jerry falwell was opposition. the rise of the new record of this would matter less with a candidate there be to articulate the concerns and also when office. and of course we have that as well. and that is ronald reagan. during the third time that i am dealing with, ronald reagan will start to take the lead in the republican party primary. he will start to kind of pull ahead, pull ahead of a number of contenders. most famously essentially chasing to decide john connally and philip crane. it's also during this time that he starts to perfect his own kind of right wing populism, as we have come to know today. he gives a famous speech in which he says the republican party is not the party of the country clubs, the republican party is the party of mainstream, the small guy at the guy, kind of almost the fdr's forgotten antigone also pioneered his attack on government arguing that if we simply deregulate oil production there would be an abundance of oil in the united states in an abundance of cheap oil there is a lot of

he criticized how sometimes a harvard audience had booed and hissed jerry falwell.s critical of that and then he criticized those on the other side who questioned the patriotism of americans who questioned american foreign policy. he was saying we have to come with our moral convictions, but let's not attack the moral character of those who disagree with us. it was his way of reaching across divides, which, as we heard, he's been doing in the senate for years, but even there at liberty he did it once again with jerry falwell. >> would you describe senator kennedy privately as a devout catholic? he made reference to his mother and that was one of the great gifts she gave to the children, and that was the faith in god, and it seems to have left a strong impression on the senator. >> you know, you remember after the 2004 elections, the media narrative was that the democrats had lost the moral values voters. remember that big story? and the first democrat who called me was ted kennedy, and he invited me over to the house, and he and vicki and i had a long conversation i

the obama administration brief contained some very jerry falwell like language stating not only that defense of marriage act was constitutional but that consensual, same sex marriage between two adults was legally comparable to the marriage of an uncle to his niece or to underage marriage. nice. well, today the justice department filed another brief. again, defending doma because the administration says it's standard practice for the department to defend all federal laws, even the ones it doesn't agree with. but this time there has been a remarkable change in tone. quote, this administration does not support doma as a matter of policy, believes it is discriminatory and supports its repeal. oh, nothing about the uncle. huh. in conjunction with this tone shift from the justice department president obama also released a statement today saying, quote, this brief makes clear that my administration believes that the act is discriminatory and should be repealed by congress. i have long held that doma prevents lgbt couples from being granted equal rights and benefits. if only we had some sor

he presented a book signed by his mother to jerry falwell and then he gave a speech with thousands of people. every network was there. every major political reporter was there. it was an incredible evening. you can see a major portion of the speed on youtube. high-growth a column for "the washington post." the importance of that night was missed. we could talk a lot about kennedy's politics. as the man, we do not know each other across the labels that we put on each other, republican, democrat, left, right. we call people names. a lot of this is a result of fund raising and people who make money out of dividing us. kennedy was not like that in his personal relationships. he made a lot of bad policy decisions in my judgment. on a personal level, i do not know a liberal of the democratic party was better at schmoozing people on the other side to get what he wanted. martha: major garrett is reporting now that the kennedy compound in hyannis port will be converted into an educational center and museum has attributive senator kennedy. it is not entirely clear if it will be the entire compo

. >> i was the vice president of jerry falwell's organization at the time.accidentally sent him a moral majority membership card. i ask -- ask if they could get the membership card back -- they ask if they could get the card back, but he wanted to visit the school. it was an incredible evening in 1983. it was the day of the martin luther king national holiday debate. i was in the gallery for that, he was squaring off against jesse helms. we got on the private plane and flew down there. there must have been 5000 people in all, all the networks and newspapers sent their top political reporters. neither one of us compromised our values. we have learned that in washington friendship should transcend politics. many people hate people in this town because of political positions, but ted was better than anyone -- as said by many people prior to my appearance today here -- i am reaching across the aisle. he never compromised his principles, but he was able to prince of -- compromise to advance his agenda. consumers could learn a lot from him -- conservatives to burn

. >> the late jerry falwell said it. there's a silent majority. we don't know where that lies right now. >> let's talk about the chesapeake bay bridge because it's been a year now since the deadly crash on the bridge that sent a tractor-trailer plunging into the waters of the bay. this past week, aaa renewed a call for the state to halt two-way traffic on the twin spans during peak hours. is aaa overreacting? is it legitimate to ask why there's even two-way traffic on the bridge? >> i don't think aaa is overreacting at all. they even have a program on the bay bridge where if you're afraid to drive across the bridge, what, $5 or $10 you can get someone to drive your car across. that is really intimidation, to drive across the bridge. a lot of people can stand heights. a lot of people don't mind driving a cross a bridge. but what aaa is saying here is that the oncoming traffic can be intimidating so there need to be -- maybe concrete divide to, you know, to distinguish what is east/west traffic. >> they're reluctant to stop it because they say the v

her decisions falwell within the mainstream of our jurisprudence. >> i am very, very concerned abouty that i have to vote negatively. >> i would hope that senators would be wise enough themselves to look at judge sotomayor's long record on the bench and not on one line in one speech. >> i have determined that judge sotomayor meets the criteria to become a justice of the supreme court. >> i also found her evasive and contradictory in her answers. on several issues, ranging from judicial temperament to her emfa must wise la tee know speeches, she experienced confirmation conversions. >> my hope is that judge sotomayor will help bring balance to a supreme court that today is way out of balance and has moved very far to the right. >> unfortunately, judge sotomayor's speeches and writings over the years reveal a judicial philosophy that highlights the importance of personal preferences and beliefs in her judicial method. >> as a supreme court justice, judge sotomayor would bring to bear her rich and varied real world experience. >> i invite my conservative colleagues to take a leap of fai