on which i am on the panel at the end, you look at their coverage of health care reform, jim angle and others who went so deep in the weeds that sometimes they had to be hauled out by helicopter, they went into detail, but it every aspect. is the most thorough, comprehensive coverage of health care you will find anywhere. >> except on npr. >> they had great courage of health care on abc 7. >> nothing like that on a national tv, nothing at all. >> national public radio.

>> the rnc is not a good place to put your money. >> that is the head of the family research council, urging members to give money directly to candidates and individuals they feel reflect their values instead of the rnc. the rnc has been in the news lately, michael steele as well. staffers spent a couple thousand dollars on a visit to a lesbian bondages strip club. michael steele had nothing to do with it. >> he did not go. >> oh, come on, how small minded can you be? these guys wanted to relax after a hard day at the office. >> the staffers were fired. >> it is amazing to me that michael steele survive all this but at what point will they tell them -- >> they all survived -- >> it is not easy. >> it takes a large number of state chairmen to come together -- >> let's give him a break.

you have for virginia, new jersey, but the big senate race -- >> and it happened because of michael steele? i don't think so. the question is, will he get the message that a lot of people don't want him there? i think is going to be hard for him to give it up. he has never had it so good. this is the best job he has ever had. >> he might want to start riding in the back of the airplane. >> give him another six months -- >> he is a good politician. he might have been okay if he remained in maryland. i don't think he is suited for a job that is supposed be a bureaucratic fundraising job where you are relatively scrupulous with money and you are not as open and public as he is. i think he is in the wrong business. >> why you give him credit as a

politician? he was lieutenant governor, ran with bob ehrlich. when he ran for the senate, he lost. he is chairman of the republican party in maryland, and look at the state of the republican party there. they cannot even fill some of the slots. there is no track record of success -- >> i believe he ran in 2006, when no republican was able to win anything. >> : eliot spitzer has to leave when he is with a proper and david vitter does not? >> last word. see you next week. for a transcript of this broadcast, log on to insidewashington.tv.