we all are standing for nixon. >> nixon persuading strom thurmond, he's the best candidate who can winarts in '64 with goldwater, he took us down to a horrible defeat, so let's go with a moderate now and once we get in, i can slow down the federal government's efforts at desegregating schools in the south, but the number one reason was it looked like nixon could win. >> a candidate needs 667 delegates to win the nomination, but with nixon's estimated total at above 600 now, that air of victory is obvious. >> governor, may we ask you what you might have done differently thinking back now? >> nothing. there isn't anything i could have done differently. >> it was a weary governor rockefeller who hotel hopped from one delegation caucus to another. wife happy appeared anything but happy as her husband began to show the strain and perhaps the humility of it. >> with the demise of nelson rockefeller and exclusion of the moderate liberal side of the republican party, you began to see the reshaping of the republican party. >> we're having here in miami beach the convention of the nice white peo

i'm not good to try to do a strom thurmond accent. [laughter] i disagree with the estimate. he's an agitator, outside agitator bent on destroying people up and making everyone dissatisfied. minutes after hearing of his death he denounced him. he was no outlier and he spoke for the millions of white americans who thought he had received his just. the shots ring out and rippled across the nation and the world. news of the murder stopped people in their tracks and rendered him speechless and others were led to celebration and drove some to violence and still others to political activism. african-americans were overcome with grief and were gripped by rage. there was an 18-year-old who attended hammill to high school in memphis. i wanted the world to end completely, she wrote. i felt there was no reason to continue living in the bubble, i wanted to kill myself. such a foul she wanted to opt out of it. her classmate, 17-year-old frankie gros gros broke down ins and new people over the world mourned his death and i felt better knowing that, quote on quote. at the same time he reali

jumped into a crowded field in charleston with the sons of two iconic republican leaders like strom thurmond. a very different campaigns but it looked like an uphill battle. what made you decide to jump into the congressional race? was at image of david has a six was it a midlife crisis? >> guest: i can tell you the same evil personified on a daily basis does take its toll on your soul quite frankly, so my wife and my mom were pretty clear that i needed to go do something else. not sure how congress and i -- you know the district and incredibly well because you are presented is incredibly well for a long time in congress and then in the u.s. senate. i've got two incumbent in the primary it is a lonely feeling and an unpleasant experience and i was naÏve to think that the relationship could survive the race quite frankly my mom and my wife said you were not friends with the incumbent, how would you judge the performance and what you think that maybe you could do better. i did and in hindsight it was more than it appears and i'm probably better in the executive branch and the legislative branc

everyone as strom thurmond.it was difficult and at times abrasive, but in the end he and i have been able to maintain a group of healthy friendships which i think says something about south carolina and the chance to represent the district of the civil war and selected as the congressman to speak so we well. we are a unique and amazing state and to represent the state it is following their incredibly large shoes to fill and it's an experience of a lifetime. it has allowed me to serve and one of the reason they'd unify it is two guys, one from a food and household -- flu and household no matter what party. >> one minor part of his biography which is the first time we ever spoke or communicated and i there was one time before we became freshmen together he called him i'm going to be at the college on a certain night. all of the candidates are debating and i would love to meet you. i've heard is named. maybe i will go and maybe i won't around the table the next morning tim scott was a no-show for the governors deba

into the republican party so for instance john connolly the democrat becomes a republican and strom thurmond becomes a republican and john lindsay, the republican from the democrat and other cases where liberal republicans joined the democratic party. this starts a long process. it's extenuating by mcgovern in 72 because again, mcgovern is the nominee logic dictates he should take a more conservative running mate but of course the convention is a disaster because of eagleton and he was also a liberal and in the sense because the process of sending more conservative democrats out of the party and attracting more liberal republicans so bite 1980 and after both parties have pretty much nominated only right of center are mostly right of center nominees and the democratic party is nominated mostly or all left of center nominees so we have now the polarization of the two parties that didn't exist that used to have conservative democrats and republicans so they could talk to each other in compromise. today you have these two polarized parties that too don't talk to each other except to yell at each

strom thurmond in 1948. george wallace, who won 13.5% of the vote in 1968. ran on a platform of segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever. and that's within the lifetime of most of us. my native region in the south, and the lifetime of anyone over 40, 45, we had functional apartheid. so there have been moments, off very long and sustained moments, where we didn't do the right thing and answer our better angels. and what has often happened is the voices of the powerless, the voices of protest, the voices of resistance, the voices of those who bear witness, whether it's john lewis or rosa parks, have intersected with presidential grace and presidential leadership. it happened with lyndon johnson in the civil rights movement. it happened with harry truman integrating the military. and that's when we make our significant leaps forward. but you've got to have those voices who are far from the center of power, holding the powerful to account. >> and what you are writing here, brings to mind john mccain, who is speaking out from his sickbed and w

there's no reason why strom thurmond had to die at 103 while in the congress. he's hn mccain, you know, attending to his medical needs. notas brain cancer and he's expected to do his work because go as to go, you know, and and retire. they shouldn't -- four years should be the limit. just like the presidency. they shouldn't stay there. it because, ofdo course, they're not going to give up the money and power. that called at man several calls back, people call and vote these people out. know, one day is sick of them. hey figured that's all they're stuck with like the people of the countries that dictators, that's all they got. host: got your point, robert. several candidates for congress running on the issue of term limits this year. of them is florida governor rick scott. e's running for senate in florida. here's his recent tv ad that he put several million dollars to run across the state of florida. more than 41,000 zip codes in america. code, they one zip want term limits on congress. it's common sense. only place that doesn't want term limits on congress, ri

and nixon knew that he needed strom thurmond desperately, and strom thurmond knew that nixon knew. and that therein lies political negotiations. so the two main questions were racial guidelines, guidelines on racial integration, nixon favored guidelines, and it fwets into the whole question of guest: well, big buckley emerged as probably the leading voice on the conservative side of politics. he was a very young man in 1950, i believe, whenell and wif andley -- gore vidal william f buckley to debate. [video clip] 14, the sweet little girls with their sundresses. the chant between 11:00 and 5:00 this morning, from 4000 or 5000 voices, was share of senate is directed at the president of the united states and the mayor of the city. ,lso, the intermittent reframe ho, ho chi minh." their fathers were being shot at . nevertheless, we are fighting. it is remarkable that there was as much restraint shown as was cops were outht, there for 17 hours without inflicting a single loaned on a single person -- won'ational con later described it as a police riot. the police in chicago unleashed bea

then comes along chairman strom thurmond, continuing that policy. and then comes along chairman joe biden, continuing that policy. and chairman orrin hatch followed that policy. under the policies of those chairmen just mentioned, negative or unreturned blue slips did not necessarily preclude a hearing for a nominee. when senator leahy became chairman during the bush administration, he did away with this policy and resurrected chairman eastland's strict blue slip policy. and the reason for this strict blue slip policy was obvious to everyone at that time, at least obvious to everybody on our side of the aisle, to block president george w. bush's judicial nominees based on politics and ideology, something that never played much of a role in a lot of these nominations prior to 2002. in sum, only two of my 18 predecessors who extended the blue slip courtesy required sign-off from both home state senators. when senator leahy adopted an historical blue slip policy, that was his prerogative as chairman. nobody argues with that. but it's my prerogative to