. >> and i, brian bellow, will be toasting the 20th century. to kick things off, i want to go back to your period, peter, and just a few basic questions. i want to know who was drinking. i want to know what they were drinking and -- hold on -- i want to know mainly how much were they drinking? >> well, you should have asked who wasn't drinking. it would have been a short show. we could shut down right now. they were drinking everything. you might even say this is the golden age, guys, of the 18th century. actually,'s not a very nice century, to be honest. but if you're into alcohol, you've got all kinds. you've got pear trees, and apples, cider, and home brew, you've got rum, you've got various distilled fruit drinks. and basically, you've also got dirty water. so i ask you, as a sensible, healthy american, which way are you going to go. you're going to drink -- think of the chesapeake area, think of the tide water area, you died. and they did. and they deserved to. >> that is not endorsed by "back story." >> or by the virginian. >> well, it's

. >> and i brian bellow will be toasting the 20th century. to kick things off, i want to go back to your period, peter, and just a few basic questions. i want to know who was drinking, i want to know what they were drinking, and hold on. >> yeah. >> i want to know mainly how much were they drinking. >> well, you should have asked who wasn't drinking and it would have been a short show. we could shut down right now. they're drinking everything. you might even say this is the golden age, guys, of the 18th century for alcohol in america. actually, it's not a very nice entry to be honest. but they will -- if you're -- if you're into alcohol, you got all kinds. >> you got pear trees, you got peary from pear trees, apple, kreider, you got home brew. beer, only 1%, you have to drink a lot to get wasted. you got rum. you got various distilled fruit drinks and basically you've also got dirty water. so the i ask you as a sensible healthy american, which way are you going to going? you're going to drink. think of the chesapeake area, think of the tidewa

host ed ayers and brian bellow regular gail with tales of beer and spirits in america, saturday night at 8 eastern, part of american history tv this weekend on c-span 3. >>> steve forbes, the president and ceo of forbes joined us on "washington journal" thursday for a little more than half an hour, focusing on the tax code and the economy. >> now joining us from our new york studio is steve forbes. twice presidential candidate and president and ceo of forbes. mr. forbes, thank you for being on "the washington journal." have you endorsed mitt romney yet? >> i'm endorsing him as the republican nominee. i had earlier in the campaign endorsed rick perry of texas, governor of texas. he dropped out several months ago. and i said at the time whoever gets the nomination, i would endorse. and then mr. romney is going to be the nominee. so i am backing him 100%, yes. >> what is your enthusiasm level? >> it's picking up. the one good thing about this campaign, even though it looked like it hurt the republican short-term is that i think it made mr. romney a better candidate. he has come out with

ed ayers, and brian bellow regail with tails of spirits. part of american history tv this weekend on c-span 3. >>> included in this week's series of hearings looking into a general services administration conference in lave was one before a house infrastructure subcommittee. witnesses included a former gsa official who attended the conference and the administrator who first alerted the inspector general about the conference. this part of the hearing is a little more than three hours. >> two weeks ago the inspector general released a scathing report on gsa conference that cost taxpayers nearly a million dollars. seen a lot of reports about the las vegas lavish vacation, the spending. and i appreciate mr. cummings, ranking member cummings on the government oversight committee, as well as chairman issa for discussing in great detail those lavish expenditures and the wrongdoing that happened with the las vegas vacation. the purpose of this question is to talk about the systemic problem, how deep it goes, the corruption, the fraud, the waste tha