bob corker, the on the republican. i want you to pick any one of those and telesis story about somebody that you followed in the election. >> that is an easy one. the montana senate election was kind of wrapped up in everything that was happening. this was the end of the bush presidency. the big question was, conrad burns to have been a republican incumbent had gotten wrapped up in this jack abramoff story. suddenly he was being challenged by the guy who least looked like the united states senator. he was a farmer from montana. he is from the outskirts of big sandy. he had lost three fingers in an accident when he was a child on his farm. it became a question of whether democrats could take this seat. ipad a lot of attention to that race. i even julie went to montana. -- i paid a lot of attention to that race and eventually went to montana. one of the stores in the book is that he likes to say saved my life and i acknowledged that in the book because i left his farm and tried to get back to my hotel on a snow day. i we

george bush does not call them -- bob corker winds -- wins. guest: we went through harry reid calling everybody, the republican leader, and i said, "and did he call you?" and he said, "no, he still has not called yme." corker does not say this, but president bush the next day went before the cameras and referred to the 2006, and i think bob corker kind of reflected that. he did not say he was upset, but he did mention it. host: yes, but you go on to talk in your book about a meeting he eventually had, and he saw something in the president up close that bothered him. guest: this was in the height of the discussion of iraq, and he was a republican, and republicans in the senate has essentially been the last bulwark against doing what democrats wanted to do, which was bringing troops home, passed resolutions to a stable -- establishing a timetable. it absolutely against that -- pass revolutions -- resolutions establishing a timetable. he got the sense that they did not exactly have a handle on what they were doing in iraq. he was concerned about

or should they have accepted what senator bob corker was working now the? >> at that is monday morning quarterbacking and i want get into it. is the way it is. we are where we are. i think the bill started going south when the white house decided to pull people back from negotiations on the democratic side. because they decided they one of the populist issue. then you saw the president go out and like the wild fires of populism which are still burning. >> one of the most ambitious parts of the bill put together was to reorganize how banks are supervised. he backed away from that proposal and a series of steps, the last yesterday when the senate voted to keep small banks under the federal reserve's supervision. what did you think of that proposal to begin with, and what has become of it the? >> i never thought we should take away the responsibility from the fed for the bank holding companies. the federal reserve is as good a regulator as any others. you're moving deck chairs around by doing that. the fed has the resources and expertise to be and has been, a

he said he would meet with bob corker. that took one month and could not reach an agreement. they said, let's take it to committee and see if we can reach an agreement by the debate and amendment process. republicans filed 400 amendment and refused to call any of them to be considered. 20 minutes after the banking committee got together, the final vote sensible -- sent the reform to the floor. now after a week of filibuster, the filibuster is broken and we're seeing some cooperation on amendments. i have just described a four- month process that should have taken just a matofeeks. they have dragged out the process. we are now seeing an element of cooperation. if we're going to do that on every important issue, we will not get much done. we have to show good faith and try. if we fail, as the american's think we have been faithful in our efforts, they may follow up. >> there is a piece on thursday -- obama and mcconnell are perfect strangers. it talks about them not having that outside the public meetings that they have had with public leadership. i am wondering if president ob

bob corker and i are good friends and we have known each other for a while. our staffs are almost interchangeable, but we both have our own minds and act in our own ways. we are accountable to the people of tennessee. i do not tell him what to do and vice versa. >> he mentioned checks and balances about the election. do you think senate republicans can and gain control -- can gain control of the chamber? >> i feel the same mood in the country that i felt in a year most of your viewers will not remember. it was 1974. i was a young republican. it was the year of watergate. and in tennessee, people were so mad at republicans that they came out of the mountains to find out who the republicans were to vote against them. i think people will come out of the mountains this year to vote against the rascals in washington. most of the rascals are democrats by large. most -- republicans will do very well. >> looking forward to 2012, democrats have a lot of seats to defend. the future looks fairly bright. is the republican party making a major comeback? when you looked at

i have been working for a year with a great partner, republican senator bob corker. we were both business guys. we both realize that even though we have been around markets for years, we had a lot more to learn. and candidly, a lot of the assumptions i came in with a year and a half later, i have had to change. and as i got a deeper level of knowledge, this should not be partisan. there is no democratic or republican answer on financial fixes. and you know, senator corker and i continue to say we didn't get the memo that we weren't supposed to get stuff done and check our republican and democrat hats at the door and we have taken grief from our respective parties and if we can't get a bipartisan bill in this area, then it really is going to disappoint me because i campaigned for this job as a bipartisan radical centrist which i don't think is an oxymoron, but it's going to test my optimism if we can't finet find a way. 18 months later, we have to put financial rules in place. >> how can you put this in context with the health care debate. and here, we have a lot of t

bob corker and i are very good friends. we've known each other a very long time. our staffs are almost interchangeable. but we vote our own minds and we act our own ways and we're accountable each of us to the people of tennessee. so i don't try to tell him what to do and he doesn't tell me. >> you mentioned checks and balances a couple times about the elections. do you think that senate republicans can regain control of the chamber this fall? >> i'm not going to predict it. i feel the same sort of mood out in the country that i felt in a year that most of your viewers won't remember. it was 1974. and i was a very young republican and i got the republican nomination and it was the watergate year. and in tennessee, people with sor mad at republicans that they came out of the mountains to find out who the republicans were so they could vote against them. i think people are going to come down out of the mountains this year to vote against the rascals in washington, and most are democrats by large majority. and so republicans are going to do very well. >> looking forw

he then said, ok, i'll meet with bob corker. he seems to be more open. they spent a month together. they couldn't reach an agreement. dodd said let's take the bill to the committee and debate these things out. let's see if we can reach an agreement by the debate and amendment process. the republicans filed 401 amendments. they refused to call any of they refused to call any of them to be considered. 20 minutes after the banking committee got together, they took a final vote, sent the financial regulatory bill to the floor. now, after a week of the republicans filibustering the bill, trying to stop i, the filibuster was broken and we're seeing some cooperation. i've just described a four -month process that should have taken a week. so now we're seeing some element of cooperation. but if we're going to do that on every important issue facing on every important issue facing us, we're not going to get much done. we have to continue to show good faith and try, and if the american people feel we've been fair, then they may hold the republicans accountable. >> as you indicated, we're talk

i've been working with a great partner, bob corker. you know, we were both business guys. we both realize that even though we'd been around markets for years that we still had a lot more to learn, and candidly, a lot of the assumptions i came in with a year and a half later i've had to change. and as i kind of got a deeper level of knowledge. this should not be partisan. there's no democratic or republican answer on financial fixes. and senator corker and i say we didn't get the memo that we weren't supposed to get stuff done. that we weren't supposedly occasionally to check our democratic and republican hats at the door. we've taken some grief from our parties and if we can't get a bipartisan bill in this area, then it really is going to disappoint me. because i campaigned for this job as a bipartisan radical centrist, which i don't think is an oxy more ron. but, boy, oh boy, it's going to test my optimism if we can't find a way. and i do think we'll find our way. 18 months after the meltdown on wall street, we've got to put new rules of the road in place. >> put this in

and while he's left the floor, i'd be remiss if i didn't express my gratitude to bob corker of tennessee in putting aside whatever differences we have on this amendment. mr. president, he's been a very, very valuable member of our committee. this bill that is right here all 1,400 pages of it, substantial parts of this bill can be attributed to the work of bob corker of tennessee. and i -- i want my colleagues to know how grateful i am to him, to his staff, and others for some valuable ideas and thoughts. and while not everyone is included in the bill, he played a consistent role. showed up every time there was a meeting or gathering on this legislation. spent a lot of hours with our colleague from virginia, mark warner. particularly on titles 1 and 2 of this bill. i will say more about senator corker's contribution during the debate on this bill. but i wanted to at the outset of the debase and discussion thank him for his wonderful legislation. let me thank senator merkley and senator klobuchar, as well as other cosponsors in this bill, bipartisan support for the amendment. i would like

expected to begin voting on three amendment related to the bill including one offered by tennessee bob corker that would require a 5% down payment for residential mortgages. we expect of the votes and debate on amendments to continue throughout the day. majority leader harry reid has expressed hope the measure can be completed by the end of the week. now live to the floor of the senate here on c-span2. senate will come to order. the chaplain, dr. barry black, will lead the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. lord of life, in whose will is our peace and who is worthy of a greater love than we can either give or understand, accept the gratitude of our thankful hearts. thank you for protecting us from seen and unseen dangers and for being our shield in dangerous times. we praise you for life and health, for sunshine and shadow, for peace in the midst of life's storms. lord, we're grateful for our lawmakers and rejoice that your providence will prevail. keep our senators firm and steadfast as they put on your whole armor of faith, hope, and love. fill this chamber with your presence and

i see bob corker on the floor as well. as many -- in many ways bob corker and mark warner of virginia spent a lot of hours putting this together. here's the quandary. one of the things we tried to avoid was getting back to too big to fail. the issue was -- and the presumption of our bill is bankruptcy. we want to get people in bankruptcy who want to be there. if they deserve to fail, they ought to fail. the question is if you end up with large, highly complex entities, that pushing them into bankruptcy can have the unintended collateral effect of affecting otherwise solvent, good companies, that are well-run, employing a lot of people, doing a good job. when these highly complex entities are shoved into bankruptcy, other companies can suffer. i'm shorthanding this in a wait a minute the idea was on some rare occasions -- and hopefully they're very rare -- when that possibility occurs and you have to go through a number of hoops to get to that conclusion, that we have the mechanism for a resolution, a winding down of that e

were several months when both senator richard shelby, the ranking republican, and later senator bob corker from tennessee tried to engage in negotiations with senator dodd. there was an idea that republicans passed up of the charities to cement a deal with senator dodd that would have been much more to their liking than what this bill will be. that is true in fighting and misreading signals. the republicans might have been better off to have struck a deal before they got to the floor. >> thank you both for being on "newsmakers." >> in the relentless revolution, this is a ucla professor describes what capitalism is a cultural system, not just an economic one. tonight on c-span. >> watch this week's hearings on the gulf of mexico oil spill, or look back at the exxon hearings from 1989. it is washington your way -- search is, watch it, share it. every program since 1987 available free, on-line. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] >> now a house hearing. this portion is two and a half hours. >> there are several issue

i supported an amendment along with bob corker to provide emergency windows.nd this amendment expand that to other sections of the fed but still provide protection for the direct monetary policies. i think it was a well done thing. host: next phone call. yvonne, what would you like to ask? caller: this money he is talking about going to congress -- is this for small business or big business? guest: i am not sure i understand the question. caller: is this going to help small business or big business? here in indiana, whirlpool went over to mexico. guest: this will benefit small and large individuals. you will get their underwriting and will not be steered into bad loans. "the wall street journal" did a study and found that 60% of families who got subprime loans qualified for prime loans. how did they get into that product? their mortgage originator said that i will serve as your adviser. this loan process is good, there are a lot of choices. what the customer did not know is that originator was getting bigger bonuses if they sign up for a subprime loans that ha

the republican nominees will be saxby chambliss, bob corker, mike crapo, judd gregg, and richard shelby. in a few moments, a house republican initiative for public input into their congressional agenda. in about 40 minutes, the hearing on the gulf of mexico oil spill to consider raising the liability limit for those responsible. after that, senate republicans spoke with reporters about their meeting with president obama. and later, president obama at a fundraiser tonight for california senator barbara boxer. >> this holiday, non-fiction books and authors on "book tv." sebastian younger and his newest book "war," imbedded with the 173rd in afghanistan. and john hofmeister. get the whole schedule at "book tv".org. >> house republicans have began an effort to create a policy agenda of republican input. this will be led by california representative kevin mccarthy. he the other g.o.p. leaders held a 40-minute briefing at the museum in washington. >> good morning, everyone. welcome to today's event. inscribed on this building are the words of the first amendment which guarantees americans the

bob corker and others had tried to work on anbar partisan basis.y made progress, were having meetings, reached agreement. then christopher dodd comes in and he has gotten word from the white house that they want their bill now. they do not want any republican input in it because it would compromise the issues. so they forced it through committee and passed it, basically with democratic votes and a handful of republicans. it was in the aftermath of that where the president says now we need to be bipartisan and work on these other issues i have coming down the pike. i thought that was a little disingenuous. host: next phone call. caller: good morning. i loved the show that you were on "law and order. sorry to see it go. not as sorry as i was to see you lose along with all the other republicans. my question goes back to 2001. richard clark was trying to meet with dick cheney and he said that he was meeting with oil companies to relax oil regulation to create insidious policy. do you think the republicans have any responsibility maybe you can give us t

fact that we've established on a bipartisan basis -- and again our colleagues, mark warner and bob corkeralong with other members, did a great job, in my view, in crafting that part of the bill. i think we've done a good job there and i see very little dissent about it. the fourth piece -- the consumer protection -- is the one we're engaged in. and this isn't debate that i believe is worth having over the next hour or two and then vote. let me say to my friend from alabama, the author of the amendment, and thinks cosponsors. we've got to come and debate this stuff. i'm here and i will a.b.a. glad to engage in the debate. -- and i'll be glad to engage in the debate. but i've got one other colleague here right now engaged in this question. this is a major part of the bill. people have told me overed and over again, this is a big issue for them. i'm willing to accept their determination. i think it is a big issue, too. but we've got about 100 amendments that people wants to omplet we've got about -- that people want to offer. we've got about 39 legislative days until the end of this congress

and i particularly want to thank mark warner of virginia and i want to thank bob corker of tennessee as well. they spent a lot of time on this issue literally going back months ago on it and we wouldn't be in the position we're in today were it not for their labors and efforts. and i notice my colleague from virginia is on the floor and at some point i gather he's going to want to say a few words. i know my colleague from arc, amounts to be heard as well. but i just want to again thank senator shelby and thank our staffs as well for their effor efforts. i thank senator boxer too, because she'll have an amendment up which also strengthens the point on this issue of too-big-to-fail and taxpayers. but thank you. we've got more work to do. i know that. but this is a good beginning of a piece of legislation. so, mr. president, i thank -- i thank aga senator shelby. i yield the floor. mrs. lincoln: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from arkansas is recognized. mrs. lincoln: thank you, mr. president. i first rise today to speak in support of the boxer amendment. it is no tax