[applause] >> good afternoon, my name is tom pickering. chris stevens was a friend and a colleague. more than that he was among the very best our foreign service has to offer in support of our people and our country. a man destined for even greater challenges and successes. it is a special honor for me to be asked to be here and say a few words in his memory. i must begin by offer approximating my sincere condolences and passion to his family and friends gathered here this afternoon to honor his memory. in truth, what we say here our words, can only be a pale shadow for his service and sacrifice for his nation and people. indeed that of his colleagues, glen dougherty, sean smith, tyrone woods. i know you all join me in honoring and appreciating their service and devotion as well. chris and i worked together for a time almost a dozen years ago. he was even then fully committed to his work. an authority already in the middle east. a fine student of arabic. much more. he gave me careful and cogent advice and council as we wrestled together with the many growing problems that even back

senator cornyn, why do you think tom pickering, ambassador pickering, doesn't have this right? >> well, i think it's not a matter of personalities. i've known chuck haling. he is an honorable man. he has had a record of distinguished service, but he is profoundly wrong on a number of the most important national security issues that face our country today, like denying iran nuclear weapons, like direct face-to-face negotiations with state department designated terrorist organizations like hamas, and calling into question our commitment to our principle ally in the middle east, israel. those are three things that strike me as senator hagel being out of the mainstream, and i believe just wrong when it comes to protecting the national security of the united states. >> colin powell has just endorsed him within the last half hour, saying that he is bold, he is independent, he is the right person for the pentagon. colin powell no slouch when it comes to being tough on iran. >> well, as you know, washington d.c. is a pretty tight little click, and there's a lot of people who have had l

i've got tom pickering. you don't have a more experienced former ambassador than tom pickering coming on our show today. he has universal support. i have not found anyone in the diplomatic community and the established military community who does not support him. he has a very close personal relationship with the president. he's been on the foreign intelligence advisory board. he traveled with jack reed in '08 when the president was running as a candidate, when we all went overseas and did iraq, afghanistan, the middle east and europe trip. so he's got all of those credentials. he ran a business. he's from nebraska. at the same time, they're against him because he endorsed his former senate colleague, bob kerrey, a long shot in nebraska but a medal of honor winner and a fellow vietnam wounded veteran who lost his leg in vietnam. so that's one of the cardinal sins against him. and he is opposed not by all of the mainstream lgbt groups but by some, by a few of them. the human rights campaign, chad griffin, ver

that was the accountability review board just to explain the arb, but the review board led by tom pickering and admiral mullen, two very experienced people. >> right. so it will be -- actually john kerry's responsibility, as you know, to carry forward with those. as you know, andrea, there are four people that are on administrative leave, and there's still no one really that has yet been accountable for the fact that they knew there were issues there. you have the ambassador just screaming for help, if you will, security-wise. i still think there are things that will occur. i'm fully confident that future secretary kerry will deal with those issues. i think he will be committed to trying to rectify that and make sure it doesn't happen again. >> when the frustration boiled over during the conversation between senator johnson and secretary clinton, she was not saying that they didn't make mistakes and they didn't need to fix it, but she was saying that it doesn't matter whether the talking points were wrong or misphrased, that that was not the issue. that at the time she was dealing with four

retired ambassador tom pickering put out was pretty thorough. are unresolved and there will be some fireworks, but in terms of substance, how much more detailed information of why it occurred, the reaction. i'm not sure we're going to learn a whole lot more. i'll be surprised if we do. i suspect the theatrics will be more interesting than the substance. >> that's really where i'm going here. when is this honest to goodness fact finding? because we don't have an arrest yet and we have a dead ambassador and three dead service members. when is this political overkill? >> in terms of going over, the libyans who were directly responsible for killing ambassador stevens and the three other americans, there is an fbi investigation, i'm sure the cia, i'm sure the u.s. government. they are looking and there have been strong words from the president on down that justice will be served one way or another, but you're absolutely right. they had a few leads. there were a few arrests. that investigation doesn't seem to be going anywhere and, look, there's a lot

plus, chuck todd, tom pickering, and one of his chief opponents, senator john cornin.is alissa, and michael lighter, susan page, look marcus. andrea mitchell reports is next on mshs. not their short-term ag. [ male announcer ] join the nearly 7 million investors who think like you do. face time and think time make a difference. at edward jones, it's how we make sense of investing. this reduced sodium soup says it may help lower cholesterol, how does it work? you just have to eat it as part of your heart healthy diet. step 1. eat the soup. all those veggies and beans, that's what may help lower your cholesterol and -- well that's easy [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. >>> just minutes from now president obama will fill out his national security team by naming former republican senator chuck hagel as defense secretary and his white house counterterrorism advisor john brennan to head the cia. hagel a decorated vietnam veteran and intelligence advisor to the president is already running into a buzz saw of opposition from his former republican colleag

i mean it is across-the-board t is paul volker, tom pickering, it is really a widespreadment i do think that there is some people, he wear those man's collar. chuck hagel is not someone who is absolutely predictable. he going to be with you 99% of the time and say what you want. and i think there are some people who view any criticism of whatever the administration is and could is somehow disloyal to the state of israel. if you stay with the labor party in israel says about benjamin netanyahu in this yes, you make yourself vulnerable to charges of anti-sellphism in some quarters. >> woodruff: if there was a fight over-- if there is a fight coming over chuck hagel there would be a bigger fight for the last week, months, david, over the fiscal cliff. and whatever it has been called since we first heard about it. is the country better off because of what this congress passed finally on new year's day, the day after new years? >> i think we are immeasurably worse off. i think it was a complete failure. what do we want out of this. the president wanted a balance deal with tax increases and s

i mean it is across-the-board t is paul volker tom pickering it is really a widespreadment i do think that there is some people, he wear those man's collar. chuck hagel is not someone who is absolutely predictable. he going to be with you 99% of the time and say what you want. and i think there are some people who view any criticism of whatever the administration is and could is somehow disloyal to the state of israel. if you stay with the labor party in israel says about benjamin netanyahu in this yes you make yourself vulnerable to charges of anti-sellphism in some quarters. >> woodruff: if there was a fight over-- if there is a fight coming over chuck hagel there would be a bigger fight for the last week months david over the fiscal cliff. and whatever it has been called since we first heard about it. is the country better off because of what this congress passed finally on new year's day the day after new years? >> i think we are immeasurably worse off. i think it was a complete failure. what do we want out of this. the president wanted a balance deal with tax increases and spendi

senate will read the recent statements by four credible and very experienced americans -- master tom pickering, ambassador richard burt, general james cartwright, and general john she and, about their work with chuck hagel on a clear weapons. they made it abundantly clear that the bank opposed unilateral moves -- they oppose unilateral moves and support verifiable u.s. arms reductions, to be followed by multilateral negotiations bringing other nuclear weapons countries into a series and verifiable process of reductions. in closing, mr. chairman, there are many essential characteristics and values that the secretary of defense should possess. in our dangers and challenging world. let me name just two or three that i think are very important. first, someone who is well informed, has an open mind, in cages in critical thinking, who is capable of and seeks out independent thought. second, someone who sets aside fixed ideologies and biases to honestly evaluate all options and provide his or her candid judgment to the president and the congress. third, someone who pays attention to people with the b

senate will read the recent statements by four credible and very experienced americans -- master tom pickering, ambassador richard burt, general james cartwright, and general john sheehan, about their work with chuck hagel on nuclear weapons. they made it abundantly clear that the bank opposed unilateral moves -- they oppose unilateral moves and support verifiable u.s. arms reductions, to be followed by multilateral negotiations bringing other nuclear weapons countries into a series and verifiable process of reductions. in closing, mr. chairman, there are many essential characteristics and values that the secretary of defense should possess in a dangerous and challenging world. let me name just two or three that i think are very important. first, someone who is well informed, has an open mind, in cages in critical thinking, who is capable of and seeks out independent thought. second, someone who sets aside fixed ideologies and biases to honestly evaluate all options and provide his or her candid judgment to the president and the congress. third, someone who pays attention to people with the be

tom greenhouse. cnbc contributor. i want to start with you, scott. i wouldn't necessarily expect you to be a market timer or individual stock picker.ave a valuation of the equity markets to decide on your strategy for what you do. fairly valued, overvalued, undervalued? >> i think at this point it's somewhere in the fairly valued range. i wouldn't say that it's dramatically undervalued. as we look at what's happened over the course of the last really 18 months what we've seen is a series of cycles in the credit markets that have been moving towards relatively robust situations. that tends to affect what we do almost more than the equity market valuation. so we tend to focus on that a little bit more. on the other hand, the equity markets, as we say, looking at individual companies you can see a wide variation in the underlying value, and where those market values are relative to our assessment of the intrinsic value of that -- >> but overall the businesses are doing pretty well. >> i would say they're doing pretty well. i think the expectation is for continued sluggish growth. and given that, the businesses that we look at, the bus