let's bring in senator byron dorgan from north dakota. we will talk about the agenda and taxes for a moment. but i have to ask you about the latest breaking us in tonight. larry summers, the director of the national economic council, has announced his resignation, he is leaving and going to go back to harvard university. this is number three. if we could just see, as the bailout crowd is happening, peter orszag is gone, the budget director. also, christina romer is also out. and now larry summers announcing today. nator, what does this mean? >> you know what, ed, i don't think it is particularly surprising. i know it is big news, but frankly, a year and three quarters in this presidency, it is not unusual that at this time, toward the end of this year, people start leaving. these are 24/7 jobs, tough jobs. so, i'm not particularly surprised that this president will retool now and bring in some new people, but today's announcement wasn't a particular surprise to me. >> it's no -- no correlation between a struggling ecomony? could this be a

. >> joining me, senator byron dorgan of north dakota. i don't understand -- i do understand. these guys are in bed with the oil industry. why would you protect the oil industry from answering questions under oath? and being subpoenaed to answer those questions, sir? >> well, it's a charade. i mean, in the list of outrages which is pretty long, this ranks way up there. senator jim demint came to the floor twice. both occasions said i object to giving this commission subpoena power. think of this, three-mile island commissions subpoena power. the terrorist crisis, the financial crisis commissions. both of them had subpoena power. the bp oil spill, we're going to say whatever voluntary cooperation you get, good for you? you've got to have subpoena power in order to do this right. >> we have been watching this with admiral allen being incident commander on msnbc and other networks, to be fair for four or five months we've watched this oil story. the american people kept asking how did it happen? my brother was an oil pipeline guy for years. he said bottom line, it's always a mana

senator byron dorgan is our guest today.ator gore can, what -- dorgan, what's your reaction to this pledge to america? >> well, i haven't read all of the pledge, of course. i hope the pledge is that we all can work together finally instead of being republicans and democrats where we represent a congress that can answer the call the americans want answered to try to put the country back on track. you know, we've had precious little cooperation, as you know, on anything in the last congress and the last couple of years. so american people expect better and deserve better from both political parties. jenna: and both parties there also seems to be disagreement within as well. we're taking a look at the middle class tax cuts, and one of the things that's come up over the last couple days is some comments coming from the democrats that apparentlily they -- potentially, they want to extend the bush tax cuts for the middle class permanently. are you onboard with that? >> i'm not, actually. here's what i would like to do. i think it'

the fire and go to bat for everyday nimour economy, someone like robert reisch might be good, byron dorgant be good but also an interesting republican candidate named sheila baer her background with bob dole. but reputation of willing to challenge wall street as the current head of the fdic, so there's some great candidates out there who are very credible and this is the defining moment for him and the future of his economic policy. will he fight for the little guy? >> adam green, good to have you with us tonight. summers was not a friend of manufacturer. his policy encouraged outsourcing and trade with china. we need someone to take his place whole stand up for american boerngs joining me now is scott paul, executive director of the alliance for american manufacturering. mr. summer was a free trader and not a friend of manufacturing, is that i fair statement, scott. >> i looked at his record ed, and his approach to china during this administration as well as his approach to the imf and to nafta in the clinton administration left a lot to be desired and in fact a lot of these decisions hav