. >> director alex gibney talks about his new book, casino jack and the un -- state of money. >> with the nominee of elena kagan coming up, c-span takes you inside the supreme court to see the public places and rarely seen spaces. hear from the justices as they provide insight about the court, the building and all its history. the supreme court, home to america's highest court. on c-span. nato secretary general told reporters in brussels that a handover to security could start at the end of the year but defense secretary robert gates who also talked to reporters after the meeting in brussels said the nato counterinsurgence as i considered a taliban strong hold needs more time to succeed. this is about 40 minutes. >> good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, the secretary general will make an opening statement and then we have time for questions. >> thank you for coming. considering the that i am competing with the opening ceremonies of the world cup, let me say i really respect your commitment to journalism. [laughter] >> the main item this morning was the meeting on afghanistan. where ge

. >> alex gibney, our guest. documentary is called "casino jack and the united states of money." thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you, brian. good to be here. go work for jack abramoff and kind of watch this operation get built, right? and jack was going from really big to the top. >> neil morphed from the original neil who wanted to be the press secretary to the guy who wanted to be part of the abramoff family. >> now, was it unusual to lose a staffer? >> i've had staffers come and go like a revolving door. >> i'm the poster child for the revolving door. >> the revolving door between government ann k street is an essential part of the washington game. >> there's a law that states you're not allowed to lobby your around the one-year ban and then i just flat out violated it. . signup for our scheduler e-mails @ c-span 2 or -- at c-span.org. >> white is interesting about what happened over the last 13 years is that elections used to be determined by a few officials in the home office. now they spend millions of pounds every yeer and employs dozens of people, hold huge a

. >> alex gibney, our guest. documentary is called "casino jack and the united states of money." thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you, brian. good to be here. >> i've seen friends go over to go work for jack abramoff and kind of watch this operation get built, right? and jack was going from really big to the top. >> neil morphed from the origgnal neil who wanted to be the press secretary to the guy who wanted to be part of the abramoff family. >> now, was it unusual to lose a staffer? >> i've had staffers come and go like a revolving door. >> i'm the poster child for the revolving door. >> the revolving door between government and k street is an essential part of the washingto+ game. >> there's a law that states you're not allowed to lobby your former bosses, and i tiptoed around the one-year ban and then i just flat out violated it. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] . .

. >> director alex gibney talks about corruption on capitol hill in his new documentary. tonight on. on >> should the federal communications commission regulate the internet? two views with caty sloan and walter mccormick, head of u.s. telecom. that is on monday, on c-span2. host: welcome back, this is norman solomon, a national board member of the progressive democrats of america. guest: it is a pleasure host: how is the president doing? guest: i'm afraid he is undermining the two goals that are overarching for millions of americans who call themselves progressives. probably tens of millions very consciously are disappointed. the first goal is to maximize chances of keeppng republicans out of the speaker's office and majority senate office, and out of the oval office after 2012. the other goal is to move policy in a progressive direction. unfortunately, on both counts administration has undermined those two goals. i'm with a group that this coming wednesday will hold will recall brown bag vigils at more than 100 congressional offices around the country. we realize that w

. >> alex gibney, what was your reaction when you heard that jack abramoff had just been released from prison to a halfway house in baltimore this week? >> well, i knew it was going to and frankly, you know, i thought he had spent enough time in a might well have gone to prison but didn't. he's out in a halfway house. i think that's all right. >> when was the first time that you thought about doing your documentary, brand-new, called "casino jack and the united states of money"? stories in "the washington post," and i was astounded really by sort of the audacity of the story and how colorful it was. so i thought it would make a good movie because i'm always interested in stories per se, and jack is a fascinating character. very colorful, very outrageous. at thh same time, the other interesting to me was it was a story that seemed to me to poont out the most fundamental problem in our democracy right now, which is the way that money rules our democracy. it's beccme so unbalanced that i think it's become the fundamental problem in our society. >> let's un a clip just so the audience can

later, alex gibney discusses his latest documentary ttere's another chance to see the prime minister's questions. tomorrow, paul gegare will be on "washington journal." goaltomasky -- michael tomasky will talk about the liberal wings of the democratic party. ryan crocker discusses the recent sanctions against iran afghanistan. >> c-span, and our public affairs content is available on you can also connect with us on- twitter, facebook, and youtube. signup for our scheduled alert e-mails at c-span.org. >> c-span was invited to tour this facility where we spoke with top-ranking coast guard and bp officials. >> in the unified command incident command room, what we know as the war room, this is the central room that is providing the direction and developing the strategic plans for operations that are driving 11,000 men and women who are working from the offshore resource area. once floods arrive on the service, although it back to %+uisiana shorelines. our job is to protect the shorelines from any impact. this is one of the commands that are designed to work collaborative lacrosse thh gulf

. >> alex gibney talks about corruption on capitol hill in his new documentary "casino jack." >> nowar about a task force looking for options to cut the defense budget. barney frank, ron paul, have been been the task force. this is just over one hour. this i just over one hour. >> it is easier to find ways to cut the defense department then to find this room. i as in the wrongart of the building. it took me awhile to give up. this is it imptant meeting. going to be giving out, i do notftenreach from a text but iyesterday's new york times, there's an article about the warn afghanistan and i came across this. officials regard support and afghanisas especially important at a time when man european countries, including britain and germany, are committed to sharp cuts in defense spending as part of eir drive to reduce huge government deficit in fact, two sundays ago, the times haan article about the european ability to sustain a much higher lever -- level of expenditures for wt many consider quality of life for their own citizenand it mentioned they were able to do this becse they are she

. >> director alex gibney talks about corruption on capitol hill in his new ducksally, "casino jack and the united states of money." tonight on c-span's "q & a." >> tonight on prime minister's questions, british prime minister, david cameron responds to calls for tougher gun restrictions in the wake of the recent mass murder of 12 people in england. prime minister's questions tonight at 9:00 eastern on c-span. >> local louisiana officials, coast guard representatives and a bp executive testified at a senate subcommittee thursday. they talked about the impact on louisiana communities, wildlife and economy. louisiana officials are asking for more astabs to block the oil spill frommfurther damaging the gulf of mexico marshes and the wildlife there. >> we have several senators who threer. oute or scheduled to be i want to thank senator landrieu for coming. we are actually expecting several senators to be here and participate in this earg. i thought what i would do in the interests of time -- thank you for being here, senator lieberman. i thought i would go ahead and do my opening statement,

. >> alex gibney, what was your reaction when you heard that jack abramoff had just been released from to a halfway houseein baltimore this week? >> well, i knew it was going to happen. and frankly, you know, i thought he had spent enough time in a stir. there were some other people who might well have gone to prison but didn't. jack has paid the price. he's out in a halfway house. i think that's all right. >> when was the first time that you thought about doing your documentary, brand-new, called "casino jack and the united states of money"? >> well, i heard some of the stories in "the washington post," and i was astounded really by sorttof the audacity of the story and how colorful it was. so i thought it would make a good movie because i'm always interested in stories per se, and jackkis a fascinating character. very colorful, very outrageous. at the same time, the other thing about it that was really interesting to me was it was a story that seemed to me to point out the most fundamental problem in our democracy right now, which is the way that money rules our democracy. it's becom

. >> director alex gibney talks about corruption on capitol hill in his new book, about the life andmes of convicted lobbyist, abramoff. >> coming up next, president obama's testifying before the committee. discussed was improvement to the airport screening process and the terrorist watch list. the third person to be nominated for this position. this lasts an hour and a half. >> good morning, eb. the two most important members of the committee are here and trod work. we are theory consider the administrator of the t.s.a. it's embarrassing. such an enormous undertaking doesn't have the leadership that it needs. i am quinsed that you can provide that leadership on the basis of work we've done in the intelligence committee and the conversations we have had on this topic. there's no question in my mind about it. we can't ignore we've been without one for far too long and we've fade price for it. this country has endured an attempted christmas day attack, an attempted times square bombing. and where the terrorist pulled off the plane was about to take off for dubai. and they pulled him of