what happens today for carter goodwin? what is the schedule? caller: as early as this afternoon there could be a vote on unemployment. host: he has said that he will vote for this legislation caller: that has been his previous indication. host: have they said that he will vote today? or could his first vote beyond different legislation? caller: it could be anything, i was unclear as to what his first vote would be. host: what else is on his schedule today? caller: he will be sworn in and sitting in the senate this afternoon to vote on any issue. host: what has he set about the big legislative items that are being talked about? has he indicated yes or no on issues like energy legislation? we have talked about unemployment benefits and immigration reform, has he talked about any of these? caller: he has not indicated on many of these issues, other than to say that he has been supportive in the state of west virginia. host: mr. goodwin was appointed to fill this seat by the late senator robert byrd last friday by joe mansion. he is expected to rem

cart could win will be set -- carter goodwin will be joining the senate as its youngest member at 36 years old. let's get back to this topic, national security and intelligence. are they keeping us say? stephen, an independent line. caller: can they really tell? there is no way of telling really, with respect to the color, those colors you wonder if they were randomly picking them or if something was going on. how can we know? thank you. host: college park, maryland. robert. caller: i work in the field. for those of you worrying about us listening in on you and paying attention to you, first of all we do not have the manpower to look at all 300 million americans. second of all, we do not care what you do with your private lives, most of us in the field know it is a boring life. we are defending the nation against people that want to kill us for religious purposes. that is all that we are doing. if we have to listen in on cell phones, then that is what we will do. host: do you see them working at cross purposes? caller: the lack of communication between those agencies, there are diffe

afterwards, carter goodwin is seated as the new democratic senator from west virginia. live said the coverage on c-span 2. >> for a snapshot of washington and the 111th congress, the c- span directories, guide to governors, house members, senators and justices. order it online at c-span.org /store. >> the senate judiciary committee is preparing to vote on the confirmation of supreme court nominee, elena kagan. we spoke with a capitol hill reporter from "cq." >> said stern joined us for an update on who has decided what. what can you tell us about senator specter and his opinion piece in "usa today? >> it was an interesting opinion piece, who spent most of it saying that he was not particularly pleased with what she said at the hearing. at the end he said that he decided to vote for her anyway. when he was still a republican last year when her confirmation came up for solicitor general, he voted no at the time. there was a question of how you reconcile that. he did not specifically address it. >> your piece in "congressional quarterly," late yesterday, " second to announ