host: fred thompson, your response?st: the president has a lot of nerve talking about pandering to his face. that is how he spent a lot of his time. it is no accident he is keeping this arizona immigration issue alive by having these meetings, making statements, having the attorney-general apparently filed a lawsuit. they are doing their best to keep that in flames and alive. in terms of bipartisanship, the problems that some of the republicans had in that meeting was, this had just follow the passage of the financial reform bill. bob corker and others had tried to work on anbar partisan basis. they made progress, were having meetings, reached agreement. then christopher dodd comes in and he has gotten word from the white house that they want their bill now. they do not want any republican input in it because it would compromise the issues. so they forced it through committee and passed it, basically with democratic votes and a handful of republicans. it was in the aftermath of that where the president says now we need

live at 7:00 eastern and we will look at the oil spill in the gulf of mexico and speak to senator fred thompson. the coast guard and management service are conducting a joint investigation into the oil spill that began with an explosion and the destruction of the deepwater horizon offshore drilling rig. the public hearing continues this morning in new orleans. investigators will hear from survivors of the accident in relation to the oil rig's condition. live coverage is on c-span 3 at 9:00 eastern. the house continues work today on the bill that covers defense programs including weapons systems, the troupe surge in afghanistan, and pay for service members. amendments approved last night to repeal the "don't ask,"don't, policy that prevents gays in the military. was voted to repeal this. this part of the house debate is more than half an hour. >> i think the chairman for yielding. i want to thank the chairman who is one of the giant on behalf of national security, military defense, quality of life for our troops, for decades has been one of the outstanding spokespersons for making sure that we h

caller: good morning, yesterday it was interesting to see, i believe it was fred thompson, the former senator from tennessee. host: yes, on "washington journal," on friday. caller: yes, apparently the tv show he's on has been canceled. and fortunately for mr. thompson being in government for 10 years, he is probably going to be getting a full-pension with full benefits. perhaps this gentleman can el elucid the fringe benefits for people in congress for a short time. and if we could mention the trillions of dollars we are losing because our companies are offshore. say for example that halliburton is in dubai, they have people in houston but do not pay taxes. guest: it's true, the federal workers in general get an unbelievably sweet deal and that extends to congress and the president. the average federal worker makes twice what the private sector worker makes. and i think frankly that is out of whack and totally not defensible. and that's just the benefits and not the pension. host: back to pensions, you wrote about state and government, and do you see a day of reckoning for federal? gu

and fred thompson will join us, to talk about his memoir. this is live on c-span, every day, at 7:30 eastern. >> of the coast guard and minerals management service are conducting an investigation into this bill in the gulf of mexico. this begins with the destruction of the deep water horizon drilling rig. this will continue near new orleans. investigators will hear about the position and the qualifications and emergency preparedness. live coverage begins at 9:00 eastern. president obama says that the federal government is in charge of dealing with the oil spill in the gulf of mexico. he spoke with reporters about the offshore drilling regulations for a little bit more than one hour. >> good afternoon, everyone. before i take your questions, i want to update the american people on the status of the oil spill. this is causing tremendous hardships in the gulf coast, damaging the precious ecosystem. and it led to the death of many workers who died in the explosion. we have the approval to move forward with the procedure to try to stop this. and