. >> so, professor haddad, who was getting the money, the profits? >> the profits went to the individuals within these networks. the people that are involved in these networks include state officials. this would be public sector managers, government employees at high levels, ministers, the prime minister -- [inaudible] and, of course, folks very high up in the regime including their own family. the point is that these networks, or the point of the book is that the state business networks exist in every society. even in the united states. they are usually, usually not always, but usually corrupt and they siphon off a awful lot of money. however, in some areas, some countries there are checks and balances. much more so than others. and in a place like syria, these checks and balances were not consistent to prevent these networks that operate anywhere in the world from actually running the economy into the ground. >> so could you give some examples, number one, of this network that you talk about in the u.s., how it exists? >> in the u.s., for instance,

. >> warner: gehad el haddad is a senior adviser to the muslim brotherhood's political arm, the freedom and justice party. >> the president does not have most of the powers he had in the 1971 constitution. the president actually got stripped from about 60% to 70% of his powers. all of the powers that he has are put on the checks and balances from the parliament of both houses. >> it would be unfair to say that this constitution establishes the possibility of dictatorship or anything approaching the authoritarianism of the mubarak regime. >> warner: samer shehata is a professor of arab politics at georgetown university. >> there were articles in the old constitution which did not limit presidential terms, and so mr. mubarak was, essentially, president for life-- 29 and a half years. this constitution reduces term lengths from six years to four years, and stipulates that the president can only be re-elected once, two-term limits. >> warner: opponents also charge the proposed constitution lays a foundation to impose stricter islamic law over a country with many strains of islamic thought,

waleed el haddad, welcome. this new constitution that's now law remains in the eyes of many egyptians a very polarizing document. how does president morsi plan or hope to overcome that divide? >> i'd like to say that we have the first constitution in the egyptian history that egyptians went to the polling stations and put their voices and choose the first document suppressing them. maybe there is some sort of disagreement for some points or some articles and the president choose to have a meeting and the dialogue and calling for a dialogue for all political forces of ours to sit together in order to discuss these points or these articles. and these promise to be committed to offer these articles to the next parliament in order to amend if there is a dialogue a dialogue between the political parties. >> warner: what can you say to opposition leaders like el bar die who say freedom of religion and protection for minorities and women are being curtailed here? >> we find this constitution protects basic human right

they started from well-written drafts of various groups in the society itself. >> warner: el haddad says he understands the opposition's frustration, but it's time to move on. >> i think that we really need to be responsible and civilized enough and look at the full half of the cup, knowing well that we have another half to fill up. >> warner: many apolitical egyptians clearly yearn for their leaders to start filling that half-empty cup. in khan el khalili marketplace, 60-year-old pensioner mohamed taha bemoaned the upheaval that has kept tourists and business away. >> ( translated we nt life to go on. it doesn't matter if people say yes to constitution or say no. >> warner: but samer shehata says it may be hard for egypt to move on after the vote. if this referendum is adopted, is approved as expected, where does that leave egyptian society? >> it produces a very divided, polarized egyptian society, one in which many of those liberal secular voices will feel that the constitution is an illegitimate document, and that certainly is t healthy for democraticonsidatn in egypt. >> warner: for

i am tammy haddad and i'm thrilled to welcome you to this special evening for a very good friend of all of ours and every facet we are at this fabulous hotel, the jabber sin. it's like to introduce you to peter grossman, one of our cohost. we'll come and say hello? [applause] >> thank you. very briefly on behalf of connie and the jefferson. i hope that's better. we're absolutely thrilled to be hosting senator simpson and his former chief of staff chief of staff and biographer, donald hardy this evening. we are excited here both of them about the book, "shooting from the lip," which i guess is fading. connie was also very proud last year to proud last year to host a dinner on behalf of the commission and to further support it and its effort as everybody knows on the deficit reduction. i'm not sure that anybody really listened, at least they put in the effort. that's apolitical, by the way. so in addition, connie noted it was no surprise to her at the time that based on senator simpson's record in the senate and his bipartisanship work, that he would be chasing to be a cochair of the comm