>> senator feinstein, because the court decided them as they did. once the court has decided a case, it is binding precedent. i think that that's an enormously important principle of the legal system . that one defers to prior justices or prior judges who have decided something. and that it's not enough, even if you think something is wrong, to say, oh, well, that decision was wrong. they got it wrong. >> reporter: feinstein also raised the issue of abortion rights under the landmark decision roe versus wade and subsequent rulings. >> here's the question. do you believe the constitution requires that the health of the mother be protected in any statute restricting access to abortion ? >> senator feinstein, i do think that the continuing holding of roe and doe versus bolton is that women's life and women's health have to be protected in abortion regulations. >> reporter: herb kohl offered up the names of two current justices and tried to get kagan to say which came closer to her views. >> justice scalia considers himself to be an originalist who inte

i want to follow-up on the point that both senator feinstein and senator alexander make. and that is, that just reorganizing the mms does not deal with the essential issues of accountability and culture. senator tester was starting to get into those issues. i've read both the september 2008 i.g. report, and the report fr may of this year. and they both paint an absolutely appalling picture of an agency that is ripe with cronyism and corruption. the i.g. said back in september 2008, we're talking about very serious misconduct. my basic question is, are the employees who were cited for serious misconduct still workin for the department? you mentioned that in some cases there had been criminal charges brought. but are you confident? can you assure us that allf the agencies, employees that were cited for serious misconduct, such as taking gifts, negotiating employment while they were still working with the federal government have been removed from their positions? or otherwise sanctioned? >> the answer to that, is appropriate action has been taken. some of them have been term

thanks for the extra couple of minutes. >> senator feinstein.he reports as you indicated show that the chinese have been advancing the cyber activities, cruz and missiles. are we concerned? >> we are very concerned, mr. chairman. the growing capability of the chinese with anti-ship cruise and ballistic missiles is of a real concern for the navy and for us. the cyber capability is very important. the antisatellite capability and potential space denial capabilities are of concern to us. so there are a number of areas where the chinese modernization that are of concern and frankly this is one of the reasons why i think having a strategic dialogue to try to gain some understanding and have some frank talks about these concerns has merit. maybe the admiral would like to add a word. >> i'm sorry, i'm right there. increasingly concerned, it is increasingly opaque and these dialogues are absolutely critical to try to understand each other. each time at least from my perspective each time it gets turned off it gets turned off by the chinese and we will g

. >> reporter: california democrat dianne feinstein saw the issue of experience from a different perspective. >> the biggest criticism i've seen out there is that you've never been a judge. frankly, i find this refreshing. the roberts' court is the first supreme court in history to be comprised entirely of former federal courts of appeals judges. throughout the history of the court, over one third of the justices -- 38 out of 111-- have had no prior judicial experience. >> reporter: democrats also criticized the current court for overturning years of precedent. wisconsin's russ feingold pointed to this year's decision that wiped away limits on corporate and labor union spending in campaigns for president and congress. >> by acting in such an extreme and unjustified manner the court badly damaged its own integrity. by elevating the rights of corporations over the rights of the people, the court damageded our democracy. ms. kagan, if you are confirmed i hope you will keep this in mind. i hope you will tread carefully and consider the reputation of the court as a whole when evaluating whether t

thanks for the extra couple of minutes. >> senator feinstein.he reports as you indicated show that the chinese have been advancing the cyber activities, cruz and missiles. are we concerned? >> we are very concerned, mr. chairman. the growing capabilityf the chinese with anti-ship cruise and ballistic missiles is of a real concern for the ny and for us. the cyber capability is very important. the antisatellite capability and pooential space denial capabilities are ofoncern to us. so there are a number of areas where the chinese modernization that are of concern ad frankly this is one of the reasons why i think havi a strategic dialogue to try to gain some understanding and have some frank talks about these concerns has merit. mae the admiral would like to add a word. >> i'm sorry, i'm right there. increasingly concerned, it is increasingly opaque and these dialogues are absolutely critical to try to understand each other. each time at least from my perspective each time it gets turned off it gets turned off by the chinese and we will go through a

staff and others very imrtant contributions are made by reid, a senator mendez, tom harkin, senator feinsteinator cantwell. now all negotiations of course, areimply some say that one side or the other have a hard time excepting. this process is no different and as i mentioned before there are some things we could not accept. have made the offer on foreign-exchange swaps that presumes these contracts are regulated unless the secretary treasury makes a written determination they should not be regulated as structured to evade the act. we have listed criteria that the secretary of the treasury must consider to make the determination. many colleagues believe strongly this is a more responsible approach to regulating the market that is so large and complex. second the respect we reject the house proposal regarding cftc and the federal energy regulatory authority preserving language many colleagues believes it provides more clarity about the authority of these two agencies. third day we rejected the number was lower provisions some colleagues believe will weaken the cftc whistle-blower protection pr

senate judiciary lindsay gram and dianne feinstein talents chair of the senate intelligence economy, on fox news sunday former arkansas governor, mike huckabee. on face the nation on cbs. you'll hear host bob schieffer, and senate judiciary committee patrick leahy and host canny will talk to guests including texas senator john cornyn. he's chair of the senate oirl committee. and chair of the democratic campaign committee. jack reed. democrat frl road island. you can listen to all five of the sunday morning talk shows starting at noon eastern on c-span radio. that's 90.1 f.m. here in washington, d.c. and nationwide on xm satellite channel 132 and live on the web at c-span.org and you can also follow us on facebook and on twitter. >> c-span is now available in over 100 million homes, bringing you a direct link to public affairs, politics, history and non-fiction books all as a public service, created by america's companies. >> of course, the lotry is prescribed by law if demand outpaces supply, you have to do a lottery. >> i really think this is the civil rights issue of today, and it'

but like in california, even though i'm a republican, like dianne feinstein. she does not think like i do but i think she is a very, very good senator. barbara boxer, i don't. host: it is not about women, but their performance. thanks, shirley. shirley is a republican and a couple of people watching this suggest it is about the republican woman, such as this story in "the wall street journal." sharron angle in nevada and nikki haley and south carolina. san burgundy know, california. christian on our democrats line -- san bernadine know from california. caller: i am calling about barbara boxer. i think barbara boxer is a really good senator. the lady that is running against her, i think she broke hewlett- packard. she put too many jobs overseas and she really can't run this state. she wants to run that she can bring jobs but she took jobs overseas. how could she really bring jobs to this state? what does she stand for? host: christian in san berna dino. find same success in politics?" we had an earlier caller who have the same point of view. he writes -- of cou

senator murray is next, senator dorgan, senator feinstein, senator specter and senator bennett. that is the list in order mr. chairman. >> mr. chairman, if we could have another engagement. i am happy to go after him on that list. >> i was going to recognize senator leahy. senator leahy. >> thank you. secretary, admiral mullen, always good to see you and incidentally i appreciate the fact that both of you have always been available for questions by myself and other members of the committee. let me ask you a little bit about afghanistan. we all want to see al qaeda and taliban defeated but i worry about our clear, achievable goals there. i supported 10 years ago now going into afghanistan. i did not support going into iraq because i saw it is no threat to the united states. secretary, you said last january we weren't trying to make afghanistan and central asia's ohio love that right now we have top officials in kabul did not have the confidence or respect to the afghan people and they seem to be making common cause of a lot of people we are fighting. we have committed so much, so

dianne feinstein had a good conversation. lindsey graham as well on the legal war -- were on terror. there is some substance, but it is surrounded by platitudes that we have come to expect. host: it seems that yes today and there was more talk yesterday and the day before about thurgood marshall and "the roberts scored." depending on whether you are democrat or republican. democrat -- democrat spring of the roberts scored and -- why all this talk about justices? guest: democrats clearly want to make a point of comparing and contrasting this nominee with what the roberts court has done the past couple of years. there is a feeling that chief justice john roberts came before them in 2005 trying to get that seats and he said he would be a neutral umpire, and yet he voted conservatively in virtually every single case, especially in cases involving big business. that is something that bothers the democrats. republicans are trying to link elena kagan, some of them, to the very liberal views of thurgood marshall. which, she said that

issue pushed heavily by senator feinstein and elena kagan was involved in a lot of the political debates in the height house about what kind of done regulations for the importation of assault weapons they can get by congress. what the impact might be on the president's agenda and so forth. the supreme court hasn't said anything about the a right to assault weapon and machine guns or anything. the only thing they've said two years ago is there a rights in the district of colombia to have a handgun in one's home for personal protection. we don't know what she thought about that decision. but just to tie in what we'll learn today. the supreme court is likely to say if that applies nation wide as well as in the district of colombia. what she does think about the second amendment, those are the two clues and their very related to the constitutionle issue. we'll see a lot of questions about "this week in the d-league" week. host: next call. maryland. erik, republican, hi. caller: yes. i'm calling in about your lindsay graham comment. i think i take exception about elections result. republicans

representative, he ran for the senate against dianne feinstein, the of the democratic senator for california back in 2000. conservative on fiscal issues but more moderate on social issues. he had been running for governor. well, the governor's race got to be this huge big spending affair between a couple of very wealthy candidates and he felt like he could not compete there and switched over to the senate race. now carly fiorina is positioned between a moderate candidate and a conservative candidate. what she has done, appealed very strongly to the conservative base, which is pretty much the majority of almost every state republican primary, and it looks like she has boxed out devore on the issue and it has become a race between campbell and fiorina. it will be interesting to see what the impact of that is, the republican gubernatorial primary. meg whitman, the former ebay ceo, and the state insurance commissioner. host: one more question about the senate race. president obama went out to campaign for senator boxer twice this year. how the any of these republican senate candidates fare again

on cnn's they will have dianne feinstein and the alaska and senator and a connecticut independent joseph lieberman. you can listen to all five of the sunday morning talk show starting at noon eastern on cspan radio on90.1 fm. we are on the web at cspan radio.org and you can follows on facebook or twitter. >> he was a volatile, emotional, very complicated kind of the press of young man. he was very adventuress. when he was in america, he was 25. >> take a new look at alexis de top fell and his 1831 tour of america. abroad -- alexis de tocqueville and his 1831 tour america. fcc commissioner robert mcdowell talks about the use of public airwaves for emergency airwaves sunday night on c-span 2. tonight, vietnam veteran on the novel that took in 30 years to publish. "matt terhorn" follows the veterans of bravo company. we will have the author of more than 20 books for children. get our entire weekend schedule at book-tv.org. >> "washington journal"continue this. host: we have a policy director for the judicial crisis director to talk about the election of l.a. neck taken to the supreme court.

and others very important contributions are made by reid, a senator mendez, tom harkin, senator feinsteinsenator cantwell. now all negotiations of course, are simply some say that one side or the other have a hard time excepting. this process is no different and as i mentioned before there are some things we could not accept. have made the offer on foreign-exchange swaps that presumes these contracts are regulated unless the secretary treasury makes a written determination they should not be regulated as structured to evade the act. we have listed criteria that the secretary of the treasury must consider to make the determination. many colleagues believe strongly this is a more responsible approach to regulating the market that is so large and complex. second the respect we reject the house proposal regarding cftc and the federal energy regulatory authority preserving language many colleagues believes it provides more clarity about the authority of these two agencies. third day we rejected the number was lower provisions some colleagues believe will weaken the cftc whistle-blower protecti

important contributions were made by senator that read -- senator jack reed, senntor leahy, senator feinstein, senator cantwell. like in all negotiations, there are simply some things that one side or the other have a hard time accepting. this process is no different. as i mentioned before, there were some things that we just did not accept. for example, we are rejecting the -- we propose preserving the text which presumes these contracts are regulated as swaps, unless the secretary of the treasury makes a written determination that they should not be regulated as swaps and are not structured to evade the act. we have listed criteria and that the secretary of the treasury must consider in making this determination. many of our colleagues believe strongly that this is one of the more responsive -- a more responsible approach to regulating the market that is so large and so complex. secondly, we respectfully reject the house's proposal regarding cftc and the federal energy regulatory commission authority and preserving the language supported by senator bingaman, senator chambliss, and others. t

. >> thank you very much, senator feinstein. and i thank the senators for keeping under the time line. >> congratulations on your nomination. it's an extremely important appointment. obviously a real honor. i also welcome your family and friends, they're obviously proud of your nomination, and i'm glad they're here to support you. i'm committed to ensuring that this process is fair and respectful, but also thorough. the constitution tasks our senate with conducting a presencive review of nominee's record. consequently the senate has a tremendous responsibility to ensure that you trulynderstand the proper role of a justice and the supreme court and our system of government. we want to ensure that if confirmed, you'll be true to the constitution and the laws as written. we had a nice meeting in my office. you have an accomplished academic and policy background. you've excelled at princeton university, harvard law school. you were an oxford scholar, clerked on the d.c. circuit in the supreme court, you were a law professor at unive

representative, he ran for the senate against dianne feinstein, the of the democratic senator for lifornia back in 2000. conservative on fiscal issues but more moderate on social issues. he had been running for governor. well, the governor's race got to behis huge big spending affair between a couple of very wealthy candidates and he felt like he could not compete there and switched over to the senate race. now carly fiorina is positioned between a moderate candidate and a conservative candidate. what she has done, appealed ve strongly to the conservative base, which is pretty much the majority of almost every state republican primary, and it looks like she has boxed out devore on the issue and it has become a race between campbell and fiorina. it will be interesting to see what the impact of that is, the republican gubernatorial primary. meg whitman, the former ebay ceo, and the state insurance commissioner. host: one more question about the senate race. president obama went out to campaign for senator boxer twice this year. how the any of these republican senate candidates fare against s

i flew out with vice-president gore and senator feinstein. the water surrounded one town. they had volunteers coming from everywhere. we landed on this highway. we started walking up to the volunteers who were piling up sandbags on the levey. there was a big ditch. we were almost up there. one of the reporters came over and said, director, could you get a vice president down in that ditch and throw some sandbags for a photo op? i said, sir, they would like you to get down there and throw some sandbags. he said, ok. he said, i'm going to help you. t-bills doffed -- he bails off ditch.he san the secret security guys were going crazy. he said, what was the matter with the secret service? i said, well, i just found out all those guys are convicts down in the ditch. [laughter] guyaid, that's why that asked me for a pardon. [laughter] it was so funny. there was a lot of times like that, that humor helped you get through some of those tough times. we had a lot of those moments. i cannot ever thank president clinton enough for what he did for us and our family. i have to tell you

memo recommending that he support the substitutes for the ban being offered by senators daschle and feinstein. she recommended that solely for political reasons because it might attract some votes from senators who would otherwise vote to override his veto. had that strategy worked, of course, the substitutes would not have passed and partial-birth abortions birth abortion would have remained legal. the barbaric practice of partial birth abortion would have remained legal. significantly, however, ms. kagan noted that the office of legal counsel had concluded that these substitute amendments were unconstitutional under the supreme court's roe v. wade decision. there is no indication that she disagreed with this conclusion. the point is that ms. kagan urged that purely political position on abortion that was at odds with what the clinton administration then believed the constitution required. once again it looks like politics trumped the law. another controversy involved the military's ability to recruit at harvard law school during ms. kagan's tenure as a dean. ms. kagan made her personal view