host: david drucker coversr congress druckeroll call," -- david drucker covers congress for "roll call." clearly the oil spill -- what impact will this have on what congress wants to get done? guest: i want to find out if harry reid's call to his committee chairman over the memorial day break that he wants the kennedy bill on the floor before everyone hightails it, if that will be a reality or whether there be a flurry of activity around the climate change bill beginning today. most of us in washington consider that bill or anything like it, dead. remember, the house passed something like last year. it was very politically toxic for those democrats in the midwest. we felt all along that it would be very difficult for the president to get this to his desk, and given what occurred for over a year on health care. with what happened in the gulf, though, i am wondering if now we will see fresh momentum. i personally don't tend to see it happening. but clearly harry reid in the senate wants to see it happening. unless the house wants to do something new in terms of a new bill, they will wait

host: coming up, david drucker, at 8:35, donna hopkins. and drew mccarthy who wrote "the grand jihad." thanks for being here today. we'll be back tomorrow. . [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] >> our guest on "newsmakers" this week is the agriculture secretary tom villsak joining us by connection from iowa i, his home, where he just hosted a rural summit. let me start with your midwestern summit on the economy. tell us, you've got some big goals for communities and the agriculture economy. can you give our national audience a sense of where you're leading this effort and why. >> sure. the summit was an opportunity for us to educate america about the important role that rural america plays for all of us. it is the supply of inexpensive affordable quality food, it is the supply of water that we drink and rely on. it helps to make us energy independent and at the same time it's a substantial percentage of our military comes from these small towns. so it's important

host: we will be talking about congressional issues wh david drucker later this morning. what about the helen thomas stored? caller: what happened to freedom of speech? just because the majority may be does not agree, she was just saying what she thought for felts i may not particularly agree with our but why is it whenever somebody says something you don't like or agree with, you want to get them -- what is the word -- terminated or fired. if we did that, i don't think anybody would be working. host: a republican view from west river, maryland. joe, go ahead. caller: i appreciate the opportunity to let everyone know th helen thos has always been a racist biggest homophobe in her actions, and a lot of opportunities for senile dementia correctly and the white house press corps has always been an apologist for her and it is just unfortunate. she should go, no questions asked. host: columbia, south carolina, independent line. jimmy, should helen thomas sp down? caller: what i find appalling is there has been absolutely 0 discussion about israel selling nuclear weapons to apa

coversr congress druckeroll call," -- david drucker covers congress for "roll call." clearly the oil spill -- what impact will this have on what congress wants to get done? guest: i want to find out if harry reid's call to his committee chairman over the memorial day break that he wants the kennedy bill on the floor before everyone hightls it, if that will be a reality or whether there be a flurry of activity around the climate change bill beginning today. most of us in washington consider that bill or anything like it, dead. remember, the house passed something like last year. it was very politically toxic for those democrats in the midwest. we felt all along that it would be very difficult for the president to get this to his desk, and ven what occurred for over a year on health care. with what happened in the gulf, though, i am wondering if now we will see fresh momentum. i personally don't tend to see it happening. but clearly harry reid in the senate wants to see it happening. unless the house wants to do something new in terms of a new bill, they will wait for t