eliza newlin carney, let me start with you. remind me where these superpacs came from, they grew out of a supreme court decision, citizens united in early last year -- dish should say early 2010. >> early 2010. the citizens united ruling rolled back limits that had existed for some time on corporate and unit expenditures. and that unit said if you are operating independently from candidates and parties, you can spend however much you want and you can raise however much you want from corporate sources and union sources that previously were barred from direct campaign money it there was another ruling calls speech now. which a lower court ruling which together with citizens united paved the way for these pacs. >> woodruff: and bill allison, how different does that mean it is for these groups than what it is and the rules for the candidates themselves and what they can raise and spend. >> well, these groups can take contribution of up to $500,000, a million dollars t is unlimited how much an individual, a corporation, a labor unio

very -- eliza explained we have a major deficit disclosure. eliza touched on the main points. it is true that super pacs have to disclose all the money the entire universe of possible and legal donors changed with citizens united and speech now or a couple months later, for the first time it decades, they make unlimited contributions to super pacs. what we may see when most of the super pacs created for this election cycle filed for a comprehensive report, filing of reports that said a superpack receive $1 million, americans for apple pie. prior to these cases, corporate entities, hypothetical 501c4 would-be illegal -- now they can contribute and that is all that will have to be disclosed by the super pac because 501c4 as eliza display and they don't have to disclose where they get their money unless the donor is foolish enough to specifically designate their contribution to that for the purpose of making independent expenditures. this particular deficit and disclosure, the fact that 501c4s only have to disclose to donors if their donors designate for communication that is the

we have eliza newlin carney, staff writer for "roll call" and she covers lobbying and influence. and i have one good authority that he coined the term super pac. >> that is correct. >> to my immediate left. pretty cool, by the way. paul ryan, fcc program director and associate legal counsel at campaign legal center. all the way to my left is allen dickerson, interim director and -- more information is developed -- located, and i am daniel schuman, policy council of the sunlight foundation and director of advisory committee on transparency. i have asked each panelist of about different aspects of super pacs and i will turn first to eliza newlin carney to talk about what is available at the public record, what is absent and how the information available affects the stories. >> thank you for the sunlight foundation are having this event. in the movie "all the president's men" the character known as deep throat tells carl woodward and bernstein to follow the money. even though it was not a line from the book, something a screen writer wrote, it became a rallying cry of generations of

your great uncle performed the wedding ceremony for me and my wife eliza in 1827 as well as mortica and i served on the town council in 1829. i reassured mr. lincoln he was in good hands in terms of politics. his great uncle gained many votes than i had. like many young men who came into congress at the time, we went in there with goals. each of us had a cherished goal we wanted to achieve in that congress. mine was the introductionf the homestead bill. we found it's not so easy to get your cherished goals accomplished. i would serve two more terms. mr. lincoln, that would be his only term in the house of representatives. at the beginning of the fourth term, i bought the house you've just seen. it's irony. those of us who live through our late, unhappy struggle felt were were ought up in the hands of fate of each of us, abraham lincoln and myself were 15 years in the future able to help the other achieve that earlier cherished goal. for my part, abraham lincoln signed the homestead bill into law in 1862 in . in 1864, i helped him game one state with abolition. you heard one of these wor

we have eliza newlin carney, staff writer for "roll call" and she covers lobbying and influence. and i have it on good authority that he coined the term super pac. >> that is correct. >> to my immediate left. pretty cool, by the way. paul ryan, fec program director and associate legal counsel at campaign legal center. all the way to my left is allen dickerson, interim director and -- center for competitive politics. more information is located -- and i am daniel schuman, policy council of the sunlight foundation and director of advisory committee on transparency. i have asked each panelist to talk about different aspects of super pacs and i will turn first to eliza newlin carney to talk about what is available at the public record, what is absent and how the information available affects the stories. >> thank you for the sunlight foundation are having this event. in the movie "all the president's men" the character known as deep throat tells carl woodward and bernstein to follow the money. even though it was not a line from the book, something a screen writer wrote, it became a r

and your great uncle mordecai in fact performed the wedding ceremony for me and my wife e eliza in 1827 as well as we bed on the town council together in 1829 and i reassured mr. lincoln that he was in good hands in terms of politics that his great uncle had gained a great many more votes than i had. but like many young men who came into congress at the time, we went in there with goals. and each of us had a cherished goal that we wanted to achieve in that congress. mine was the introduction of a homestead bill. for mr. lincoln, it was the introduction of legislation which would have provided for compensated emancipation of slaves in the district of columbia. and like other young men who go into congress, we find it is not so easy to get your cherished goals accomplished so we left that session of congress without those bills passed. i would serve two more terms. mr. lincoln, that would be his only term in the house of representatives. at the beginning of the fourth term, i bought the house you have just seen. it is irony, those of us who lived through our late unhappy struggle often fe

eliza manning and buller and. there were a number of other options of the military attack on afghanistan which could have been pursued as i and of the said at the time. the consequences that followed from from that are really present state including the rise of visual mist in various places so i'm afraid that i do think that the. united states has actually harmed its own security by its activities in the last ten years matthew if i go back to you in madison one of the interesting things is if you want to jump in there but i'd like to talk about the militarization of the american american economy because i had first. well i just want to pick up on what frank said because in this new document barack obama released he makes reference to the iraq and afghanistan wars and says they were necessary to provide stable governments and defend their strategic interests but they weren't wades to defend our strategic interest they weren't sold to the american people or the international community to defend our strategic interes

he discusses his insights with eliza carney covering of lobbying and influence. .. >> part of valid be to talk about the kind of things that most people suspect cahal but they don't know they don't get to go behind the doors and hear the conversations that i heard as a lobbyist for code to enable america to have a true assessment of what their government is in part had become. second, when my case became very public hearings and news articles, i started to collect them in a folder in my computer thinking it would not last long. i figured i would save all the articles. it became a ritual bedtime a went to prison never over 10,000 but yet to be cut is i did not speak might give a window into my life, i was an evil cartoon. i did not help myself to where that pact coming out of my plea in the course. but i had become of dylan. i wanted to show people i am not an evil person, i a regular person, but i don't have horns. i grew up like everybody else. said kids come alive, a family, is important to tell from my perspective what happened. >> host: it was shocked first coming to washington whe

. >> dretzin: take eliza. she's 20, a mechanical engineering major, and completely wired, all the time. >> is it going to stay in beta for as long as gmail stayed in beta? >> probably. >> a decade. >> probably. >> i have a few friends who, if they hear the word blackberry, they think of me. like, i am never off of it. it is glued to me. when it's more than arm's length from me, i start to get panicky. it's very disconcerting. are we gchat buddies? can i just... i'm always im-ing or texting or things like that. always checking my phone, taking care of other things while i'm doing something else. >> you are talking to your friend at the same time you're talking to another friend. at the same time, you're emailing another friend about what you're going to do tomorrow night. classes here aren't fun, man. we kind of understand that, too, between each other. we're all so busy that it's okay, if i'm talking to murph right now and his blackberry goes off and he has to start going on it. i'm like, well, that's okay bec

he discusses his insights with eliza newman carney, staff writer for "cq" and "roll call" covering lobbying and influence. >> host: the title of your book is "capitol punishment" the hard truth about washington corruption from america's most notorious lobbyist. a frank title for a frank book. in this book, you detailed events that not only reflect positively about you but lobbying abuses that led tier felony conviction and imprisonment. what prompted you to write this book? >> guest: two things. first i thought it was important that i present to the country and to the readers what really happened in washington. i have gone to quite a journey from the time i was a lobbyist until the time i landed in prison in terms of rethinking the world i was in and my role in it, and decided that while i was in prison, that i should take a different approach to this world and maybe try to do something about it. part of that would be to talk about it and talk about the kinds of things that most people kind of suspect but they don't really get to know because they don't get to go behind the doors into the r

i've asked each panelist to speak of different aspects of super pacs and going to first turn to eliza to talk about a little bit what's available in the public record, what's absent and how the information effects the stories that reporters can tell. >> thank you. thanks to the sunlight foundation for having this event. well, in the movie "all the president's men," the character known as deep throat tells bob woodward and bernstein to follow the money, and even though that was not actually a line from the book, that was something that a screenwriter wrote, it became a rallying cry for generations of people who care about transparency and accountability. i think it's fair to say it's more difficult now to follow the money than it might have been, and there are a number of reasons for that. the truth is, transparency has been eroding for some time now. it's not just because of the citizens united ruling. my own view is that the greatest threat to transparency if you could call it a threat is the increased activism and political engagement of nonprofit groups as i'm sure you guys know, t

the president is someone who understands the important role consumer finance plays eliza that the american. consumer financial products and services can help each of us achieve our trains. but what risks are not clear and peter had, they can make as much harder. we saw that the other day when we visited in alder lake coplan heard their story about predatory lending firsthand. predatory lending almost cost them their precious home of many years. because the president understands this, going up way back to his days of community organizing, hoping working-class families cope with struggles on the streets and neighborhoods of chicago, he has been a strong supporter of rules of the road that make the consumer financial system safer for all americans. we are now an independent federal agency. we are responsible by law to act in the public interest to protect american consumers in the financial marketplace. to do our job well, we will be reaching out and working with public officials from both sides of the aisle and every part of this country, including not only the president, but senators, repre

she and eliza hamilton, alexander hamilton's widow -- they brought these two old ladies who lived iner and they were on the podium. >> host: what year was that? >> guest: this was 1852, i think. >> host: next call for richard brookhiser talking about james madison comes from right here in washington. ernest, you're on the air. >> caller: am i talking to mr. brookhiser on tv. >> host: yes. >> caller: mr. brookhiser, i want to ask you one -- one question. during madison's state of time, tell me did madison take an oath of office and in turn allow -- [inaudible] >> caller: oath of office and then and what type oath of office did he take when he was a president. >> guest: oh, what sort of oath of office? >> caller: yeah, i want to know whether he took a pledge -- what's the difference between a pledge and the oath of office? >> guest: well, he took an oath. it's the form in the constitution. now, it does -- it does allow you to say -- most presidents -- maybe all of them said i swear. it does allow you to say affirm. they put that in there in case a quaker became president. and quakers c