and grover owned up to this. he had supported this child since birth and was still providing for the child, and really his reaction to what could have been a debilitating scandal turned out to be, in a way, a positive thing for his campaign. it demonstrated his integrity and his refusal to deny the truth. and the campaign, he was running against a guy named james g. blaine, as the democrats like to say, the continent ally car from the state of maine. and it really was that kind of vicious campaign. it all came down to new york state. new york had the largest number of electoral votes at that time. whoever won new york state, would win the election. it was that simple. and a few days before the election blaine appeared at a campaign event in new york, and he was introduced by a protestant minister. and the minister called the democrats the party of rum, romannism and rebellion. drunk, catholic and disloyal, basically. and this swung the catholic vote especially in new york city to cleveland who won, carried new yo

grover was 49 so it was a 28 year age difference. i don't think we'll see another 21-year-old first lady again. [laughter] it's possible. good thing schwarzenegger can't be elected president. [laughter] francis turned out to be great political asset and everybody loved her. one of the most beloved first ladies in american history and there's a story after grover lost the election in 88 he ran for reelection and lost to benjamin harrison in the electoral vote also grover won the popular vote in 1888 but she lost in the electoral college. we will never see that again. after two and as they were leaving the white house, in 1889 apparently francis told the chief steward just keep everything the way it is. we will be back in four years and sure enough, in 1892, cleveland did win the white house back, and he and frances and now the youngest daughter, baby ruth lived in to the white house. there have been one change while they were gone. benjamin harrison, while the clevelands were, while they were in the white house and cleveland's were aw

grover, thank you so much.ause) the president of americans for tax reform under god, grover norquist. we'll be right back. (cheers and applause) [ male announcer ] introducing mgd 64 lemonade. 64 calories of beer with a refreshing lemonade twist. because the best kind of lemonade, is beer lemonade. new mgd 64 lemonade. refreshingly light. wow, that sure comes in a tiny glass. oh no no i have giant hands. i'm very manly in the hand area. you know mgd 64 only has 64 calories. whoa, that feels better. yeah. (cheers and applause) >> stephen: good night!

grover, thank you so much.plause) the president of americans for tax reform under god, grover norquist. we'll be right back. (cheers and applause)  ice breakers mints with icy-cool flavor crystals. ice breakers. stay cool. right now, go to priceline for a sneak peek at recent winning and better than ever! hotel bids to find where you can save up to 60% on hotels. we'll even email you other people's winning bids, so you'll know what price to name. with new hotel bid alerts, from priceline. (cheers and applause) >> stephen: good night!

grover, thank you so much.) the president of americans for tax reform under god, grover norquist. we'll be right back. (cheers and applause) ♪ have a better day [ male announcer ] only subway has a deal this flat-out delicious -- the new $3 flatbread breakfast combo. [ moos ] a toasty 6-inch flatbread breakfast sandwich and a 16-ounce cup of freshly brewed seattle's best coffee. all for just $3. [ clucks ] build a breakfast of epic proportions, like the crispalicious bacon, egg, & cheese with everything from juicy tomatoes to zesty jalapenos, for a delicious way to start your day. the new subway $3 flatbread breakfast combo. build your better breakfast today. (cheers and applause) >> stephen: good night!

grover, thank you so much.president of americans for tax reform under god, grover norquist. we'll be right back. (cheers and applause)

please welcome grover norquist. (cheers and applause) >> good to see you, steven. >> stephen: three years, something like that? >> exactly about three years, yeah. >> stephen: good to see you again. now, sir, for some of the people who may not know what americans for tax reform is, explain what the purpose of your organization is. >> first of all, we ask all candidates for office to sign a pledge not to raise taxes then we let voters know who's willing to make that commitment and who does or doesn't live by it. >> stephen: how long have you been doing that? >> 20 years. >> stephen: really. >> yup. >> stephen: and you've got it on record. is this the pledge right here? >> that's the pledge. >> stephen: so they take this pledge and you've got a record of them having taken the pledge and if they back out on this pledge? >> well.... >> stephen: it's hammer time! >> the american people, they're actual voters. the pledge is not to americans for tax reform, it's the the voters of their state and the american people. and pe

grover believes what he believes. he's completely sincere. when mcconnell and cantor and those guys and boehner are talking, that's part of the show. we're in the middle of show season. and the cantor walked out of this commission. that was part of the show. it was part of the show tow get to get obama to come forward with a plan and have some meetings, which he's doing. it was part of the show to tell people in the republican party, we're really fighting for you. we're really fighting for you. it was part of the democratic show so they could say this is really blowing up and we're fighting for puupon this is the crucial question-- when they say no revenue, are they saying that now and at the last moment august 2 whenever it is going to be, we held tough and really got a great deal but--. >> lehrer: but they have toot the revenue stuff. >> as part of that. the question is how much of that was 100% conviction ask how much of it is part of the show? i confess i don't know the answer. >> lehrer: do you know the answer, mark? >> i do, jim, but i

i feel the same way about grover meat. (laughter) it's good. it's good.ow, this experiment was first performed in 12970s to determine a child's self-control and the results were startling. according to the study kids kids who at the age of three displayed the most self-control were far more likely to be healthy and wealthy in their 30s. evidently, your ability to resist eating a marshmallow determines your future success. (laughter) i say it's time to test this theory. i happen to have a bag of marshmallows right here and... (laughter) ... i could have sworn that was full before the show. never mind, i always carry a spare bag. so the theory is that if i resist eating this now then i get to have two later. let's try it. where's the marshmallows? (laughter) let's try it the other way. leer two that i can have later. i was wrong as i resisted eating this one. (laughter and applause) where the (bleep) are my marshmallows? (laughter) jimmy! jimmy, we need to spray the studio for raccoons again. okay, you know what? i'll try it with a different food. okay, her

president grover grover cleveland so you will yes he's usually thought of as being in a very conservative but he was the only democrat who served in that entire here you know but in any case you've been writing about culture history politics for a lot of years i'm i'm curious first of all as a writer myself and i think a lot of people if i curious curiosity about writers what brought you to writing and then what brought you to the stop us oh my god i think it was probably a film strip i saw about ernest hemingway at the public library in prairie village kansas you know in the seventy's i don't know i like books i like writing but i always have i don't know what to tell you and then i decided i would become a well i mean how i got to where i am today is you know i went through i want to be proud i was going to become a historian i was going to go to graduate school get a ph d. in history i actually did that but i came out in the worst job market for historians have like you know forever i mean it's dreadful and so what's the alternative it turns out of this is this is actually kind of funn

wow. [ audience ohs ] i never knew that about grover cleveland. although, in fairness, i never knew anything about grover cleveland. [ laughter ] hey, it's rumored that microsoft is going to unveil windows 8 next week. yeah. and as soon you buy it, that little paper clip pops up and goes, "it looks like you haven't learned your lesson yet. [ laughter ] try it again? [ applause ] okay. this is hilarious." they take a webcam picture of your face going, "huh?" >> steve: "what?" >> jimmy: yeah. >> steve: "reboot?" >> jimmy: i can't -- [ laughter ] "all right. crashing in four, three, two -- later." check this out. larry king is releasing a memoir next week about his career in television. it's actually the first time larry's been published since he wrote the forward to the old testament. [ laughter ] he has a new book. it was awkward when i tried to get a signed copy. first, i had to tell him my name twice, then i had to tell him his name twice. i'm like, "it's larry king." "dear, jimmy, love apple top." "see, that doesn't make any sense. [ laughter ]

(laughter) plus, my guest is the president of americans for tax reform, grover norquist.i'm going to claim his as a dependent. (laughter) the supreme court ruled it's legal to sell silent video games to kids. get ready for grand theft tetris. (laughter) this is "the colbert report." captioning sponsored by comedy central ( theme song playing ) ( applause ) (cheers and applause) >> stephen: thank you very much. (crowd chanting "stephen") (cheers and applause) >> stephen: thank you! thank you so much. i had no idea that you guys could read cue cards. (laughter) welcome to the "report," good to have you with us, and thank you all for watching our last show before the earth swallows new york and drags it to hell. (laughter) because on friday the state legislature legalized gay marriage. now, i am not surprised governor cuomo signed the bill. it's all part of the cuomo sexual agenda. (laughter) but a new law goes into effect july 24 and mayor bloomberg has already started a new economic campaign called "n.y.c. i do" to make the city more gay marriage friendly starting with som

>> according to grover norquest, 34 republicans in the senate broke that pledge yesterday when we voted to get rid of the subsidies on ethanol. so this is-- we're not working on a math problem. we're working? in the senate of the united states, working in the congress. we're trying to come up with something that will help lessen the burden of debt on the american people. and there are things we can do on revenue. i think, of course, i believe that the people making more than $1 million a year should pay their fair share as warren buffett and others believe. but they obviously have locked in there. i think even grover norquest who has been criticizing people for breaking the tax pledge, there are ways we can do this. there has to be something done with revenue to make this fair. >> lehrer: so when vice president biden says, okay, we have some agreement here, but the hard part it's hard parts are still to come what, is he talking about? >> i'm sure the president is going to be making some of those decisions what the hard parts are. i'm pretty sure that speaker boehner ask i had been calle

it has been a bumpy road to opening night, with just about everybody mocking the show, including groverhe sky >> reporter: even the real bono got in on the act at this week's tony awards. >> when i first saw the tony awards on our schedule, i just kind of assumed that we'd been nominated. >> reporter: critics broke broadway protocall and published scathing reviews of the show months before tonight's opening. i've never read quite so horrific reviews. things like, "the new york times." i may rank among the worst ever made. "the washington post." shrill, insipid, mess. what did you think? >> that's the sort of stuff we were saying backstage. i mean, seriously. >> reporter: and, so, in march, producers shut "spider-man d" dn for three weeks to rework the show. while audiences give the new version a standing ining ovatio it opened in previews, tonight was the long test. the long-awaited opening. guests like president clinton liked it. >> i thought it was fabulous. >> reporter: the first reviews came out, and they were harsh. "a bloat eed monster," said one. and "the new york times" said "no

he is told by grover norquist, who is, in fact, the enforcer of the republican party that this would be a tax increase. what happened to the republicans? in they ran like a so many black birds of a telephone wire. they scattered, day or terrified. this is the reality we are dealing with. it is not the question of courage on one side and cowardice on the other. it is a question of a coming together over a national problem and, as evan said and nina acknowledge, it does in all boats tax increases and serious -- and of both tax increases and serious -- >> the democrats have proposed neither. >> propose schmose. if either side is not willing to do something that is painful, there is not going to be a deal. in the short run, we are in the middle of a possible rerecession, and you don't want to do something that would fizzle tod -- that would facilitate that happening. >> yes, is gaddafi an evil man? certainly. but where were you, congress? why didn't the president come to the congress to justify the action was taken? >> republican congressman walter jones of north carolina, and tha -- a m

. >> woodruff: plus, economics correspondent paul solman checks out how grover, elmo, and cookie monster are spending and saving their money. >> how does "sesame street" teach young children financial literacy, and particularly how to save? >> lehrer: and mark shields and david brooks analyze the week's news. that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> okay, listen. somebody has got to get serious. >> i think... >> we need renewable energy. >> ...renewable energy is vital to our planet. >> you hear about alternatives, right? wind, solar, algae. >> i think it's got to work on a big scale. and i think it's got to be affordable. >> so, where are they? >> it has to work in the real world. at chevron, we're investing millions in solar and biofuel technology to make it work. >> we've got to get on this now. >> right now. >> and by bnsf railway. pacificife-- the power to help youucceed. >> and by the bill and melinda gates foundation. dedicated to the idea that all people deserve the chance to live a healthy productive life. and with the o

grover cleveland was a great president, but in recent decades, we have not had anybody shrink the sizeof government. i want to be the first person who ever made the federal register smaller all of these regulations are locked you're a good -- are law. countries like china are more conducive for business. china is our banker. a loan us money, and they are investing in places like afghanistan, investing in minerals and other things. we are fighting and killing each other and spending money and a great thing our country, so we need to change that. -- and bankrupting our country, so we need to change that. >> are you optimistic about the future of america, or are you concerned? >> i i'm pretty optimistic in the long run, up because i spend so much time with the current young and generation, and they are very concerned about what has happened, but they are optimistic that we have a answers about it. they are interested in looking at the federal reserve. the young people understand the need to assume responsibility for themselves, but the transition is what is rough. look at what is happenin

any other areas of the world or thank you constitution you know for the americans for tax reform grover norquist they have the taxpayer protections place do you think you could have some version of that for politicians for firearms to make so that before anyone takes office directing the guns and violence of government that they've at least a garden once in their lifetime does president bother you that it least allegedly our commander in chief right now has never fired a weapon will pollutants until we. are fair enough well what do you think is the greatest threat to farms are separate coming out of the obama administration and probably not in the packet we're not watching. we're going on it as you were talking about one such groups who. really don't game and i learned we were taishan. and those extra districts were all in start and then they'd. come to it came right out of nazi germany and then control law and its presence in our street and to mention constitutional law. sixty but still and that's. in a way that's one of the even more constitutionally consulting. with fred rubin were s

this was an outright rejection of the grover-norquist approach to revenues. for some reason, even after that vote, leader mcconnell is trying to resurrects this approach. leader mcconnell has decided to walk out on the same limb as grover norquist. he is being adamant that we should figure out a way to achieve $4 trillion in debt reduction without including any revenues at all. it seems leader mcconnell is willing to tang the economy for the sake of protecting tax breaks for oil companies and corporate jets. in addition to being wrong on the substance, leader mcconnell proposal is pretty much a mathematical impossible. the gang of six looked at revenues. so much the final deal that the president will negotiate with speaker boehner and leader reed. now many in senator mcconnell's own part are abandonning his rigid stance against revenues. one leader said, i think the president's own fiscal commission pointed out that there is a lot of money used in tax expenditures. i think we ought to get them all out on the table and see which ones make sense. his wors, now

it gets back to alan simpson's remarks about grover norquist and aarp. we have to slow the growth of medicare and social security. the democrats don't want to talk about that by and large. we have to have taxes rise as a share of gdp when we double the number on social security and medicare. something that paul ryan or the republicans don't want to acknowledge. that will include higher taxes on people under $250,000 a year as we double the number of seniors in this country. something that the president and the white house won't acknowledge. so we are caught in the dualing charades with obviously the ability to make a solution, you know, stuck through all of this. >> thank you. >> sure. >> y'all think it will be increased, i think it will be temporarily or sometime and then they'll have a conversation about dealing with the real problem that we are all talking about here. but let me tell you about a little scenario on december 24th, 2009. and we were in a situation where we were asked to increase the debt limit. and the pressure on all republicans was to

the lobbying world and he partnered with his old buddies from the college republicans jack abramoff grover norquist and some others to basically scheme and deal and really recruit some sorted clients to push a very sophisticated lobbying strategy where they're taking money from casinos and then at the same time tricking evangelicals to be against their own clients so they form kind of a racket where they're collecting money from both sides in one case they collected money from a sweat shop owner and a site and islands while collecting instructing evangelical voters to lobby against a bill that shut down the sweat shop owners factories where there's forced abortion forced prostitution so. there is a huge racket but a scandal which kind of blew the lid off all this expose the e-mails expose the documents how they shifted money around from corporate clients like microsoft and enron to create all these friend groups whether they were evangelical groups or anti-tax groups that they basically sold support to corporations it's have so incredible and not just front group but kind of astroturf grou

. >> so you would be willing to listen to that -- even though people like grover norquist said that thosere tax hikes? if you eliminate those, that's a tax hike. >> it is not a tax hike overall, if the total amount of money is revenue-neutral. so the question would be, would you spend that money to reduce the debt? let's wait and see what the kyl group recommends. >> how much longer does that group have? you said it has to be some time in advance of august 2 to get it through the senate, but the markets are watching what you're doing. is there some concern of getting right up to the end, like what happened with the 2011 budget talks? how long do you have? >> the sooner, the better. we can work backwards. i think there is an informal agreement that we need to have our action done by the first of august. to get it considered, we need to get it some time in july and that is about a month away. >> and you have not seen the progress yet toward actually getting to something? >> there may be a lot of progress. but they are not giving us a running commentary on what they are doing. otherwise, the

. -- grover cleveland. constitutionalists, a hard money people, and did not like foreign adventurism. although a democrat, i think he would be fascinating. he believed in the veto. >> why does ron paul want to be president? >> i think i can offer something different than what others are offering, and something we need, and respiration and belief in conviction that freedom is important most people want to be president because "i know what is best for you." they know how to run the economy, make rules, but ironically i do not want to do those things. i think i could do a great job by diminishing the authoritarianism of the president and getting rid of the idea of the president being moved in the direction of a dictator. i want to defend this country. i do not want to tell you have to live your life, just protected from people who may hurt you, prevent violence. no individual can run the economy, but you need a free economy and you need to understand that. -- beire to the president' president is to set the cou

that's grover cleveland. there are a couple of wonderful passages about grover cleveland that i think i really owe it to mark twain to read simply because that gives a better idea of the autobiography than i can on my own. mark twain did not know cleveland when they were co-residents in buffalo. and this is a account of how they first met. during the time that we were in buffalo, mark twain was in buffalo, in the '70 and '71, mr. cleveland was sheriff, but i never happened to make his acquaintance or even see him. i'm going to let you read the original here. in fact, i was not even aware of his existence. fourteen years later, he was to become the greatest man in the state. i was not living in the state at the time. [laughter] six seconds, that's pretty good. i was not living in the state at the time. i lost my place, sorry. at the time i was on the public highway and companied with another bandit, george w. cable. we were robbing the public with readings from our works during four months, and in the course o

it gets back to alan simpson's remarks about grover norquist and aarp. we have to slow the growth of medicare and social security. the democrats don't want to talk about that by and large. we have to have taxes rise as a share of gdp when we double the number on social security and medicare. something that paul ryan or the republicans don't want to acknowledge. that will include higher taxes on people under $250,000 a year as we double the number of seniors in this country. something that the president and the white house won't acknowledge. so we are caught in the dualing charades with obviously the ability to make a solution, you know, stuck through all of this. >> thank you. >> sure. >> y'all think it will be increased, i think it will be temporarily or sometime and then they'll have a conversation about dealing with the real problem that we are all talking about here. but let me tell you about a little scenario on december 24th, 2009. and we were in a situation where we were asked to increase the debt limit. and the pressure on all republicans was to

i think it would be neat to talk to jefferson, but also grover cleveland. he was sort of the last of the true constitutionalists, a hard money person. he did not like foreign adventures. he was a democrat. i think he would be fascinating. he believed in vetoing bills when he did not like them. >> what can you offer as president? >> i can offer something that has not been offered in a long time that we desperately need -- a restoration of belief and conviction that freedom is more important -- ironically, people want to be president because they know how to manage foreign policy and what is best for you, and i know how to run the economy, but ironically i do not want to do any of those things. i think i could do a great job by diminishing the authoritarianism of the president and getting rid of the idea of the president being moved in the direction of the dictator. i don't want to police the world. i want to defend this country. i don't want to tell you how to live your life. i just want to protect you from people who might hurt you. no individual can run th

social media and web sites where people found out about thomas jefferson and sally i mean you know or grover cleveland and you know he was a possibility maybe you could rate somebody and had a love child into two presidents the united states but i mean that was this is now we can take that focus that people would churn for political gain interest from the seriousness and the sell papers back then were pamphlets and to get eyes on a website or a ratings now you know now we have the technology to back that up and what is a small scandal or a non traverse you becomes a big one and you see we. think of another term the congressman's response is again i mean yes in this day and age not responding is basically admission of guilt is that right is that fair now but you know if you were to come forward and say yeah maybe i did take a picture but i don't know i mean that's the narrative now i don't. no how it got on twitter and with the support of the post victim here i'm using words that somebody else can read tweet that i had said on r t a you know the word victim when she comes from she's come forw

he has decided to lock out on the same them as grover norquist. he is being fatima that we should find a way to achieve $4 billion in debt reduction without increasing any revenues at all. it seems that's senator mcconnell is willing to the tank the economy for tax breaks for oil companies and corporate jets. leader mcconnell's proposal is pretty much a mathematical impossibility. the bipartisan deficit reduction committee recognized the need to include revenues. the gang of six also included revenues the president will negotiate with speaker boehner em leader reid. many in senator mcconnell's own party are abandoning mcconnell's approach. one said that i think that the president's on fiscal commission said that there is a lot of money being used in tax expenditures. we should get them all on the table and see which ones makes sense. senator alexander, another member of the leadership. it is a the time to take a hard look that and more tax breaks. not one of us. another member of the republican leadership. yesterday, fox news reported that the sen

grover norquist was part of jack of' thing.'s i don't understand why everybody is getting so excited about the tea party. they are severe right-wing. it would be like someone in the democrats talking some crazy tea party thing and call it on the left. 1972 on june 17 is when it happened. caller: i just finished reading a book about nixon. host: that was the day of the break-in. june 17, 1972. caller: i'm sorry. i always celebrate june 16 because my husband came back from vietnam on that host: day thanks for the call. guest: freedomworks is a separate organization from grover norquist. in terms of whether or not the tea party is an extreme right- wing thing, i would invite you to come out to the tea party events in your community and discover that you will meet people from all walks of life who are bound on common-sense values that the government should not spend money it does not have and that it's getting too involved in people's lives. these are not right-wing ideas. we have been tough on republicans that have violated those p

obama for doing the exact same thing romney says in march i don't want to stay there here's their grover he says low les paul we do need to get out of afghanistan i mean this guy is the biggest joke on the republican ticket and polls barkman and kate are no better the only person the only two people on the on the on the i'm not quite four and i think that have anything of substance to offer would be huntsman and ron paul and no wonder they just polled the highest it's pretty interesting though i mean you mention is that romney romney romney and these are actually polls that are taken on the one that was shown the n.b.c. wall street journal poll whoever they're polling it obviously different than people voting in the straw poll but the you know their son consistency to that in terms of people voting for who they would vote for but you're right mitt romney has a record of being a flip flopper let's talk about this with ron paul that i mean he has consistently said the same thing but something's changed talk to me about what you think is change in terms of these ideas these smaller governme