ever dirksen at the end going i know every dirksen promised to contact nixon personally and try to put a stop to that treason and later conversations reported back to l.b.j. that nixon wouldn't even discuss it with him general to dog in his heels the war continued on for the last nixon won the election this is all historical fact so why doesn't everyone every american know that nixon committed treason in one thousand nine hundred sixty eight to win the presidency and in a conversation with dirksen l.b.j. said i don't want to let this get into the campaign he genuinely didn't want the american people to learn that one of the two candidates for president was a traitor he was afraid it was so horrifying and does an art disheartened the american people that would lose faith in the american democratic system in fact we american citizens didn't even hear these tapes what you just heard until just two years ago when they were finally made public by the l.b.j. library and even then they were largely ignored by the national press. l.b.j. took the secret to his grave as did hubert humphrey the v

dirksen said stick around, you're going to see something.or of dirksen's office flew open and in came two beagle hounds followed by the president of the united states with a bottle of bourbon and he slammed the bottle down on dirksen's desk and said, listen, you son-of-a-bitch, we're going to drink this bourbon, get those judgeships settled tonight. that's how he did business. >> you were not a supporter of obama during the primaries. you argued passionately. what do you think about him now historically? >> barack obama, he's done a pretty good job as president, i think. i mean, he got a historic health care bill through. no democratic president since fdr or senator bog wagner right through truman, right through clinton, put it back on the agenda. obama got it done. that's on the agenda. barack obama got it done. i'm not sure he handles things politically as a politician like he maybe should have, like lyndon johnson would have. but i give him good grades. i think clinton does an even better job, but i think he does fine. >> what about you?

and half an hour later, the door of dirksen's office flew open and in came two beagle hounds followedf the united states with a bottle of bourbon and he slammed the bottle down on dirksen's desk and said, listen, you sonofaabithch, we're going to get this settled tournament. >> you were not is a supporter of obama during the primaries. you arguing passionately. what do you think about him now historically? >> barack obama, he's done a pretty good job as president, i think. he got a historic health care bill through. no democratic president since fdr or senator bog wagner right through truman, right through clinton, put it back on the agenda. obama got it done. it's extraordinary. i think it's important. i think he -- politically he's run into problems and i'm not sure he hanseled the job as a politician as well as others might have, as well as lyndon johnson certainly would have, but i give him good grades. yeah, i'm not surprised. i think that hillary clinton would have done an even better job, but i think he's done fine. >> what about you? >> yeah, i think history will be far kinder

i said that about everett dirksen so i am not really being that selected. i do think my book touches a bark -- upon the origins of the problems we have today, the toxic politics of america started in the late 1970's. one of the problems, very frankly, was the opposite -- was proposition 13 in 1978, the tax revolt that rolled in from california. i think the first basic no-tax pledge, the revolt of 1978, has been greatly responsible for california's decline. host: in the incoming term in the senate, there will be a record number of women, 20 women in all, serving in the senate. your book focuses primarily on men. do you see a shift in the operations or the decorum in the senate with so many women involved? might this be a return of greatness to the senate? guest: i think it can contribute. i've said in my book and in my talks that the only improvement in the senate that i see today as opposed to the one i wrote about was that there are women in its, we got from one woman to up to 17 before this election and now, 20. the women apparently worked extremely well

i said that about everett dirksen so i am not really being that selected. i do think my book touches a bark -- upon the origins of the problems we have today, the toxic politics of america started in the late 1970's. one of the problems, very frankly, was the opposite -- was proposition 13 in 1978, the tax revolt that rolled in from california. i think the first basic no-tax pledge, the revolt of 1978, has been greatly responsible for california's decline. host: in the incoming term in the senate, there will be a record number of women, 20 women in all, serving in the senate. your book focuses primarily on men. do you see a shift in the operations or the decorum in the senate with so many women involved? might this be a return of greatness to the senate? guest: i think it can contribute. i've said in my book and in my talks that the only improvement in the senate that i see today as opposed to the one i wrote about was that there are women in its, we got from one woman to up to 17 before this election and now, 20. the women apparently worked extremely well

this was starting with dirksen when they first passed it and bob dole and congressman sensen brenner.ot in the past these voting issues have been american iss issues. they haven't been left/right issues. >> nor should they be. >> what would it say about the court if the court does away with section 5 after we've gone through the recent vote as steve was saying it passed overwhelmingly in both houses, with bipartisan votes? >> i think you have some kind of mutiny. you even look at what the voter i.d. laws did in terms of turnout. a lot to be analyzed and certainly we're still sifting through the data but the atlantic's andrew cohen last wednesday writes if there's one thing this election has proven, one thing i have come to know, americans don't like it when their right to vote is threatened. the very people whose votes the republican sought to suppress came out to vote. look at the exit polling in florida, black vote 13%, same in 2008, in virginia 20%, ohio 11% in 2008, it was 15% in 2012. >> i think president obama had it right on election night. when he said, talking eloquently abou

dirksen was a great hero of the civil rights revolution right alongside his partner, lyndon johnson. it was the southern democrats, but at the -- that point in time, it was the southern democrats that wanted to talk and one held a record of talking for 24 hours straight. these are filibusters where they don't want to take the floor and they have no interest in debating. it's all to block things. when you get a filibuster when you have bills that pass unanimously, it becomes clear that this was not a matter of principle over a particular bill but a tool of obstruction. host: randy in minnesota, republican line, good morning. go ahead. caller: yes. good morning, c-span. this filibuster thing, this is the perfect way for our government to work the way our government was set up to work with checks and balances. with the filibuster rule, -- i'm getting an awful lot of feedback. host: go ahead. caller: i don't want the void it i want to make these guys sit down and do the people's business. president obama wants to fall off the cliff. that's why he wants to go do that to the middle class a

dirksen was a great hero of the civil rights revolution right alongside his partner, lyndon johnson.t was the southern democrats, but at the -- that point in time, it was the southern democrats that wanted to talk and one held a record of talking for 24 hours straight. these are filibusters where they don't want to take the floor and they have no interest in debating. it's all to block things. when you get a filibuster when you have bills that pass unanimously, it becomes clear that this was not a matter of principle over a particular bill but a tool of obstruction. host: randy in minnesota, republican line, good morning. go ahead. caller: yes. good morning, c-span. this filibuster thing, this is the perfect way for our government to work the way our government was set up to work with checks and balances. with the filibuster rule, -- i'm getting an awful lot of feedback. host: go ahead. caller: i don't want the void it i want to make these guys sit down and do the people's business. president obama wants to fall off the cliff. that's why he wants to go do that to the middle class and

if it required telling dirksen it would be shameful for the people of the republican party, the party of lincoln, to oppose civil rights legislation, that's what it required. if it was to pay homage to someone who needed to have homage paid to them to change their deeply held segregationist views, he did t my point is that leadership matters. i am honored to be amongst leaders and i hope you stay the course. whether you win or lose in the political realm, that is secondary to changing the course of our country's history by focusing on doing the right things, transforming our education system, there will be losers along the way, politically, but we are all winners if we are being part of something bigger than ourselves and are trying to advocate and implement transformational change. god bless you. enjoy the conference. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> also today at the education summit in washington, former clinton white house chief of staff, john podesta, spoke about the prospects for educat