commitment of resources unlike anything that we have seen probably since the great society from lyndon administration. at least from the veterans perspective, that's what we see. so going back to the transitional assistance program, 20 years in development, each of those programs is connected. they are not necessarily on site, but many of the most successful programs, they are on site i saw a study for the supportive housing recently released and health services and housing stability. that's at the core of the program and for 20 something years. the organizations that have been working and developing, those systems that care, the housing stability with services as a vital component are now and have been for sometime exploring longer time permanent housing solutions where they are still connected with many of the attendant service. it's a little bit difference and in some places a lot different than the service provider community. we have said to the va, the programs are the spring board that are necessary to get veterans who are coming out of the situations into permanent housing. we had a housing co

administration. they passed about 240 bills into law after being in about 170 days or so. and the first -- the second term of the lyndon johnson administration, remember, that was a really tumultuous time at the end of the '60s there. they spent more time in session about 200 day, 190 for the house, and they passed 250 laws, bills into law. what about that original so-called do-nothing congress? harry truman campaigned against them. he said the republicans weren't doing anything. they were trying to block his legislation. well, the infamous 80th congress, they spent about 20% less time than congress does in session now, but they passed nearly 400 bills in 1947. in fact, in 1948, the year he was campaigning against them, they passed another 500 bills into law. the last time congress was this unproductive was during the 104th congress. that was bill clinton's first term when the government shut down back in 1995. so even shutting down then, they passed 88 bills. but the interesting thing, joe, they managed to confirm about 30,000 people compared to only 19,000 on this last congress. so any way you look at the number, not

commitment of resources unlike anything that we've seen probably since the great society of the lyndon administrationr at least from the veterans' perspective, that's what we see. and so going back to the transition aal assistance program that was 20 years in development, each of those programs is already connected to services. they're not necessarily on site, but in many of the more successful grant per diem programs they are on site, and they are health -- i saw i think it was a study from corporation for supportive housing just recently that was released that showed the importance of health services for persons in supportive housing and how that impacts housing stability. that's actually been an the core of the grant per diem program for 20-some years. but then growing from that organizations that have been working and developing those systems of care, housing stability with services as a vital component are now and have been for some time are exploring longer-term, permanent housing solutions where they're still connected with many of those attendant services. so it's a little bit different, actu

left book ended by theodore roosevelt's progressive politics and culminating in the lyndon baines johnson administration. the question that i have is here is a man who is not only black, is painted red not as a socialist pink and is gay. he carries the tremendous burden of representing a kind of politics, personal empowerment wedded to social justice that costs people their lives particularly in the south, particularly the height of the mccarthy era which we haven't talked about in this discussion but certainly the letters you pulled together, war and state for politics in action which was committed to and i want to know what might we learn about his life that takes us from the 1940s to the 1980s in terms of the tremendous shift in the politics of the right and the real tremendous embrace of a kind of politics of resentment in this country and i want to at least offer one contexture will proof for the audience, the trade union movement has its high water market. and it is unionized. here is a source that you recently said, a lot of hopefulness, his optimism for a coalition politics that the way the econ

latest volume on lyndon johnson and a memory came to mind by a wonderful cartoon of the los angeles times, showing a wise figure beginning to write the history of the johnson administration with the right hand while lyndon johnson had his lefts arm in a lock deck dating what was going on in the memoirs. so first for both much you, and to john, you find your book subject to be a person preof course if id with legacy. senator, are you preofoccupied with your legacy. >> i appreciate you saying that. you did one of the first reviews that pointed out that the legacy project that for which i'm chief historian is not interested in that in any way. the ground rules, when i took the job with the secretary of state's office we were going to do meaningful work not subject to fair favor and that the subjects themselves didn't get to be the editor had their -- [inaudible] slade from the get go, he wouldn't haven'ted that and he was -- he wouldn't havemented that. he was understanding about some of the harsh things people had to say. i don't know if he bristled or not in private, but it was a very interesting experience for him. i know, sally is his wife was an absolute amazing resour

on lyndon johnson, and many came to mind of a wonderful cartoon by the great paul conrad of the "los angeles times" showing a wise figure beginning to write the history of the johnson administrationwith his right hand while lyndon johnson had his arm and a law, left arm in a locked, dictating what was going to be in the memoirs. so the question for both of you. to john, did you find your book subject to be a person preoccupied with his legacy? and center, are you preoccupied with her legacy? >> well, i really appreciate you saying that because you did one of the first reviews that pointed out that the legacy project for which i'm chief is doing is not interested in that thing anyway. the ground rules when it took the job as secretary of state's office work that we're going to do meaningful work, not subject to fear or favor, and the subjects themselves didn't get to be the editor, slade from the get-go, he wouldn't have wanted that and he was, he was very, very understanding about some of the very harsh things that people had to say about him. i don't know if he bristled or not in private, but it was a very interesting experience for him, i know. sally, his wife, was an absolute

kennedy to run for president and challenge lyndon johnson for the nomination, cronkite went to vietnam and was sickened by what he saw about the johnson administrationd lied to the american people. many people are questioning why would cronkite urge somebody like bobby kennedy to run for president. concrete stayed in the middle from '65 to '68. once he went in country, looked around. his sense of being a humanist transcended him being an anchor. >> a legal drug is believed to be connected to several gruesome crimes. one young man says it is the devil incar nate because he overdosed on it. >>> want to check the headlines, george zimmerman no longer a free man, the man who shot trayvon martin to death in self defense is back in jail. he lied about the money he had, and that amount determined his bail. zimmerman's legal team says they'll seek another bond hearing tomorrow. >>> the death toll is rising following a fooirry plane crash in nigeria. a passenger plane careened into a crowded neighborhood killing all 153 people on board. search crews say they have found at least ten victims killed on the ground. nigeria's president has declared three days of

and challenge lyndon johnson for the democratic nomination because cronkite had gone to vietnam and was sick by what he saw about the johnson administrationeople and called the war a stalemate. many people are questioning why would a cronkite, a serious journalist, urge somebody like bobby kennedy to run for president. the answer is vietnam tore the country apart. cronkite stayed in the middle from '55 to '68. once he went inside the country being a humanist transcended being an anchor. >> i want to talk about this whole idea of liberal and conservative when it comes to news. we hear so much about it now. especially with the advent of cable news. some people being on the right and being on the left. was walter cronkite considered a liberal in those days, did people know about it and was he criticized for it? >> he was not considered a liberal until 1968. then he was classified as a dove. and then the nixon crowd, i've listened to all the nixon tapes with people like chuck colson and others going after walter cronkite. cronkite had become so popular he was seen as the patriarch of liberal media. the american people decided long ago they li

and lyndon johnson had governed the country very well with his war on poverty, the civil rights act of 1964. he was seen as the legacy of the -- of the administration of the martyred john f. kennedy. that ad had no impact whatsoever. even the famous willie horton ad back in the 1988 campaign between george h.w. bush and michael dukakis didn't change anything. bush had already moved ahead in the polls, and he was running on the record of the ronald reagan last four years, peace, prosperity, breakthroughs with the soviets. that's what counts. >> part of what's interesting about the dukakis ad is that it was run by an outside group. >> that's right. >> and we have talked a lot, chris and brad, about the influence of super pacs in this campaign, and obviously, you know, legally, anyway, the campaigns don't have any control. so it's possible that their ads will be a lot more negative, and i'm wondering, brad, do you think, could there be another daisy-type ad? another willie horton-type ad in this campaign cycle? probably from the super pacs? >> well, there certainly could be, and you know, the super pacs are left with little choice but to run contrast

administration. >> woe do a regular commentary, most people don't go back and look at cbs radio reports. cronkite didn't write all of them there were scriptwriters for some. nevertheless, lyndon knew about cronkite's radio reports, said i can't believe he is getting away with that, he didn't mind. but the nixon people found out and chuck coleson went aft her are cronkite, to no avail. everybody made a decision they liked walter cronkite, didn't want to hear anything negative about him. thought of like the king daddy of the fourth estate, a patriarchal figure to young reporters, he had immunity. >> i can't imagine even if he was as popular today as he was in the '60s and '70s, the world of 24/7 cable, bloggers, twitter, i would imagine his image, some of these things, a freebie deal from pan am airlines, his image far more tarnished than it was at that time. >> he was a pioneer of tv, rules were being made in a hurley burly fashion. don hewitt was creating the industry of broadcast news in many ways. the cronkite -- what some people call the golden able of tv, but cronkite's authority couldn't happen today since we had telestar, we have thousand cable channels, the internet. w

administration and that's part of what we do in a nasty way. when you start trying to hold people in contempt because they've chosen to enforce the laws that they swore to enforce, lyndon johnson in 1968 signed into law a measure that would prohibit the justice department from ever presenting or leaking or giving away information secured on a wiretap. and what eric holder is being threatened about is obeying that law. and i think -- so what's going on is -- and it's happening in washington so much, reverend. and it's a sick moment for our nation. it's a dark moment. because what we're doing is we are so caught up into the disposal of president barack obama that we are dropping down into a level of incivility and some that most people have never seen before that it's making the entire political process soiled to the point that nothing is productively happening. >> now, it really is motivated in part by politics, large part. steven king, republican member of congress, in march said this was all politics. he said and i'm quoting him. i think leadership doesn't want to be seen as using the gavels here for political purposes. i think there's a bit of an aversion to that. me