coburn: mr.president, i want to make it known that i am carrying on senate courtesy on my side of the aisle and the objections i'm voicing are not necessarily my objections but those on behalf of my colleagues. in that regard i object. the presiding officer: objection is heard. mr. udall: senator coburn, we very much understand that, that you're carrying this out for others. what we want is them to step forward. what we want to get rid of is the secret holds, like you have stepped forward on the broadcasting board. you've stepped forward and said i'm holding up six people to go on that board of governors. it's out there. it's in the public. it's something that all of us can examine, the media can examine, we can figure out whether or not your objections are legitimate or not. but that's the process we're in. that's what's -- that's what's going on. secretly delaying the administration from getting its team in place. and that's -- let's come out. let's admit what's going on here. the folks that ar

i want to follow up on what senator coburn was saying about experience. i like to talk to my grandchildn about the difference between intelligence and wisdom,; for my part -- wisdom. from my perspective, wisdom is a combination of wisdom, learning, and experience, which also produces knowledge. i also encourage them to get out learning and experience. while it is true that because of your stellar academic background, you bring a great deal to the court as a litigant, it is also true that there is much to begin by the experience of participating in a lot of arguments before appellate courts. you learn by doing. you learn how to be better than your opponent. you are always facing an experienced litigator who has practiced before the court on the other side. there is an advocacy ability that comes, not just from academic knowledge, but by doing it. you learned through trial and error what works and what does not. i suggest for the position of s.g., you learn what arguments can be effective and which ones cannot, even which case you might want to take and not

i am a co-sponsor with senator tom coburn that would put on a single website all of the earmarks. what we need to remember is earmarks do not save a penny. every specific appropriation that i might put in reduces another preparation summer in the budget. the real debt problem, our biggest problem, has to do with entitlements spending which is mostly medicaid, medicare, and social security. >> senator, let's talk about the oil spill and how you think the administration is responding. he served in the cabinet. they're big advocates for offshore drilling. you said that is not nearly enough. nuclear energy is needed and we need a comprehensive approach to energy. what are your thoughts? >> i have two thoughts. this is a good time to let that electric cars and trucks. this week, senators and i introduced legislation. we could electrify half of our cars and trucks without building in a power plant because we could build them in. -- because we could plug them in. we would reduce our oil by one- third. when other thought about oil is that there is a lot of thought about presidential respo

guest: i am a big fan of senator tom coburn.e is a handful of republicans -- he is one of a handful of republicans who is a constitutional conservative. his colleague jim demint is a rising star. i spoke to him a few days ago. reminds me ofhre he barry goldwater. it was back in the days when we did not have the leadership. we did not see how we could come to power, and barry goldwater was out there providing that leadership that jim demint is doing, and coburn is his ally in the senate. in terms of the term limit issue, it would be nice if we did not have to have term limits. we have term limits -- it is called elections. most politicians have agreed to the rules so that it is very difficult to turn them out of office. one of the secrets of campaign finance legislation is it is to protect the incumbents when you put ceilings on how much money a person can give to kennedy directly, that protect the incumbent. -- it can give to a candidate directly, that protect the income and. incumbent. nobody is very far from having hundreds of

i would like to follow-up on the comment senator coburn said about the matter of experience. i like to talk to my grandchildren about the difference between intelligence and wisdom. from my perspective, wisdom is a combination of learning, knowledge, and experience which also produces knowledge. obviously i'm encouraging her to get that learning and to get that experience. while it is true that you because of your stellar academic background bring a great deal to the court as a litgant, it is also true that there is much to be gained by the experience of participating in a lot of oral arguments before pleat -- appellate courts. you are usually facing an experienced litigator who has practiced before the court on the other side. and there is an advocasy ability that comes not just from academic knowledge but by doing it. you have learned from trial and error what works and what doesn't work. i suggest from the position of s.g. what methods can be effective and even what cases you can take or not case from the possibility of winning. what i'm saying is that academic knowledge w

after i listened to your exchange was senator coburn, i think i understand. it is very important that we restore a belief in aloft over politics to the justice department. i think your background -- your background in reaching out to people of different views will be helpful. i was going to ask a more specific question. you talk about how you respect so many of the other solicitors general for their roles in how they have a public law and argued for the law, even when they did not believe in it. talk about very narrow exceptions when it impinges on the executive power. is there anything you change about the solicitor general's role? -- theisten in general solicitor general's approval is always needed in an appeal. it does not play a role when the government wins the case. has led some inconsistency in some of -- it has led to some inconsistency in how some of these appeals have been taken. >> thank you, senator. it is an interesting question. i think it will disappoint you a little bit. my basic view of the solicitor general's office is, if it ain't broke, do

coburn: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from oklahoma. mr. coburn: thank you. yeah, that's fine. thank you. thank you, madam president. i wanted to spend a few minutes on a couple of topics. the presiding officer: the senator will note that the senate is in a quorum call.á mr. coburn: i would noalt that the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. coburn: as we watched the debate the last six days on the financial regulation reform bill, i thought it would be interesting just to raise a few questions. the congress, both the house and the senate, created what was called the financial inquiry commission. as a matter of fact, they had a meeting today. and the purpose of that commission, who will turn in their report in december of this year, was to take a thorough and complete look at wha what happed to us in 2008, the causes, the regulatory failures, the poor incentives, and then make recommendations to the congress on what we should do. now, the question i have for my colleagues is, we have a bill on the floor that is given no

committee last week goldman sachs was called to the hill to testify before senator levin and senator coburn's committee. senator coburn asked a question directly of the goldman sachs' aingtagents and said: do you sut the underlying bill that is now on the floor of the senate? without hesitation he said yes. why would he support it? well, look, they're going to make a lot of money off of this underlying bill. why do i say they're going to make a lot of money? who's going to clear these contracts? they're going to be cleared by wall street clearing houses. under the underlying bill there's another provision here that hadn't even been talked about today, and that is when an end user who is exempt from clearing notifies the cftc or the s.e.c. that they have a contract, they're required to -- to produce that contract to what's called a swaps execution facility. it's a mini clearing house. in addition to go to the swaps execution facility, that contract after that has to go to a clearing house. so what you have is you have a party who agrees with a manufacturer that they're going to enter into an a

waipt to thank senator gregg, senator lemieux, senator coburn for being cosponsors. i want to thank senator shelby for all he has done to help support and make this amendment possible. and also senator isakson who is just a wealth of experience, brings a wealth of experience to this body as it relates to real estate lending. i want to thank all of them for this support of this amendment. it is a basic, commonsense amendment. i think everybody in this body knows that we, as a country, are going down a pretty slippery slope. that we, as politicians, act as enablers. weep don't tell people -- we don't tell people what they need to hear. instead we try to give them what they wish without any degree of discipline. and what this amendment does is try to restore within the housing market a focus on the core issue that took us into this crisis. something that many people in this body do not want to discuss, than is a fact that there were a lot of loans written to people that had no ability whatsoever to pay them back. and so this amendment does some very simple things. numbe

let me also thank senator coburn, dr. coburn of oklahoma. he has been very involved in reform issues for many years. we're looking forward to an additional reform that he's going to be advancing, that i look forward to sponsoring. and i wrap up only by way of trying to highlight that after the senate has spent a lot of time discussing secret holds over the last few months, on a bipartisan basis the senate comes together today with an approach that has actually brought senators together, is going to ensure that every single secret hold is going to have an owner. that's going to be a big change. it is high time the public deserves to have public business actually done in public. and with the adoption of this amendment, that will be done. mr. president, the chairman of the full committee has been very, very gracious to me. i would like to ask for the yeas and nays at this time. if i could engage the chairman -- if i could engage the chairman of the full committee in a colloquy? you have been very, very helpful with respect to scheduling this. m

sarah palin's endorsement, i think he will win and be a united states senator in kentucky joining tom coburn, both will be physicians and very much standing up for the constitution. >> gregg: last one is congressional race, this actually republican versus democrat. these are not intraparty races but interraces to replace john murtha, toward the end was embroiled in ethics controversies. this is a toss-up a long time held democratic district? >> absolutely. they are trying to run to the right of the republican. he is saying i wouldn't voted for obama he'll. he is immunizing his opponent of raising taxes because he made nice noises about the fair tax that would replace the income tax. republican response is saying, look, you represent the democratic candidates, but the politics are pork barrel. we need to get beyond that. the we need development in the state, not just charity from washington. i think it's going to be a very close race. if the republicans win it, it will be a tremendous momentum for the fall. >> gregg: john fund, good to see you. >>> home foreclosures dropped last month. we'll

coburn? >> thank you, mr. blank fein, for being here. i have to disagree.the majority of the responsibilities of some lack of congress. i'm adamant in my view on that because you cannot record the last time we had an oversight hearing until the problems came up. we do not do oversight in advance to see how things are working. i have a few questions, having said that. the activities you and employes had been called here to talk about is that your understanding that competitors were engaged in same activities? >> yes. >> some are not here anymore? >> that is correct. >> did you have any concerns that some time about any attendees undertaken the surcease i did not. oh, i'm sorry. >> so you have not heard anything today concerning you about the actions by goldman or former goldman employees? >> i think as i heard it everything sounds correct, but when you say concerns -- in my role look deeply into everything. what is going on in the hearing today is a fact-finding for you, but for every one also. i heard nothing today that makes me think anything went wrong, b

coburn: thank you. i wanted to spend a minutes kind inform general talking. i want to give an example because this is a very big bill with a lot of hard work by the banking committee and their staffs. but i want you to compare this bill to your loved one who gets pneumonia. they go to during the and they've got a cough and a fever and chills and they just feel terrible, and think about it. if you would take your loved one to the doctor and the answer they would have is, oh, i think i can take care of that. i can give you something for the cough that will suppress the cough, and i'll give you something to take care of the fever, and i'll give you a little something to take care of the pain in your chest. you go on home, and you come back if you don't get better. and of course two days later your loved one ends up in the hospital with raging now bilateral pneumonia and accept sis, bacteria in the blood. and this bill is kind of like that. it's kind of like a doctor treating symptoms instead of the real disease. because the real disease was congress. the real di

but you know, i want to ask a queson where it sounds like senator mikulski meets senator coburn. one of the areas where we absolutely agree is where the federal government provides funds, but we end up in conferences where it's 66 bucks per person toprovide bagels and i was at a communitity fair and there was something that someone gave me a little plastic shopping bag with the name of a agency, not a federal agency head, and said here, enjoy it, you paid for it. well, that's not what i go to my taxpayers to ask them to do. there are a lot of -- and that's where we get a bad rep. that's where quite frankly some of the folks who are cranky with government have every right to be cranky. you know the famous $4 swedish meatball, i think there was some extravagant spending at at conferences and so on. how does the igc getting a grip on that? i do believe in conferenceses. you go to like the gang conference that we have? maryland with the support of the u.s. attorney and all of us at the local level, and they really do share information and further those important relationships that ar

senator coburn of oklahoma criticized for lack of experience and said that he would never send patients to a position coolly talked about a field -- physician who only talked about a field. host: what about her relationship as a solicitor general between herself and the judges on the court? guest: that has been the subject of a lot of commentary, and i think it is a pretty good relationship. it is supposed to be contentious at times because the justices want to ask tough questions. she has had several testy exchanges with the chief justice john roberts. i see that all on a line of business from both sides. justice scalia has talked fondly about her, especially because of her work at harvard, which is one of his all modema matters. i do not think there would be any bad blood if she ends up confirmed. host: the she continue on in her role as solicitor general during the confirmation? guest: yes, but the court has finished a hearing arguments for this session and is now just handing out opinions. if she had not been nominated, she would be preparing arguments for pending cases. we will pro

i want to follow up on what senator coburn was saying about experience. i like to talk to my grandchildren about the difference between intelligence and wisdom,; for my part -- wisdom. from my perspective, wisdom is a combination of wisdom, learning, and experience, which also produces knowledge. i also encourage them to get out learning and experience. while it is true that because of your stellar academic background, you bring a great deal to the court as a litigant, it is also true that there is much to begin by the experience of participating in a lot of arguments before appellate courts. you learn by doing. you learn how to be better than your opponent. you are always facing an experienced litigator who has practiced before the court on the other side. there is an advocacy ability that comes, not just from academic knowledge, but by doing it. you learned through trial and error what works and what does not. i suggest for the position of s.g., you learn what arguments can be effective and which ones cannot, even which case you might want to take and n

. >> senator coburn? >> welcome. dean kagan, you earlier explain ur role of all three branches of the federal government. what if we have a statutehat has been previously signed by the executive branch, passed by congress, and an executive order that undermines the statute? in that case, you would have to figure out whether you support the executive order or you support the statute. how would you determine that? >> is a very interesting, hypothetical question. -- it is a very interesting hypothetical question. the firsthing i would do is really reached outo the people within the government. both within the administration and also to congress. i would try to direct what is going on and to requires representation. there would be a lot of work to be done. i would talk to people both .hose responsible and t i will give you my gut instinct. in a case like that, the defense -- the obligation to defend the statute continues. the same exceptions are the only reasons in which you would not defend the statute, either if there

i suppose an asterisk on the role of honor should go to senator coburn, who is the one senator on the republican side who had the courage to stand up and disclose his actual holds. everybody else went to some other senator and said "i don't want my name on this. would you please take my hold over so that i can avoid the rule, keep my hold and have no accountability?" perhaps, madam president, there once was a reason for a secret hold, for this kind of business to be done in the dark, in the shadows and anonomously. but i think history and common sense tell us that deeds that are done in the dark are not usually ones that we are proud of. and certainly the experience of the last few months has shown that if there ever was a legitimate use for secret holds, that purpose has evaporated. it has evaporated under the pressure of block nominees numbering in some cases over 100, a systematic approach, a systematic attempt to disable this administration's ability to govern by systematically opposing nominees irrespective of the merits, opposing nominees who came out of committee in a bipartisa

i also want to commend senator levin and senator coburn for their work on the permanent subcommittee investigations. the senate's premier investigator subcommittee, which is part of the -- subcommittee's of the homeland and governmental affairs committee which senator lieberman and i have the privilege of leading. they have given us great insight into the role of everyone from the sloppy mortgage brokers and bankers who threw underwriting standards out the window and made loans that never should have been made to people who could not possibly repay them. they've looked at the role of -- of the credit rating agencies that also did not perform in the way that we would like. and they've looked at the role of investment banks like goldman sachs. we need to take what the lessons that we have learned, the great depth of knowledge in this body, and work together in a bipartisan way. and that's what we've been doing in the last couple of weeks. and, mr. president, in closing let me just say we've made a lot of progress. i'm confident we can get there. let's not pull the plug on this debate p

they are senators barrasso, bennett of utah, boxer, brownback, burr, cardin, chambliss, coburn, cochran, cornyn, crapo, demint, dorgan, feingold, gramm, grassley, harkin, hutchison, isakson, landrieu, leahy, lincoln, mccain, murkowski, risch, wicker and wyden. this is a very broad cross section of ideological opinion in the u.s. senate. mr. president, in the house of representatives, a similar process has taken place, and this concept has been cosponsored by 320 members of congress. that is a lot. that very rarely happens. and that legislation was authored by republican congressman ron paul and democratic congressman alan grayson. the amendment that i will be bringing to the floor of the senate has 15 cosponsors, republicans and democrats alike, and i very much appreciate their support. mr. president, this amendment is simple and it is straightforward. at a time when federal reserve has provided over $2 trillion in zero or near zero-interest loans to some of the largest financial institutions in this country, this amendment requires the fed to tell the american people who got the money.

we had some great cosponsors this last time, senator gregg lemieux, coburn and brown senator shelby alsosupported this amendment. we had johnny isakson from atlanta. he knows more about real estate lending probably understand that anybody here, who spoke on behalf of this amendment. but again to hear my friends on the other side of the aisle say you know, i would have done this but, you know that risk-retention piece you had in there regarding securitization, it kept me from t so now i have a clean amendment that does nothing in that regard. it leaves that in place. but, again it puts in place these underwriting standard. i had numbers of democrats come up and say look, i agree with you. we ought to at least 5% now. as a matter of fact, i i think we ought to have more. because i want everybody in this body to have the opportunity to vote for a good amendment a sound amendment, an amendment that really takes us away from the way we've been going in this country, which is we want to make sure that everybody is entitled no it no longer is the american dream that someone owns a home; it is a

senator coburn of oklahoma disclosed that he had been holding six or seven appointees. that still leaves a hundred on the floor right now on the executive calendar. and we began earlier this morning calling them up to see if those holds were still there. because after six days, you're either supposed to have disclosed it or relinquished. and sure enough, we kept on getting an objection and objection and objection. so only two things can be true. either they are just flagrantly violating the rule. what are you going to do? there's no enforcement mechanism built into the rule. they're just saying, make us follow the rule. you can't make us so we're not going to follow it. we know it's a rule, we voted for it, it passed with enormous bipartisan support. it is a rule of the senate but we just choose not to follow it because we get too much advantage out of secret holds. senate rules don't really apply to us unless you can make us follow them. that is a sad place for the senate to be if that's where we are on this. but there are only two alternatives. the other one is that t