all of that for former attorney general alberto gonzalez weighing in on the recent ruling. is it a vindication for the nsa? stay tuned. >>> we asked, you decided. folks on social media getting a shot at becoming the fifth panelist of "cashing in" by telling us what the hottest topics of the year were. here is what barbara on facebook said. there are so many, but number one obamacare and 2, benghazi and number 3 the power grab of the executive branch. the rest of facebook voted this way, number one, obamacare. number 2 benghazi and number 3 a tie between the nsa scandal and irs scandal. on twitter, captain awesome said obamacare was so corrupt it takes the top three spots and here is how the rest of twitter voted number one, obamacare and number 2 snowden and nsa and number 3 -- what say you, michelle? >> government is synonymous with incompetence. that's definitely a common theme. but dishonesty is a they'll in all of these issues. they told us they weren't spying on us. they told us what they had to do with the youtube video. they told us they weren't spying on the tea par

joining us now, former united states attorney general alberto gonzalez.elcome and great to have you here, sir. >> merry christmas and happy holidays. >> happy holidays to you as well. let me ask you first, this may end up in the supreme court unless the issue is overtaken by the decision of the president on whether to accept the recommendations of a white house review panel to ban the nsa from directly collecting this data. where do you think this issue is going to actually beset telled? be settled. >> this is the first step and whether or not the supreme court will ultimately hear this issue will depend on the second circuit and the dc circuit. even beyond that the court will watch very carefully what the elected branches of government will do. they will take into consideration and recommendation by the review panel. they will be interested in seeing what congress does. it is very likely that there is going to be action by the elected branches of government which may move out any action by the supreme court. >> the judge who ruled in favor of the nsa.ed

she then was up for appointment when alberto gonzalez was the attorney general of the united states. i ran a file of senator levin. he said she was close to tom delay's defense team. b, she doesn't have a lot of -- didn't have a lot of experience trying cases. she was approached when she was in the criminal division of the justice department by the fbi. this is available through wickepia etcetera. she was part of that whole cover up. she was not a person not just an attorney. she was in a powerful position to be able to say no. torture, we'll let it be suppressed a bit. >> you plea bargained and what was the plea bargain, to her? >> she was head of the criminal division. when we would be sitting there and we would see press conference. she would put on this red dress and she would be quite dolled up and smiling before the camera. i said there is pretty alice. i incorporated that into the chapter pretty alice. john boehner majority leader and barry jackson worked for karl rove. what ended up being happening she was criticized by tom levine. and the other part to it was she had been pa

attorney general alberto gonzalez. he is now with waller. a nashville based law firm mr. attorney general, thank you so much for being here. you were attorney general when these program were being implemented. can you tell me one instance when any of this bulk collection of data helped stop a terrorist act or catch a terrorist? >> i'm going on leave that to the intelligence professionals, quite frankly. i know there's been sworn testimony these authorities, these activities were very helpful in defending america. and let me say that i believe that this debate we're having today, the appropriate way to defend our country, to protect american lives. to do so in a way that is consistent with our values is a very important debate. we talk about it and argued about it in the bush administration. i think this is a report from this board put together by president obama, i think, has initiated good dialogue about what is appropriate and necessary in our country today. why do you think we're having this debate? it seems to me we're having this debate because edward snowden leaked