no one else was willing to check -- that is bill bennett, former secretary of education. i said, wait a minute, bill, do you know all the black folks who ran for county commissioner and share in 1984 and 1988? i began to walk the line. then he tried to come back and re-say it again. i said, wait a minute. we don't know a little short like i in minnesota in this reverend jackson runs, because he was the state director when he ran for president in 1988. i went down this whole line of people who came through politics because of reverend jackson's run up. therefore, how dare you diminish histwo runs as being black history not american history. the point there is nobody is at the table willing to challenge him on it. imagine if that, ted gone unchecked. we talk about race in america. i am looking at who is going to be on those networks and what they are saying because the theory is we will go back to business as usual and having the same voices speaking about the electorate and not doing what gilbert said, looking at the numbers. we are more black, we're more hispanic, so why

joining us is someone who knew the governor well and sparred with him often, bill bennett, the educationrector under george h.w. bush. he hosts the national talk radio show "morning in america" good morning, mr. bennett. >> good morning, alisyn. >> we just said you sparred with mario cuomo often. had a famous debate with him. what was it like to spar with mario cuomo? >> it wasn't a spar. if i could correct. it was more like the frasier/ali fly in manila. they were great, they were strong. i probably had 150 debates in my life and 15 of them were with mario cuomo and he was the best he was terrific. shakespeare says of his opponent in one of his characters he was a lion i was proud to hunt. he was a lion i was proud to hunt or maybe i was the lion being hunted. we went back and forth. he was terrific. he used humor, he used insight he used drama. he was the best. and i had to get my game up to be in the ring. >> and one of the things that i think made him special is that he wasn't afraid to go there. he wasn't afraid of the delicate topics he liked talking -- i don't know if he liked it.

common core was designed by secretary of education bill bennett who leased in a private effort to tryeople to agree upon high standard for what we expect our children to learn. the obama administration has gotten involved and some conservatives believe the administration is trying to push those down the throat of state and local governments and federal control. so jeb's answer is going to have an impact on his standing with conservatives. but here's the deal. i think what will be seen here the next 6-9 months is a question of how good is somebody at arctic laterring what their vision is first and foremost and secondarily defending the parts of that riggs that might irritate the detactors inside the republican party. martha: you have to make you're argument so people who hear it say i don't agree with you but i respect where you are coming from and i understand your conviction on this. i want to jump to the chris christie issue. some people saw this hug and they say it's just lining the hug with president obama. jerry jones had the scathing pictures of him and some young ladies hanging

bill bennett 2008 said this, and you can pull the tape. he said when obama won in south carolina, when reverend jackson won, it was black history. but obama winning is american history. and i said, did he just say that on the air? nobody else said a word. no one else was willing to check the former defense secretary of education. i said, within minutes, bill, do you know on black folks who ran for county commissioner and sheriff when reverend jackson ran in 1984 and 1988? i'm beginning to watch it like an he tried to come back and say it again. i said wait, donna does not run her campaign without brazile jackson running. i went down this whole line of people who came through politics because of reverend jackson's run, so how dare you diminish his two runs as being black history and on american history? the point there is nobody was at the table when it came to challenge him on that. imagine if that comment had gone unchecked. without about recent america, we looking at a presidential campaign, i am looking at who is going to be on those ne

i debate bill bennett and jack kemp and dan quayle, republicans, basically. >> around the country? >> around the country. >> people hire you to come in and do this for their meetings. >> new york i do the 92nd street but in new york they're not going to pay any politicians to talk. they don't think enough of politicians to give them money. host: let me go back to the book and because time flies ask you to be brief on this so we can give the audience some sense of what you write. you have a whole series of what would lincoln say and i'll go through them and then you can just give us a minute or so so we can find out roughly what he was thinking. what would lincoln say about war? >> i don't like it. i'm against it the way i was against the mexican war. i may be cute about it sometimes and do a bill for appropriations to play the political game but i'm against it. don't do it preemptively and if you do it preemptively as you did it here in iraq then don't make a double mistake of having ended a previous war or evacuating afghanistan because you could never do two wars at once. >> what

i debate bill bennett and jack kemp and dan quayle, republicans, basically. >> around the country?around the country. >> people hire you to come in and do this for their meetings. >> new york i do the 92nd street but in new york they're not going to pay any politicians to talk. they don't think enough of politicians to give them money. host: let me go back to the book and because time flies ask you to be brief on this so we can give the audience some sense of what you write. you have a whole series of what would lincoln say and i'll go through them and then you can just give us a minute or so so we can find out roughly what he was thinking. what would lincoln say about war? >> i don't like it. i'm against it the way i was against the mexican war. i may be cute about it sometimes and do a bill for appropriations to play the political game but i'm against it. don't do it preemptively and if you do it preemptively as you did it here in iraq then don't make a double mistake of having ended a previous war or evacuating afghanistan because you could never do two wars at once. >> what wou

bill. and i'm incredibly pleased to join my colleagues senators gardner, heitkamp, hoeven, kain cap ito bennett toomey, you'dal and portman in sponsoring this bill. it just doesn't get much more bipartisan than that around here these days. as the chair mentioned our bill follows directly from the work of the last congress of our former colleague senator mark udall and also our new colleague senator gardner and my home state of new mexico some of you know, ranks seventh in the nation right now in gas production. the main gas producing region in new mexico is the san juan basin in the northwest part of the city around the city of farmington, as tech. the good news is, we have large reserves of natural gas. however the current surge in gas production has depressed prices to less than $3 billion per million btu negatively impacting the economies of doemsics gas producing regions, including northwestern new mexico. i fully support the measured and cautious approach being taken by secretary moniz, and assistant secretary smith at the department of energy. it makes sense for d.o.e. to complete its rev

tony bennett we mentioned a little bit earlier what he's done with the cavalier program; my goodness. >> bill: and gill, solid. we talked about them earlier good basketball team. great job. that final four with wisconsin. also jacksonville. >> kevin: badgers coming to get a win last night. they prevail. that was a hard fought frank kaminsky with the nice performance in that game. lot of good stories in college basketball. we saw clark kellogg and i saw kentucky couple weeks ago in college station texas. a double overtime win. that was a tough one for them. we just got the two unbeatens right now virginia in this conference and kentucky in the sec. >> bill: it says they can be tested. they are terrific. >> kevin: size and ability in the backcourt. they have all the answers. a lot to like with this louisville team. you can sense that this week they had they had eight days between games the practices run by pitino get can the team back on the same page. they look like it today. >> bill: they sure do. very well prepared. again, if you do make shots really gives you chance to get your defense set

bill was passed 62-36. this is something the president said he would veto. perhaps not on substance but in terms of process. bennett, carper mccaskill warner, none of these democratic votes are a surprise to the white house. are we expecting a veto? >> i am expecting a veto of the bill. i can see the president approving the keystone pipeline. some money for clean energy. some carbon offset by the canadian government or by the u.s. congress. ways in which he could walk away and say, look this isn't a huge deal either way. economically or environmentally. but i got something for it. john boehner could lose the no hope members of the base or the no caucus that are going to be against it no matter what funding the department. he has more of a majority to play with now. >> michael, john brings up a point about concessions and a back and forth over some of these things. i think some people think are foregone conclusions. how much room is there to compensate reltsing to sequester cuts that the president has brought up and says he wants the to reverse? >> each of those is different. the president will decide. and the quest

bennett. he's been praised for two qualities throughout his career. and that's his intellect and his integrity. former president bill clinton said he's a highly intelligent old-fashioned conservative. i don't know if he thinks he's old fashioned. >> i'm older than bill clinton. older and wear nice fashion. >> and senate majority leader harry reid said there was no more honorable member of the senate than senator bennett. i think that was well earned over his career. so we're happy to have him here with us today as well. so our commission on political reform was really borne out of a stormy political presence i think you all have been watching over the last few years. polarizations at the highest level since its reconstruction. according to a poll that we commissioned with u.s.a. today. we don't mix with our neighbors who aren't -- if we're republicans we don't talk to the democrats in our neighborhood. we don't even live in neighborhoods, maybe even states with democrats. more and more we get our news from sources that are bias or they're ideologically driven. rankor and brinksmanship are at an obviously all-time hi

bill? well look at jobs in their own backyard. casey, pennsylvania lots of fracking going on. natural gas. same time thing with bennett in colorado. high camp in north dakota. montana, big oil country. i don't know what carper is thinking about. i'm disappointed that the democrats, wherever they have oil in their backyard, is where the votes went. it is so terribly unnecessary. here's why the republicans wanted keystone. the republicans wanted keystone because they have not been involved in job creation and they have not partaked in anyway helping the president bring this country out of the great recession, so they need something to talk about. hey, we're about jobs. we passed keystone. this was the first thing they did when they got legislative power. now they've got something to talk about. i know it is only 42,000 jobs and it is part-time, but now they're in the job talk. they haven't helped at all on 58 months of private sector job growth, 11 million jobs and they have had nothing to do with the automobile recovery. let's also point out that the coke brothers are going to make billions of dollars off the keystone

then tony bennett, josh groban, leann rimes and a slew of others joined in. it was part of a special event honoring billes in ♪ sing it, kevin? isn't it? billy, we're on a first-name basis. is the recipient of the library of congress gershwin prize for popular song. this event took place in november but just aired last night on pbs. >> billy joel does not look present, by the way. >> don't you want to be singing your song? >> everybody sings that song. >> that song -- >> probably tired of it. >> yeah. >> i'm so over this. enough already. >> i'm playing this yet again yeah, no. >> when kevin spacey offers to play the harmonica, that's adorable. >> he's going to do bar mitzvahs now. he's got a whole new career. anyway. >> a big booking there. >>> 2015 is shaping up to be a huge year for sylvester stallone. reprising his best-known roles, you know them. rambo and rocky balboa. the 68-year-old star -- >> really? >> that age is amazing too. >> rocky xiv? >> close. he's playing rocky for the seventh time in "creed," he'll hit the steps in philadelphia once more. >> is he going to box? >> probably a little, no

bennett. he has been praised for two qualities throughout his career -- his intellect and integrity. bill clinton said he is a highly intelligent, old-fashioned conservative. >> i am older than bill clinton. [laughter] >> senator majority leader harry reid said there is no more honorable member of the senate. i think that was well earned over his career so we are happy to have him here with us as well. our commission on political reform was born out of a stormy political presence. you have all been watching it over the last few years. polarization is that the highest level since reconstruction. according to a poll we commissioned with usa today, we do not mix with our neighbors. if we are republicans, we do not talk to democrats. more and more, we get our news from sources that is biased or ideologically driven. if you do not see it on c-span you see it on the news networks. that has been on display in congress over the last two congresses, we probably have the least prrn era. not just unable to address pressing issues, but unable to do their basic job, struggling to pass budgets, struggl

bennett. he has been praised for two qualities throughout his career -- his intellect and integrity. bill clinton said he is a highly intelligent, old-fashioned conservative. >> i am older than bill clinton. [laughter] >> you are old and you wear nice fashions. >> senator majority leader harry reid said there is no more honorable member of the senate. i think that was well earned over his career so we are happy to have him here with us as well. our commission on political reform was born out of a stormy, political presence. you have all been watching it over the last few years. polarization is that the highest level since reconstruction. according to a poll we commissioned with usa today, we do not mix with our neighbors. if we are republicans, we do not talk to democrats. we probably do not live in neighborhoods, probably even states, with republicans. more and more, we get our news from sources that is biased or ideologically driven. if you do not see it on c-span you see it on the news networks. that has been on display in congress over the last two congresses, we probably have the lea

the bill, of course, would unravel president obama's plan to give safe harbor to 4 million illegal immigrants. the story noting that it would send to the bennett and it needs 60 votes. -- the story noting that it goes to the senate and needs 60 votes. anita is on the line for republicans. good morning. caller: good morning. how are you this morning? thank you for c-span. host: i'm good. thank you for calling in. caller: thank you. host: go ahead with your comment. caller: i don't think we have any more rights to give. they have taken them all. but i do believe the government is just trying to stop everything. they want their way, and that is the reason older people have had social security. host: ok, and bonita hung up. let's go to dug in new york, line for democrats. good morning. caller: good morning. thanks for c-span. i appreciate you have in the program. my comment is, basically if you look at the infrastructure set up all around, you have this bureaucracy that has been set up. this corporate welfare, if you will. i saw an interesting program where they had 85 contracts in 2001 with 144 -- i'm sorry 144 contracts with 85 different contrac