as i said, louis brandeis was senior prestige among the president views and was regarded by fdr with such respect that roosevelt referred to him as isaiah as the old testament prophet. no wonder american jews look upon them as a potential ally in the struggle to get roosevelt to check the excess. but as it turned out, brandeis was reluctant to act. indeed he sometimes used his influence not on roosevelt put on the issues urging them to let the president be. an early exit came in 1933 when in the midst of the permanent jews here in america were planning a visit to roosevelt to protest and the nazi tactics but they were advised, quote, florence cord, the name of the residence used as a kind of code word for brandeis himself counseled against the idea so the visit was scrapped. brandeis misgivings although he never explained them were selected from his own life experience of being shunned as he was in boston when he first began to crack the law and by the anti-semitism that emerged when he was nominated for the high court by wilson in 1960. brandeis' wasn't reluctant for social and econ

fdr took no action but the jews following rosenman's prompting laid off.five years and kristallnacht which i imagine was one of the great horrors perpetrated, rosenman without being asked sent roosevelt a memo urging him not to make any change in immigration laws to permit jews to come in. he said any such move, any such move in such traction would produce quote a jewish problem, i'm quote. exactly what that meant i don't know but i suspected the worst. as for benjamin cohen, fortune called them a really and other worldly young council. carl was often asked by jews outside of the government circles to pressure fdr in one way or another and he refused to do it. he didn't discourage them from doing it himself but he said he wouldn't do it because there was no point in trying to ask fdr to do something he was not interested in doing and he did not want to. carl was not a zionist. he was an anti-nazi. carl devoted himself to helping britain was at that time was in 1940 and was the only country in the field against germany. he conceived a plan -- might didn't c

fdr put nine justices on the court but this book is about four. so tell me what makes them super justices as opposed to the others. >> guest: these are great people, great men and also great justices, and what makes them great justices is the last thing, a major impact on the constitution as we know it. they were hugely important decisions but they did more than that. they defied new ways of thinking that the constitution that today dominates the field of constitutional fought. so if you ask the justice to the what was your constitutional philosophy they may think it's my philosophy but they are expressing a philosophy first stated by one of those four men. they are also great men in the good old-fashioned sense of the term that they had huge personalities but they were deeply ambitious, that they participated in a world events and world affairs not just on the supreme court but before they went on the supreme court and in some cases taking leaves of absence when they were on the supreme court. so in that since the matter. they were household name

what does that say about fdr although he was very involved what does that say? he was called a contemporary the traitor to his class they think it was meant the ada he wanted to restrict wall street and wanted to raise taxes when his contemporaries were rich, that is to but there is more to it than that where roosevelt was most comfortable not from those from boarding schools and fancy colleges but with people who are more colorful, interesting, and frankly very often completely self made. probably the most delete young person in america, his cousin had been president, mary eleanor and had done to all the right schools never working today in his life. why did he choose these people? during the depression all four stood up and actively took on wall street. that is something that impressed roosevelt. explained reversed weekend road to the sec that had the first modern regulatory system as we know it and hugo black subpoenaed said telegram which was the email of the day of everybody who had sent any telegram to washington d.c. in the hopes of finding embarrassing m

he has a mix of fdr and jfk.know, jfk was quite a sold out cold meant anyway. >> host: given the tumultuous events of the last few years. transit you can, but the focus has been on the candidates for the midterm election. and i think once that's over and people see just how difficult the problems of money and foreclosure, and they see congress wrestling with that, whether it's under new supervision or not, the stature of the president will be seen as something, somewhat, some one side or connecting president obama's calls are not really bad. they are higher than president reagan's. so i have great confidence in his ability to lead this country and be a 13th. >> host: unlucky number. what do you think the impact, not on american politics. >> guest: i'm not sure what to say on the air. i think my father was editor in chief of the london times, and rupert murdoch rescued the tim times, and thanks to the trade unions in great britain, so innocents did a great service, but then proved to be i think a really awful news

fdr is a fascist trying to start another war; right? the soviets -- don't send aid to britain, and meanwhile britain is dying because of hitler. that's the position they took. they picketed outside the white house. "washington post" covered it. one of the leaders was fred field of the vanderbilt fortune interviewed in an article. congress never mentioned it once of the he was a communist and picketing outside of the white house, and this is so incredible. on june 22nd, 1941, june 22, 1941 -- and i have the "new york times" article that describes this. they put down the pickets and chanted a pro-war chant and went home. anybody know what happened then? the soviet union was invaded by hitler's germany. they betrayed the pact on a dime overnight. the people in the american peace mobilization became prowar, and they changed so cynical. they changed it from american peace mobilization to the american people's mobilization. they didn't even change the accommodated hitler cro anymore. they kept that apm and pushed for lend lease, united states

fdr is a fascist. fdr is trying to start another war. the soviets -- don't send aid to britain. meanwhile, britain is dying because of hitler's blitzkrieg. that's the position they took. they picketed outside of white house. all kinds of news. one of the leaders was afraid field of the vanderbilt fortune who was interviewed and one of the articles. communism was never mentioned once. he was a communist. they are picketing outside the white house, this is so incredible. on june 22, 1941, june 22, and had a new times article that describes this, they put down their pickets and they started chanting april war chant and went home to anybody know how much into a second, making 41? the soviet union was invaded by hitler's germany. hitler and the germans betrayed the hitler-stalin pact. on a dime overnight, the people in the peace mobilization became pro-war. anand a change was a cynical big change the name from an american peace mobilization to the american people's mobilization. they didn't even change the acronym. they kept the acronym, 8 p.m. come and bass pushing vigorous vigorous

they attacked fdr's new deal. the documents and archives on this are stunning. almost as if the boys wanted to report to the boys back in moscow that what they're doing attacking liberal -- in the 1920 presidential election. this is from the united communist party. don't vote. strike. boycott this election. overthrow the capitalist government. established the soviet government. not just another political party. and not just another political party. when you strike the police beat you, soldiers shoot you. that is what the capitalist government is for. the united communist party is the only party -- boycott this election. don't vote, strike. an official proclamation from the united communist party, stand bar soviet russia. boycott the election. woodrow wilson's attorney general to their portraying as an indian. that is what they thought of progressives. liberals, communists are not your friends, quit defending these guys. the anti-communist or write. here they are in 1933. protesting the roosevelt administration. putting together a march. demonstrate against hunge

fdr died, and truman took office and saw through the war which america was going to win by that point, but there was uncertainty over who this man was, and when he was forced to kind of, you know, run on his own, not himself, but the democrats to run without fdr as their leader, and without the war on, they did very badly in 1946. now, truman had a choice there. he could have sort of gone with the republican agenda and there were some people in his own party, william fullbright of arkansas suggested truman should resign and appoint a secretary of state that the 46th election was a referendum and truman had lost and he should turn over power to the republicans. other people, liberals,mented him to -- wanted him to fight harder. what he did, i think, was very instructive. he reached out to achieve bipartisanship, but not of a scweeshy sen tryst, let's meet the republicans halfway. on certain issues, particularly domestic issues, his fair deal, program of economic well being to extend fdr's new deal, he really helped that. he stood his ground and fought, and in some cases the republican

fdr and the other people had a hard time passing social security. and they came up with a very shrewd rationale. and that is that this is an insurance program that people have a sense of ownership for. and that has kept it alive in the face of really determined enemies over 75 years. now their saying, social security is on the table. it's on the table with amt and estate tax and whether or not the bush tax cuts cutoff is going to be $250,000 or $1 million, and it's on there with expensing of business appreciation -- depreciation. in other words, it's just another bargaining chip. well, if social security becomes just another bargaining chip, it's going to go away in no time at all. the political rationale, the support for it will unravel quickly. >> you told talking points memo of your concerns about social security and you said that they fell on deaf ears at the white house or were completely ignored. what history are you saying that mr. obama needs to know here and which advisers are you talking about? >> well, with no one in particular, i guess,

and maybe -- fdr, tiahrt, fdr and lyndon johnson.hat happened in alaska? how were you able to succeed so wildly up there in the conservation field? >> guest: well, first of all that took me four years to do it, almost four years, and i practically memorized the map of alaska. and about halfway through, i saw that we were not going to get any support from the to alaska senators, one a democrat, and the alaska members of the house of representatives as one. so my secretary of interior came up with a idea of using a bill that passed the congress in the area of the 1900's, i think 1907. it was called -- it was designed to save monuments, and highly valuable things for the future that should be preserved and gave the president almost unilateral right to do so. we used that legislation on large areas of land to desiccate them as national monuments to be preserved and it's nothing the congress could do to override my decisions and eventually the amount of land we set aside as national monuments in alaska and other places was as large as the

let's talk about fdr.from a newspaper advertisement. >> a newspaper advertisement for suits. they tried to say, oh, it came from some poetry. it was not only -- it was not only a good line. it was not only something people remembered. but it was action. he was trying to stop a bank panic. he said, don't be afraid. put your money back in the banks. when a president gives a great speech like that. it's not only poetry. but it's action and where policy and presidential personality all come back together. >> and you say lincoln is our greatest writer as president. people debate, second inaugural, gettysburg address. i would vote for the gettysburg address. but what's remarkable in some ways, is lincoln, you write in the book, after the speech, was despondent about it. >> he thought people weren't listening. and in those days, speeches were about to be about an hour long. and his was a few minutes. the audience didn't realize he was finished. we have a tape who was a gentleman, as a young child, right in front

fdr famously disabled but he hid it from the public. he dis his polio.want to be president? how long will it be before someone with a visible disability can convince the people he is confident to be president? >> i think the key is that we have to do and be what is on my jacket here. we have to be love. if we look at life in the spirit of it being for the good of everyone, then we can move forward. why not have a person who has a physical disability? why not? as long as it does not affect their mind. i think the mindset has to be really that we want to have greatness for our nation. we want to have a president that is about a united people of the united states of america. listen, united we stand and divided we fall. it is that simple. tavis: you are such an iconic artist around the world. what does it mean when this person running for president, barack obama chooses your song as his theme song? they are huge stevie wonder fans. they chose your song to assure themselves into this historical win. what does that feel like? does that mean anything to you? >>

in 1940, fdr was president with 132 million people living in 48 states. by 1960, with eisenhower in the white house, baby-boomers had surged the population to 179 million. when reagan was elected in 1980, there were 226 million of us. 281 million by 2000. and 308 million today, bigger than ever but the slowest growth rate in 60 years. tom costello, nbc news, washington. >>> to something a bit more basic. the weather, especially we go to southern california now, day six of the torrential rain that's turned huge areas into a flooded dangerous mess. our own miguel almaguer is in l.a. for us. good evening. >> reporter: brian, good evening. river banks across california are on the rise and here in los angeles the l.a. river which snakes through so much of the city is also on the rise. earlier today, water threatened lives. now it's threatening homeless. raging waters and flash flooding in orange county four hikers were rescued after being trapped and in orange county, four hikers were rescued after they were trapped by a swollen creek overnight. >> they're col

that herbert crowely's ewe toppian intellectual vision might be more a source of our problems than fdr's more practical new deal for instance. since then, i think it's become clearer to us how much of our politics, how much of our daily politics spins out of the tension between progressive nationalist's vision of a rain of experts, and the democratic decentrallist vision of the framework of the american constitution. such arguments were once of interest only to a handful of intujt chiewls -- intellectuals, but now they are on our news networks and brochures are in the pockets of our nation's tea party's rallies. it is to be beaten in this next p round. in the summer of 1994, lamar alexander traveled across the country spending time with dozens of neighborhood leaders addressing our social ills. they reflected common sense and traditional moral and spiritual principles of the american people rather than the elitist doctrines of the professionals expertise. in the book, we know what to do, mr. alexander described his visits to pastor henry's school for low income school in savannah, and th

fdr was no longer a fascist. now they could be cp-usa could be pro-american, right? because now america would be allied with stalin. so it was really a great day for them. "the new york times"' article on the subject is titled, "clergymen group opposes war aid." that's the american peace mobilization, clergymen group. the communists would show up to say blessed are the peacemakers, all right? their blowing up -- they're blowing up churches and people especially on the religious left, the great book i said was there a particular group that was duped more than any other, and he said, yes, progressive pastors. they're the biggest suckers of them all. and the american peace mobilization is a good example of that. yeah. go ahead. oh, he needed a microphone. >> al milliken, am media. in your analysis, how effective as propaganda do you see the way hollywood through films have picked the communist influence particularly, i depress, in the u.s.? >> yeah, great question, it's scandalous. it's horrible. it's absolutely horrible. and i would say that hollywood, they are still d

think about what fdr did in 1940, still coming out of the depression. about. he mobilized the economy in a fantastic way. he brought in ceos. obama could do something similar like that. he gave much bigger appreciation, tax credits to business and they came through to produce to ship the tanks and the weapons. if he were to go for alternative energy in a bigger way than he has and get these ceos to say what kind of tax credits do you need to keep jobs in the country? there's a way to make america competitive in the world again, number one economically. >> and you have the war -- >> you have to create that -- >> let me get a break in here and we'll come back and talk about the challenges ahead. spend i spending, the war in afghanistan, and the political landscape, already taking shape for 2012. ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] some people just know how to build things well. give you and your loved ones an expertly engineered mercedes-benz... ho ho ho! [ male announcer ] ...at the winter event going on now. and stay connected with three years of mbrace service co

you've named some giants, the hitlers, the fdrs. to your point, he's in a business when the next thing comes along, you're dead. do you think this could possibly be one of those what we were thinking in that moment covers, given that? >> i think he's making an interesting bet, and once upon a time when the internet was young, we thought we could hide our identity. i think that's changing how we use the internet and how we relate to each other. our sense of privacy and intimacy. i think that is almost a world historical shift that he is skating on. >> rick stingle, thank you. >>> when we come back here after a break, wait till you hear what michael vick said today about the one thing he really wants this season. [scraping] [piano keys banging] [scraping] [horns honking] with deposits in your engine, it can feel like something's holding your car back. let me guess, 16. [laughing] yeeah. that's why there's castrol gtx... with our most powerful deposit fighting ingredient ever. castrol gtx exceeds the toughest new industry standard. don

i mean, think about what fdr did in 1940. we were still coming out of the depression.war in europe to worry about but he mobilized the economy in a fantastic way. he brought in ceos to run his production agencies. i think obama could do something similar like that. he gave much bigger appreciation, deceleration, tax credits to business. and they came through to produce the ships, the tanks, and the weapons. right now if he were to go for alternative energy in a bigger way than he has, if he would get these ceos saying what kind of tax credits do you need to keep jobs here in this country, there is a way of making america competitive in the world again, number one economically. >> but he had that war. >> of course. >> that was the engine that drove it economically. >> you can't believe that's all it has to be. >> maybe that's the answer. >> let me get a break. we'll come back and talk specifically about some of the challenges ahead. spending, the war in afghanistan, and the political landscape which is already taking shape for 2012. more from our round table right after

fdr, in the years leading up to world war ii, congress passed a series of neutrality acts. i am only picking presidents that most people think our great presidents. . am not trend to convince you [laughter] the neutrality acts before world war ii made it legal for the u.s. to assist any of the parties in the fighting. these are famous cases to justice department people that president roosevelt started sending airplanes, destroyers to britain. he was asked are you not directly violating the neutrality act? he would say, those destroyers are so old, we just do not need them anymore. they are obsolete. he called them over-aged. and then he ordered the military, the navy to start deploying on boys to attack german submarines. those were in violation of neutrality acts. and all of these cases, i am glad that result, lincoln, jefferson, did what they did -- i think they did it in the best interest of the country. they did not good to grasp power. it was better for the country that they did what they did. and i wish they had done it earlier in all the circumstances. the last point

his theory came along too late to be much use to fdr. the general theory was published in 1937 while the new deal was in place by 1936. fdr discovered it was possible to build a long-running electoral coalition on the basis of public spending. this was a political but not an economic inside. it suggests how they would eventually evolve with mutual reinforcement. with politicians pressing for it for a different set of reasons. this is generally what has happened. it is music to and it was music to a politician's years to tell him he could spend money and pilot public debt and win votes of what purpose of growth and prosperity. -- for the purpose of growth and prosperity. keynes's theory came into its own in the postwar period. it guided labor governments in great britain during the 1960's and 1970's. kennedy's tax cuts represented an application of keynesian doctrine. keynes's there is remain influential. as we see from your daily demands from paul krugman and others for more stimulus to counter act of the slump. the government has a ball

his theory came along too late to be much use to fdr. the general theory was published in 1937 while the new deal was in place by 1936. fdr discovered it was possible to build a long-running electoral coalition on the basis of public spending. this was a political but not an economic inside. it suggests how they would eventually evolve with mutual reinforcement. with politicians pressing for it for a different set of reasons. this is generally what has happened. it is music to and it was music to a politician's years to tell him he could spend money and pilot public debt and win votes of what purpose of growth and prosperity. -- for the purpose of growth and prosperity. keynes's theory came into its own in the postwar period. it guided labor governments in great britain during the 1960's and 1970's. kennedy's tax cuts represented an application of keynesian doctrine. keynes's there is remain influential. as we see from your daily demands from paul krugman and others for more stimulus to counter act of the slump. the government has a ball

no president since fdr has been elected or re-elected when the unemployment rate was over 8%. wrong track figures are very bad for him, 2 to 1 in another poll i saw, believing the country is on the wrong track. and more broadly, i think he is losing some support from liberals in his coalition. he doesn't seem to be gaining support from independents as a result of this tax cut compromise. it's still unclear how things are go toing proceed going forward. >> richard wolffe, the tax cut compromise seems to be playing well in the polls. 59% overall approve of the tax cut compromise. 54% of democrats supporting it. 60% of independents support it, not surprisingly, 68% of republicans support it, since it is a tax cut compromise. >> they say it's about the economy first and economic needs, especially for the long-term unemployed, but also they're thinking strategically about where this places the president moving forward. yes the polls matter, but we're two years from the president needing to worry that intently about the numbers here. but strategically, it puts him in the middle. whe

fdr? anybody like that? >> no. >> this is the first time that you have seen.ou think is he a hard core true believer, big s word. >> socialist, absolutely. not in the communist sense but in the sense of french socialist, british labor party, norwegian scanned nafn socialist, yes. >> check it out on dick morris.com. why are media operations sympathizing with the wikileaks guy? >> we really owe a debt to mr. assange and to wikileaks. >> those accusations against assange in some cases are unfair. >> bill: all right.ç@ >> bill: impact segment tonight. jaj remains in custody while british extradite him on rape charges. the wikileaks situation is being debated. people like michael moore and ron paul political opposites who think the secret u.s. documents should be made available to the public. also, there are media people who outright sympathize with assange. >> our job is to publish and be damned, howard, that's what we have done. those accusations against assange in some cases are unfair. >> we really owe a debt to mr. assange and wikileaks for turning on a big sp

it takes us to fdr, takes us to social security, medicare, medicaid. all the '40s, '50'60s generational changes we made. the republicans want to get rid of that. that's what this is. this tax compromise, that's what they want to call it, it's a cave-in, this could be the beginning of the end of entitlements as we know it. because this is what the republicans have wanted all along. now, if they can get al franken from minnesota, i tell you what, they can get anybody. al comes back and talks about how it's going to help the economy and struggling families and all that kind of stuff. let me tell you something. if our economy, if we as a country can't pay our bills, if this fails, we're not going to be talking about helping a few americans. we're going to be talking about helping multimillion numbers of americans. because that's how many americans are going to be in despair. to stand up and say, it's time to pay the bar tab, just tell me, when are we going to do that? yes, i'm fired up about this. i do have grandkids. and i do believe that we are screwing

this is why fdr when he started social security, it only affected widows and orphans. you did not qualify. and yet now, it is something that really helps many people. when medicare was started, it was a small program. it grew. under the criteria that you just set out, each of those were the trails of some abstract ideal. this country was founded on compromise. i could not go through the front door of this without compromise. if we were thinking about ideal positions, we would not have a union. my job is to make sure that we have a north star. what is helping the american people live out their lives? what is giving them more opportunities? was growing the economy? was making us more competitive? there will be times when my preferred option, what i am positive is right, i can't get done. does it make sense for me to tack one way or another because i keep my eye on a long term and long fight, not my day to day news. cycle i don't think there is a single democrat out there if they look at where we started when i came into office and look at where we are now would say that

last two years the congress and the president passed more legislation than any other congress since fdr. so what the problem is that there are very serious differences of opinion in the congress, which basically mirror the basic difference of opinion between the public at large. the real problem is what's going on with the tax deal and everything else is the economy is so bad. when the economy is bad, people get very upset with the process. the reason why so many people are upset with the governor, the mayor, is when you have a situation where we have the incredible unemployment, underemployed. people working jobs they don't want. people afraid of losing their homes, they are angry. they have a the right to be angry. and that's where it shows. i am absolutely convinced, and i know this isn't conventional wisdom, nothing will help this pros move forward that when the economy gets better, americans feel better about themselves and their country and members of congress can do more negotiations. >> people want to feel safe and secure. no doubt about it. >> they want a place to live. they wa

feldman talks about his book scorpions, the battles and triumphs of fdr's supreme court justices with the senior editor and supreme court reporter for slate. that is all tonight, prime time on booktv. ..

and so, against the advice of martial and eisenhower right when fdr make the decision that we're going to north africa, makes the end of july 1942. he said that franklin d. roosevelt, commander-in-chief, lest there be any doubt once his authority to rice rise. eisenhower right is the blackest day in history, which is a ridiculous overstatement given the blackness of other days. but what marshall certainly recognizes as the mediterranean because they sound. once you're there, it's hard to get out. so, the strategic decision to go there, which i think they allow to send house collateral strategic decisions, which involves i'm going to sicily and southern italy and so on. because there is now shifting to get that half-million man force that is a north africa at the end of the tunisia campaign back to britain in stagecraft in this channel or go anywhere else. we don't have the wherewithal to do it. so my feeling is that italy becomes increasingly, strategically untenable. there's not a real good understanding by anyone of why it can particularly once we captured the air fields in southern

his heroes, lincoln, fdr, would he have risen to such an occasion, i think he would have. april 1995, 4 days after oklahoma city bill clinton gave a magnificent speech at the oklahoma state fair arena. the speech comforted not just the families of the dead, but the nation as a whole. help the country makes sense of the tragedy and give it the resolve to fight the kind of terrorism. at a speech after the midterm losses in 1994, but he never did have to deal with a sustained time of crisis. we'll never really know what he would have done. the second obstacle is that you just can't get around the sec's. i worked on this book for five years. while i was working on it the question, what you do. of course i would answer the question and tell them about the book. the follow-up question was always, what if you see monica lewinsky anyway? who is the sleeping with now? it was never, while, what a great job he did getting rid of the deficit or he stuck it to milosevich or he scored the middle-class on nafta or really blew it on health care. bill clinton for all his accomplishments, t

by noon the president has been transformed to a little bit of harry truman a doll low pressure of fdrnd flashes of john kennedy. >> i saw it in government. the tendency to play the game of up-down, weak-strong that's the narrative of these arguments. they exaggerated the president's weaknesses certain way, the president, particularly in one or both houses of congress isn't irrelevant. he has significant role in this. exaggerated the upside or the upside now as well. this is a case where the president is going to face a whole new world in this coming year. there are at least 42 hard fiscal conservatives in the senate that are going to control a lot. the new house leadership, he's going to face a different world. >> brown: and all had earmarks. couldn't resist. i know fiscal condeserve civil to open the definition. say tune. thanks so much. and happy holidays. >> thank you. >> warner: finally tonight, a second look at one of history's great composers and his winning investment strategies. our economics correspondent paul solman spends much of the year trying to make sense of the current

he will be on that short list with fdr. what happened?how are you able to succeed so wildly up there in the conservation field? >> guest: first of all, it took me four years to do. about halfway through i saw the we were not going to get any support from the to alaskan senators, one a democrat and the member of the house. so my secretary of interior came up with an idea of using a bill that passed the congress and the early 1900's. at think 1907. it was designed to save monuments. highly valuable things to the future that should be preserved. gave the president almost unilateral right to do so. we use that legislation on large areas of land to designate them as precious monuments to be preserved. there was nothing that the congress to do to override my decisions. eventually the amount of land that we set aside as national monuments in alaska was large. i have that the use. >> host: would you actually have a map to really start learning? >> guest: absolutely. i did. the house of representatives, the very famous house member who was my part