stay with us. >> rose: steve and cokie roberts are here. they met as students when she was at s wellesley and he at harvard. they had different religions over terz t years their individual feiths have fortified their relationship. "our haggadah: united tradition through interfaith families" is a new book they have written together. i'm pleased to have these journalists and partners of 45 years with a bunch of grandchildren joining me now from this program. welcome. >> charlie, always so good to be with you. >> thank you so much, pal. >> rose: you, too, my friend. of all the things you might write about-- >> (laughs) and have. >> rose: and have, yes. why the? >> well, because it's handy. people all around the country and the world celebrate passover and this is a passover... this is the ril wall for passover. it's a book that contains the prayers of the passover service. and we have had a passover seder for more than 40 years and it's always been a mimeographed originally and then xeroxed sheet of paper that i wrote 40 something years ago an

i also want to bring in cokie roberts, our abc news political analyst, also in washington this morning. cokie, good morning to you. >> hi. how are you? and, jon, you've been up all night. looking good, my friend. >> reporter: hey, you know. adrenaline. >> it's adrenaline. so, cokie, let me pick on you a minute, and we'll go back to jon. as you heard jon say, this is a precursor of the big fights down the pike. given all the brinksmanship and bluster that went into this relatively small-stakes fight, how much faith do you have that our divided government is up to the job of handling the truly big issues? >> it's going to be very tough. they really do legitimately disagree about all of this. but it's interesting to listen to how the president is handling this. he referred last night, when he was there in front of the washington monument, and again in his radio address today, to the fact that they worked together to get a tax cut done in that lame duck session last december. now, they've gotten this done. he's pointing to cooperation, not division, because he's learned that that's what wo

obama's faith advisory council and the reverend al sharpton of the national action network and abc's cokie robertser husband steve roberts, journalist and authors, an interfaith couple, catholic and jewish and their new book called "our haggadah." thank you all for joining us. one of the huge issues we're face something this budget, some say war, others say debate, conservatives, dr. land, are painting this almost as a moral issue. why is that? what are the spiritual dimensions. >> we're borrowing between 40 and 41 cents out of every dollar we're spending at the federal level and many, many americans and i would include myself among them see that as generational theft. and theft there is a commandment against that in the bible. we're literally stealing our children and grandchildren's future. >> there's also a commandment about charity and righteousness and a word that means charity and an obligation of righteousness. to take care of your neighbor i understand the question of theft but there's an equally powerful religious argument to be made as a nation providing for the least among us. and that