we're back with michael coleman of the "albuquerque journal" and jeff young of "the hill." you been attending town hall meetings and in mexico. what was the senator's reception? >> it was a mixed reception. he generally does not do town halls and doris pressure for him to do them this time very people clamored and so he did three or four of them. tempore running pretty high. mexico is as rigid new mexico was a swing state. many people were new mexico is a swing state. people weren't happy with what he's doing. when he said that he was ready to abandon the public option, people in the democrat side hit the roof. he was getting it from both sides. >> jeff young, did you learn anything from the senator today? >> the most interesting thing thematically overall is the way he talked about what the issues are and what needs to be done, and the indications about the things that he believes in that he is willing to compromise

here to question him, jeff young, and michael coleman.enator, i understand that you have just left a meeting of the gang of six. could you give us an update on the progress gregs of your talks? >> there's not a lot of news to report. i do think senator baucus has continued to solicit input from us as to whealed include in his proposal or his mark that he has indicated he will release next week. he has also said that the week after next, i believe on monday of the following week, we will go ahead and mark up legislation in the finance committee, which i believe will at least start with the package of proposals that we've been talking about. and of course everyone will have a chance to propose amendments and additions, and i'm sure there will be a lot of that >> are you you the point yet where you agree with the basic structure for health care legislation? >> well, the basic structure that the president outlined the other night where we tried to expand coverage, where we tried to reform the payment system and medicare, where we tried to ref

jeff young and michael coleman, thank you for being with us. >> it was my pleasure. >> this is c-span, public affairs program courtesy of america's cable companies. several senators paid tribute to senator edward kennedy. and later on "q&a," christopher caldwell talks about the democratic experience in europe. >> monday on "washington journal," our role of -- a discussion on the role of why c -- white house czars. also, a look at the response to the collapse of lehman brothers one year later with the chairman of the commodities futures trading commission. and later, a discussion on whorunsgov.com. that is live on c-span. one monday, the house considers authorization for nearly $3 billion through the year 2014 for energy department based research on gas efficient turbines and hybrid vehicles. also, consideration of a measure that would change federal is subsidized student loans. house gavels and monday at 12:30 p.m. eastern for general speeches with legislative work starting at 2 eastern. the senate also returned the money to work on fiscal year 2010 federal spending. senators are cons

we are back with michael coleman of the albuquerque journal and jeff young of the hill newspaper. michael when we were talking with senator bingaman, you mentioned that you had been attending town hall meetings in new mexico. what was the senator's reception? >> it was really a mixed reception. senator bingaman doesn't generally do town halls and i think he was pressured to do them. he said he wasn't going to do them. then people clamrd. passions were running pretty high. new mexico is a swing state. we're pretty closely divided. you've got a lot of people upset about things he was doing and then you've got a lot more liberal people who were happy about the reform. when he came out in august and said he was maybe ready to abandon the public option, the liberals nearly hit the roof. >> did you learn anything from the senator and their deliberations today? >> i think the most interesting thing from the way he talked about what the issues are, what needs to be done and the indications that there are some things that he believes in that he is willing to compromise on a bit, what makes

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field for the york mets -- [laughter] and michael in his wisdom said to me, i am going to take you by a neighbor of mine in philadelphia named william coleman he is a hot shot corporate lawyer in philadelphia and he is a black man. for me, the thought of an african-american who was in corporate baba who had clerked on the supreme court -- was in corporate law who have scored on the supreme court then was about as unstoppable as serving -- unfathomable as serving in this administration with barack obama now. i went by to meet mr. kohlman and my uncle told me all about him and his practice. that left a huge impression on me, even then at age 16. bill: has been a trend setter -- bill kohlman has been a trend setter in the law and a role model for me. it is somewhat of a cent -- of a coincidence, probably no coincidence that he was the first african-american lawyer at paul weiss in 1949 and i am the first african-american but partnered up offered. it is a great pleasure to see him here. thank you very much for being here. [applause] thank you for the invitation to be with you today. i was a member of this committee for several years and attende

coleman, he will not remember the first time i met him. it was june 1974. i was in philadelphia and was at the wedding of my first cousin. michael, who was a position in philadelphia -- michael was a physician in philadelphia. i was 16 and did not know what i wanted to do. i thought i would probably end up playing left field for the new york mets. michael, in his wisdom, said to me, -- might ogle said i want to take you by a neighbor of mine in philadelphia. --uy uncle. for me, the thought of an african-american who was in corporate law was about as unfathomable as the fall of serving in this administration for barack obama then. i went by to meet mr. coleman, and my on kohl told me all about him and his practice. -- mike uncle told me all about him. that left a huge impression on me even at age 16. bill coleman has been a trend setter in law. he has been a role model for me. it is probably no coincidence that he was the first african- american lawyer at paul weiss, and i am the first african- american partner at that law firm. so it is good to see mr. coleman here. thank you for being here. [applause] thank you for the invitati