>> well, dick durbin is living in the past.does not really understand the concept of earmarks and he believes that congress can police itself, and that is like saying that the mob will police itself. it is really impossible. we have gone decades with earmarks before the ban and abuse after abuse is an understatement. congress was completely, completely unable to control itself, and it is not just bridge to nowhere, it is the fact that the earmarks were eaten up by the most senior members, and given as reward to so some of the e donors, and i think that to keep earmarks or to reintroduce earmarks will pull more money out of the communities and the more money allowed to stay with the people, and more money prompted to the economy pumped in, and the more they can pay for the expansios s and the local hospitals and the local schools and things like that, and we don't need the federal government to keep more money. >> right. and you can both ask the question with me, and you know, pushing for more pork in a midterm election is not a

durbin's math is a little off. horton was the convicted felon who was introduced to the nation by george bush's team. he was given a weekend furlough from a massachusetts prison and while on the furlough committed armed robbery and rape. it was the image of willie horton that they used to paint bush's opponent as soft on crime. and according to durbin, if democrats stand in the way of sentencing reform, it will be because some of them are still afraid the same thing could happen to them. here to talk about the changing politics is someone who knows that history very well. someone who lived that history. his name is michael dew caucus and he joins us now from boston. governor, i'm glad you're taking the time. on this issue of sentencing reform, there's a lot of ambitious proposals on the table. there's a prospect of a major bill coming up and getting through the senate. i wonder what you make o of that from dick durbin who says the ghost of willie horton still haunts my colleagues. what do you think of that? >> it's

durbin: i yield back that time. the presiding officer: under the previous order, the senate will proceed to executive session to consider the following nomination which the clerk will report. the clerk: export-import bank of the united states, wanda felton of new york to be first vice president. the presiding officer: the remaining time until 3:30 will be for debate on the felton nomination. the presiding officer: the senator from illinois. mr. durbin: mr. president, a generation ago an aids diagnosis meant sure and agonizing death. it was 23 years ago when i was in the house of representatives and i was walking to the chamber for a vote when i saw a colleague and friend, tom mcmillan, congressman from maryland, coming my way. you wouldn't miss tom mcmillan. he played in the nba. he was tall. and as he passed on the sidewalk he stopped and he said magic has aids. it was a stunning announcement that magic johnson had been diagnosed with aids. the reality is that's 23 years ago. at the time, we felt that this was a de

durbin: madam president? the presiding officer: the majority whip. mr. durbin: ask consent the quorum call be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. durbin: madam president, the world health organization has deemed this week world immunization week. every year the w.h.o. designates a whole week to promote the world's most powerful tools in public health -- the use of vaccines to protect all -- people of all ages against disease. immunization is one of the most successful cost-effective health interventions ever introduced, preventing up to 3 million deaths a year from diseases such as diphtheria, tetanus, polio and measles. and thanks to decades of research, there are now 25 diseases that can be prevented by vaccines, including some forms of influenza, meningitis and even certain types of liver and cervical cancer. the theme is "are you up to date "? this year, 1-5 worldwide won't receive the vaccinations they need. some because their parents choose not to and others because it's just not available. through the global vaccination action

pelosi, reed, durbin from my hometown of st.ouis, they really did this work to make this day a reality. not only are 7.1 million americans going to get health care with these new enrollments, but the millions of kids like my children who are able to stay on my health care insurance because they're under 26 years old, or the people who are eligible under expanded medicaid in certain states. so that is a real win for america. the real question that we're going to be asking is not what was america like when men were free, but what was america like when men and women were not free? i remember not so long ago when i personally did not have health insurance. i do now under obamacare. and so that means that everyday americans, my neighbors and yours are going to have access to quality, affordable care. you take ben carson, for instance, ben carson knows what it's like to stand in an near term when someone who comes in who is unable to pay privately, doesn't have health insurance, and gets turned away. when that law changed when people

durbin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from illinois. mr. durbin: mr. president, i have listened as my friends -- and they are my friends -- and colleagues have come to the floor to talk about the keystone x.l. pipeline. it turns out that what america needs more than anything else -- more than an increase in the minimum wage, more than paycheck fairness so that men and women are paid fairly in the workplace -- more than anything else we need one more pipeline coming in from canada. if you listen to the other side, you would think the jobs that will be created by the keystone x.l. pipeline will finally turn this economy around. well, how many jobs are we talking about? 2,000? 2,000 construction jobs? that's at the high ends of estimateend ofestimates i've he. how many jobs at the refineries in texas to process this oil and ship it overseas? it's not for sale in the united states. i'm not sure. but it really is amazing to me that they continue to focus on keystone x.l. as if it is the only issue when it comes to the american economy. and here's what i fin

dr durbin would have loved to have interviewed blair for the project.t's the same circumstances confronted by spiel berg and members of his team 20 years ago. holocaust survivors were dying at an alarming rate before they could be interviewed. >> it's a terminal situation. you have players, many of whom have died. most or all of whom were relatively old, who have important stories to say. >> a lot of our history is disappearing. we somehow got to maintain a certain type of scenario, where these guys are brought forward all the time. that's why i have all the history. >> what kind of history exactly? stories that show the restraint required of these men. >> better. a guy asked me why is a black ball player - attack the ball, man. simple. he's white. [ laughs ] >> it's the silent way. getting back at them. beept the [ bleep ] at the ball. slap hard to the white base. and i'm saying this now because of the times i wouldn't have said it, but it's the truth. this is why i laugh. >> i laugh all the way to the bank, man, making a deposit. >> you may not like m

durbin: madam president, i ask consent to speak for 10 minutes in morning business. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. durbin: thank you, madam president. let me start by commending my colleague from vermont. what happened across the street today at the u.s. supreme court will be lost on most americans. they can't understand why they should even care about it. because the supreme court was asked whether or not it was proper under the law to limit the number of federal campaigns and the total dollars that an individual can give to candidates. and to no one's surprise, the supreme court said there should be no limitation. people can give as much money as they want to, as many federal candidates as they want with no limitation. so most americans will say, "so what? you know, these politicians, they run against one another during the campaigns. both sides spend too much money. i'm sick and tired of their ads. i don't care how you pay for it. it's all bad." but i have to say, senator sanders put his finger t on it. what's at issue here is not just how we financ

i think michael he is is that -- about as conservative as they get in the house and senator durbin is about as liberal as they get. they both manage to find common ground in this area. at the state level, i have seen that kind of thing and it does not surprise me. we commissioned a poll on peoples attitudes toward criminal justice reform. what was fascinating is we saw came fromest support self identified liberals and self identified to party republicans. this has been an interesting alliance. it is the tea party and the left that has come together and they're pushing real legislative change. another thing to keep in mind is that you can get real legislative change whenever both sides feel like they're doing this for reasons that are important to them and important to their principles and philosophy. of why it is part a conservative issue. people care about reducing crime and having a better correction system, but both sides think and process in different ways and our goal is to talk with conservatives because we are conservatives and we are eighth and the reuters group. that is the f

and that is thanks in part to leaders like nancy pelosi and dick durbin and all the members of congressre here today. we could not have done it without them. and they should be proud of what they've done. they should be proud of what they've done. [applause] >> and it's also thanks the often unheralded work of countless americans who fought tirelessly to pass this law, and organized like crazy these past few months to help their fellow citizens just get the information they needed to get covered. that's why we're here today. that's why 7.1 million folks have health insurance. people got the word out. and we didn't make a hard sell. we didn't have billions of dollars of commercials like some critics did. but what we said was, look for yourself. see if it's good for your family. and a whole lot of people dvd it was. so i want to thank everybody who worked so hard to make sure that we arrived at this point today. i want to make sure everybody understands, in the months, years ahead, i guarantee you there will be additional challenges to implementing this law. there will be days when the we

from top democrats, including david axelrod who was then as an atdz viesor to the president, dick durbinarles schumer, and a fellow named carl levin, the senator from michigan who just happens to be your brother. you really don't think that that pressure from all the top democrats on the democratic irs and under the democratic administration had anything to do with this? >> the inspector general said, in essence, no. let me point out very clearly the 501c4 -- >> if they would just simply do an audit. they haven't completed their investigation. >> 501c4's are for entities that are involved until social welfare. not politics. as i said in 2012 -- >> wait a minute. priorities, usa, or at least as involved as crossroads gps. i mean, the irs did nothing to look at those liberal groups, but they went after groups. i mean, we have a point at which two liberal campaign finance groups went to lois lerner and said you really ought to go after gps, crossroads gps, the karl rove group, and she immediately orders an examination and audit of them. >> some of the 501c4 groups are liberal groups. there

and that's in thanks to people like nancy pelosi and dick durbin and we could not have done it withoutthem and they should be proud of what they have done. they should be proud of what they have done. and it's also thanks to the work of countless americans who fought tirelessly to fight for this law and those who have worked crazy the last few months to help fellow citizens get the information they needed to get covered. that's why we're here today. that's why 7.1 million americans have health insurance. because people got the word out. and we didn't have billions of dollars like some critics do. but what we said was, look for yourself. see if it's good for your family. so i want to thank everybody that has worked so hard to make sure that we arrived at this point today. now, i want to make sure everybody understands in the months, years ahead, i guarantee you, there will be additional challenges to implementing this law. there will be days when the website stumbles. i guarantee it. so press, i just want you to anticipate, there will be some moment when the website is down and i know i

and finally, when senator schumer and durbin and others wore extorting the irs to be more political in application of views, she said we are working on a denial of the application. not expediting but working on denial of it. that's why this rises because as bob woodward remembers, the watergate scandal was fundamentally using the machinery of the federal government to punish our enemies. >> all right, mr. woodward, you know something about scandals. how serious is the irs scandal and, you know, i think one of the key questions does this really begin and end with a my level bureaucrat who we never heard of a year ago named lois lerner. >> there is obviously something here. the question is does this committee know thou investigate? and they're worried about this one person who is invoked her fifth amendment rights not to answer questions and you have congressmen on the committee going on saying we have evidence she's involved in criminal activity. i don't think you should cross that line. the second thing is there's always one person who's not going to talk. and when you conduct an inves

dick durbin put it best. thank you, thank you, paul ryan for reminding us what republicans would do if they had control. >>> plus truthers. they're the republicans that loved the enrollment figures when they were low. now that they're up, they're saying they are cooked. it's all a conspiracy. listen. >> everyone in the press, you rat bastards. every single one of you know what he is saying isn't true. >> hmm. >>> also, the dog whistle that always gets conservatives barking and howling, benghazi! don't believe me? check out the show trial they put on yesterday. >>> and i'm going to finish tonight on a national story, but close to home. yesterday kathleen led our family in interring our world war ii father-in-law at arlington national cemetery. it's my father-in-law, her father bob cunningham. a glorious honor. here she is receiving the flag from one of the impressive young marines. let's say you pay your guy around 2 percent to manage your money. that's not much, you think except it's 2 percent every year. go

senator durbin with some tea party conservatives, mike lee sentencing support reform particularly for drug offenses. less house side a little so. in fact, as soon as the justice department came out this week this plan the chairman of the house judiciary president barack obama is doing too much via pen ven though the power to grant pardons is in the constitution. that and he hasn't granted many pardons. the 's been among stingiest. 175 ranted one in every petitions which is fewer than four. presidents bush and president clinton, last december e granted something like eight early releases. >> what is the motivation? s it just to clear out the overcrowded pitcher -- prison system? it is really expensive to house this many people. to s like $28,000 a year house one inmate. but there is a civil rights issue. when you are talking about drug laws they have been disproportionately. about half the people in the , half the drugs people in the federal prison in for drugs and many are african-american or latino. since the law has been changed is a fairness issue not department justice but the pre

a couple of comments this is someone who is normally a friend of the administration, senator dic durbinnator is obviously entitled to his position. what we've done today with this proposed rule is foundational.Ñi wehcin'tÑi get to issues like advertising onÑi television or what to do about the flavorsÑi in e-cigarettes until we have jurisdiction over them. and we can't have jurisdiction over them until we complete this rulemaking had. this is a very important first step. >> woodruff: so are you saying this was as far as you could have gone righti now? >> this is as far as the regulatory science can take doesment think of it as a foundational step that will enable to us address all the other aspects of e-cigarette sales, cigar sales, et cetera. >> woodruff: and ski that because another part of senator durbin's comment, he talked about the fact that there's still going to be marketing of these, candy flavored electronic cigarettes. that children, young people will be exposed to. and heç(aasicallyçó said, in fact again, quoting, parents across america lost their best ally in protecting the

dick durbin -- we are getting fully submerged. dick durbin supports your position to give light arms to the ukrainian military. i assume he passes that word to president obama, then what? >> this president does not believe in american exceptionalism, america's role leading the world. that doesn't mean we should have boots on ought ground everywhere or anywhere. but we have to understand that vladimir putin will take whatever he can get while we are saying oh, gee, going to geneva, geneva is a metaphor for do nothing. we have to go to geneva again and talk about this while the russians consolidate their position in eastern ukraine. and the ukrainian government has great difficulty getting their economy in order and getting an imf loan, getting all the thing they need to get their country going. >> bill: thing dissolved quickly the past 12 months. why is the move on crimea so critical to the united states. >> if you let him do that and get away with it, then he is encouraged. these kind of people are always encouraged. back in the 1

durbin the chairman of the powerful defense appropriations subcommittee which controls the purse strings of the pentagon. they've also generously donated two notorious war aka lindsey graham. boeing's influence extends down pennsylvania avenue. the white house's well. president obama lean on bowing to increase u s exports. admittedly becoming more to the defense companies top pitch man. in two thousand thirteen he told boeing ceo jim ignorant. i know that i'm on the list of top salesman at boeing. he added he expects this is gold watch from the company at the end of this presidency but the president of the united states isn't the only one doing boeing's bidding. so too is the former secretary of state in the favorite to be the next president of united states hillary clinton. washington post reports this week of a mutually beneficial relationship between when the world's major corporations and a potential future president. adding clinton functioned as a powerful ally for boeing's business interests at home and abroad. while boeing has invested resources in cars is beneficial to clinton's

durbin: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from illinois. mr. durbin: mr. president, i ask unanimoui askunanimous consent g deadline for first-degree amendment to h.r. 3979, which is the legislative vehicle for unemployment insurance extension, be:30 p.m. today april, 1. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. durbin: mr. president, i rise to speak in morning business. i listened carefully to the statement just made by the republican senator leader, senator mcconnell of kentucky, in which he promised concrete ideas, real hope, change, job-related approaches, free enterprise -- giving free enterprise a chance, trying to deal with putting america back to work. and then he gave us three examples. and i might say to the senator that i'm familiar with all three because none of these are new. we have heard them over and over again from the republican side of the aisle. i won't go through each one of them. a couple of them relate to the affordable care act. it is interesting to me the house of representatives has voted i believe 45 times to repeal the afford

. >> senator durbin. >> thank you mr. chairman.i guess i want to follow my colleague and friend senator rubio and i sure don't quarrel with the premise whether it's china or cuba opening up information free exchange of information that is so fundamental to our country and so fundamental to what i consider to be basic alleys of democracy. so the critics of this effort mr. shah i think ought to come up with a better idea but the notion behind it, the premise i think sound. i may go a little further than my colleagues on the committee when i say after over 50 years of what has been made dubious foreign policy in cuba by the united states, i've been in favor of opening up as much as we can, cuba to the ideas and people of the world and the united states. that is how communism and the soviet union came to an end. they were overwhelmed by reality. i have been to cuba. they are isolated from reality. if we had more contacts at the social media level and beyond i don't think the current regime could survive as the communistic regimes did n

. >> the mayor and senator dick durbin will be here for the unveiling. o'hare's international terminal has undergone a massive transformation. the goal is to give travelers who pass through here a first class experience. shopping mall developer partnered with the city on the project. the company video offers a glimpse of the renovation at a price tag of $26 million. travelers will find 18 new restaurants and retail shops in terminal 5. 11 have chicago ties. one is a mexican restaurant, the first new eatery to open in the international terminal since it opened in 1993. also, a new checkpoint and a 10,000 sq. ft. to european- style duty-free shop. the first of its kind in north america scheduled to open this fall. they're hoping these amenities will attract travelers may be tempted to spend some money during their layover. the overhaul is about 95% complete. just in time for the upcoming busy travel season. the entire project is scheduled to be finished by the end of the year. >> some breaking news in afghanistan ... two journalists working for the associa

durbin media executive, head of the german media company declared business leaders all around the worldo concerned about google's economic and political power and in fact, google is at this moment an unstoppable force in the world. he said without equivocation we are afraid of google. he went on to accuse them to be a digital superstate to be part of a global network of companies that he says constitutes a monopolistic force. with his open letter to the ceo he set out right then and his colleagues dare speak out against google publicly as they fear for themselves and the health of their businesses. nobody knows as much about his customers as google, but he added you yourself said in 2010 we know where you are. we know we're you have been. we can more or less know what you were thinking. i would suggest we pay attention to this morning. and watch carefully the ambitions not only of those who run a global but facebook get microsoft and all of the major technology social media giants of the world. particularly those who avoid reforms such powerful political organizations and alliances i on

>> chairman durbin, senator blunt, thank you for inviting me to appear today with my partners. our military forces have benefited and have jointly made in deployed care since the beginning of the current war. with this winding down even with fiscal challenges, we now have a clear response ability to make sure that military medics are well-trained and well prepared for whatever the future brings to include combat operations and stability operations, humanitarian assistance, or disaster relief and to enhance our core competency to provide care both on the ground and in the air, we have to make sure that we have robust opportunities to practice our skills and that we continue to pursue critical research and modernization in the future. we very successfully leverage civilian partnerships to maintain this in our platforms, one of which is in the trauma. i am convinced that we will live more strongly on these relationships to help us train and include this. so the way that we provide this is also a a bombing. this includes common ground patient and cyberoperations in those including

and he said some shoutouts to people like dick durbin, nancy pelosi, saying they've stood for the law, and he suggested to them it's going to be a winner in the midterm elections, but as you suggest, the question is going to be moving forward, was this a premature victory lap. the questions that are going to be answered in the days ahead, a bigger decision day really is going to be that midterm election, not what we saw today with this initial goal. how many people have paid their premiums, we have insurance. also, can we believe the 7 million number, because you'll remember back in october and november, they were saying, oh, look, in order to get accurate numbers we have to give you monthly numbers, they're just trickling in. now they're giving us in realtime how many people are signing up. it's an interesting change, when i asked jay carney about that today, he said it's because the technology has gotten better, the website has gotten better. we'll see. >> how can you turn around these numbers in 24 hours and tell us -- >> our systems have gotten a lot better which i think anyone ca

department, the white house, or, as we have seen, a lot of pressure from some democratic senators, like durbin and -- levin and schumer who said you need to investigate these groups. >> we polled on benghazi, do you belief the obama administration is being open and transparent? 61% say they're trying to cover something up. another poll, we asked whether or not congress should continue to investigate the administration's handle offering the attack in benghazi. 60% say yeah. those numbers clearly tell you that people believe there is still a mystery here, and that mystery needs to be solved. >> yes. it certainly tells you that. i think this as opposed to the irs is much harder to pursue. there are facts on the ground we know about that lois lerner, the e-mail exchanges she was involved in. so she seems to be a target of opportunity for the investigators. i'm not quite sure what more can be done in this investigation. you have had mike burrell testify. people are not satisfied with his answers. you heard from hillary clinton. a lot of people not satisfied with her testimony. you can call her back

and that's thanks in part to leaders like nancy pelosi, dick durbin, all of the members in congress who are here today. we could not have done it without them. they should be proud of what they've done. and it's also thanks to the often unherraled work of countless americans. who fought tirelessly to pass this law and who organize like crazy the past few months to help fellow citizens get the information they needed to get covered. that's why we're here today. that's why 7 point 1 million people got health insurance. we got the word out. we didn't have health insurance. we didn't have billions of dollars of commercials like some critics did but what we said was look for yourself. see if it's good for your familiar lkive and a whole lot of people decided it was so, wasn't to thank everybody that worked so hard to make sure that we arrived at this point today. i want to make sure everybody understands, in the months, years ahead. i guarantee there will be additional challenges to implementing this law. there will be days when the website stumbles. i guarantee it. so, i want you to anticip

senator dick durbin got even more money than senator hatch did, more than any senator on the committee0 in the last decade. but he wasn't at the hearing on wednesday. another democrat, patrick leahy from vermont received $52,500 in the last decade. he brought up questions but he did not openly propose the merger. some of the toughest questions on wednesday came from those who received the least amount of money from comcast. republican mike lee from utah has received only $17,500. he's still a freshman senator, but here's what he said on wednesday. >> i've heard some concerns expressed that the emerging comcast, the post-merger comcast might have the incentive or even the predilection, but certainly enhanced capacity due to its larger size to discriminate against types of content, including political content. >> and who is the senator who is way down the bottom of the list of comcast generosity? that's al franken, senator of minnesota. he was the only one to openly oppose the merger. so what is it about this money and how senators treat this merger? and why does senator franken think th

reid of nevada, leahy, tester, boxer, schumer, durbin, casey, coons, rockefeller, levin, cantwell, nelson, whitehouse, murphy, murray, udall of new mexico and king. mr. reid: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the mandatory quorum under rule 22 be waived. without objection. mr. reid: might have to proceed to legislative session. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all in faye say aye. all -- all in favor say aye. opposed nay. the motion carries. mr. reid: i now move to proceed to executive session to consider calendar number 587. the presiding officer: the question is on the motion. all in favor say aye. opposed nay. the ayes have it. the motion is agreed to and the the clerk will report the nomination. the clerk: manish s. s. shah of illinois to be united states district judge. mr. reid: i send a cloture motion to the desk, mr. president. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: cloture motion. we the undersigned senators in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nom

. >> i can't imagine the democrats and especially dick durbin sitting, sitting there that they are goingo embrace this. at some point it becomes a little, you know, a little too. >> it could be a problem. because, you know, it looks like the base, the base is what is going to get republicans elected in this next midterm election. they are the ones whose turnout will change what's going to happen in election. also, look at the poll numbers on this. the koch brothers are far less recognized than harry reid by about 30 points. in other words, you think harry reid, for the republicans is -- will likely be a far more successful tactic than reid's attempt at putting the koch brothers out there. >> plus i imagine the koch brothers. gave 100 million to some hospital in new york? >> if you are getting hospital treatment in new york and find out. taps lot harder i think to dirty them up that way. >> absolutely. if there. >> one other kind of interesting element of this though, is whether he is inspiring democrats, right? so, you know, he might rile up production. will he also kind of rally democra

he specifically praised nancy pelosi, senator durbin, but he didn't talk about anyone else. >> there was no shout-out for kathleen sebelius. you could argue she helped pull them out of the abyss, but the president didn't give her a pep talk. earlier today, jay carney suggested people are reading into the suggestion, but we'll see whether or not she stays on the job. >> she was in the front row. ed, thank you. let's get reaction to the president's health care announcement and what's going on with obamacare. brit hume joins us tonight. welcome back. >> nice to see you. >> what's your thought about the number, the presentation, the whole deal? >> the problem with this number is always been the problem with this number. that is that it really wasn't going to mean very much. if as the administration says, 7 million and change people have signed up, first of all, you don't know how many of those have paid. we don't know how many of these are really insured. you have to substract whatever that number is from that number to get the number, and then you subtract from that the number of people

and that's thanks in part to leaders like nancy pelosi and dick durbin and all the members of congress who are here today. we could not have done it without them. and they should be proud of what they've done. they should be proud of what they've done. [ applause ] >> president obama and vice president biden today celebrating the success of the most hard-fought policy victory for democrats in decades. telling congressional democrats they ought to be proud of what they have done to get this done. the white house saying congressional democrats did the very hard work of passing health reform in the president's first term. and the political capital that that achievement cost them cost them at the ballot box in the first midterm election in 2010. the democrats took a big political risk to get this policy done, and they did pay a political price for it. well, now it is the next midterm election of the obama era. and the gerrymandered map that determines control of the house and pattern of terms and retirements in the senate means this election is likely to be another steep climb for the demo

of pep rally a week or so ago and sent shout-outs to democratic members like nancy pelosi, senator durbintedly did not mention kathleen sebelius in the front row, that raised a lot of eyebrows with the administration and democrats on the hill. there's a few points to make about the nomination to come. sylvia burrwell pretty respected on both sides of the aisle. her getting through is not the issue. the issue is senate republicans now having leverage as you suggested to get administration to turn over more documents about the web site, more documents about if there's well over 7 million signups, how many paid their premiums? all of these questions republicans have been pressing and not getting answers on. sebelius testified before a panel today. she's gone now, and they will now have leverage in this confirmation battle ahead to try and get some of the information. >> quickly, ed, tell me about sylvia burrwell. we know she's omb director. just something about her that i don't think a lot of people know who she is. >> business background. when she was brought in a year or so ago there was a

the senate, especially like dick durbin number two embarrassed that he goes up there and let's it fly like that? >> i don't think this is certainly going to help them retain the senate in any way. harry reid is a fighter. when he questions pushed he pushes back. >> for these bundys or not for them. i mean, like he didn't have to come out and call them domestic terrorists. >> no. he didn't. it raises more speculation as to whether he is going to run for re-election in 2016 a lot of people don't think is he going to run. this is not going to help his re-election campaign. people are either pro-or con on this. overall i'm surprised he has gone after them this hard but that's his nature. >> this isn't a nevada thing. this is a fight that's been going on well over 20 years. they have been fighting. not just bundy, they have been fighting about grazing on this land the federal government has tried and backed away. bombs have gone off. it's been a serious dispute. >> bombs or verbal bombs? >>. no actual bombs. >> actual bombs? >> yeah. >> literal bombs. >> so it's been a hot contentious west

finally, when senator schumer and durbin and others were getting them to be more political, she said with regard to crossroads g.m. the most important conservative group we are working on a denial of the application, that is why it rises because as woodward remembers, the water game scandal was fundamentally in the words of john dean, using the machine riff the federal government to punish. >> mr. woodward you know about scandals. how serious is the i.r.s. scandal? one of the key questions, does this begin and end with a mid-level bureaucrat would we never heard of nameed lois lerner? >> does the committee necessity how to investigate? they are worried about this one person who has invoked her fifth amendment rights not to answer questions and you have congressmen on the committee going on and saying we have evidence he is of involved in control act it. i don't think you should cross that lane. the second thing, this is always one person who will not talk and when you conduct an investigation like this, and i have not gone into the details, you need to find people who will talk and t

he mentioned leader pelosi and senator durbin. and -- where is the girl? i mean, why don't they let her up there. >> he is probably still upset with her for the botched rollout of the obamacare web site. today is an example that they finally got past those problems with the computer. >> why doesn't she get to be up there whim. >> i think that's a question we will have to ask him tomorrow. the problems with the web site may be fixed now. it's good enough that they can can get 7 million people on there. but the problems with obamacare still remains. the issue is not the web site, the issue is people losing their jobs, losing their plans. >> i thought it was awful that they didn't have her up there for all the beatings she took whether good or bad or something. it looked like they were throwing her under the bus. >> it's about politics. she had become a symbol of what was wrong with the healthcare law. the picture of her testifying before congress. the picture of her being used in campaign ads all about the failure. this is really was about declaring victory.

former ucla player met earlier today with congressman george miller, jan schakowsky and senator dick durbine sieve move against the -- offensive move against the ncaa. national labor relations board ruled last week that the football players are employees and can found a union. they worry the ncaa will lobby congress to prohibit college athletes to organize. the college players union commissioned a study with drexel university's sports management department which found college football players lose 715,000 bucks over their four-year careers and college basketball players lose $1.5 million because they can't make money off of their college game. northwestern university has one week left to appeal the nlrb ruling but colter and huma are not waiting. congressman miller is the lead democrat on house labor education committee. schakowsky whose district includes northwestern is on their side. she issued a statement that football players have the right to organize at northwestern, and she hopes that will happen across the country. the nlrb ruling only applies to private universities, not public. th

and that's thanks in parts to leaders like nancy pelosi and dick durbin and all the members of congress who are here today. we could not have done it without them. and they should be proud of what they've done. they should be proud of what they've done. >> joining me now is msnbc senior political analyst david axelrod, former senior adviser to president obama and now director of the university of chicago institute of politics. david, thanks for joining us tonight. >> good to be with you. >> i have to say, i was watching this speech today. my reaction was this was not an ordinary president obama speech. he was talking about how history was going to be looking on people who tried to repeal this law even after it had been passed. we heard him there saying the debate is over. it really seemed to me he was trying to get people, you know, public opinion has been so sort of polarized on this for so long. it really seemed to me like he was trying to get people to take a step back from the political debate and assess this law all over again and get away from the politicization of the last four y