john brennan's association with the torture and secret prison program of the george bush era of the cia is what sunk his chances for being picked as director of the cia at the start of the obama presidency. it's kind of weird. it's almost a foreign concept in american modern politics that the left might block something from happening, but it's true. liberals thought obama stopping the torture program wasn't enough. that people tarred by association with that program should not be promoted, that there should be political accountability for people who were close to the torture policy. liberals raised enough noise

the real turning point with bush came when george w. bush, george junior, brought me over to the residence for a backyard barbecue and horseshoes with the veep. once the veep had drubbed me solidly in horseshoes, then i was on the map. c-span: how did you get to george w.? >> guest: lee atwater, the campaign manager, passed me into george w. i came in and my researcher came in, both of us with hair and not even as respectable as i look today, and george w. bush sat back in his chair, put his cowboy boots on his desk and said, "well, y'all aren't a couple of y.r.'s, are you?" c-span: meaning? >> guest: meaning young republicans. c-span: how did you get to lee atwater? >> guest: lee atwater i got introduced to by a friend. i can't remember exactly how i first got to lee, but i'll tell you how we got to talking was about thomas wolfe. lee's from south carolina, and he was reading thomas wolfe at the time and i had been reading a biography of thomas wolfe, so i gave him the book and then we started to talk. he was a fascinating guy, atwater,

other presidents, jimmy carter, george bush the first, george herbert walker bush, eisenhower. these are presidents who while they pursued health care didn't understand it, didn't like it, kind of pushed it halfheartedly. they got slaughtered every time. too complicated and too big to do halfheartedly. say less than for national health care really is a lesson for any major achievement. either go big or go home because if you go small, if you're not passionate, you're going to fail and fall flat on your face. one thing we really didn't expect to find was republicans have high and large been more successful at health care reform the democrats, that in a sense it's been exciting going to china so when republicans take office, everybody assumes we're going to go into a period of health care drought. but think about it. richard nixon comes in in 1968. he has been a very conservative politician for much of his life. he made his name as a minor-league senator mccarthy and yet right away he begins to think about how we can reduce national health insurance and it comes up with creative

johnson got it, george w. bush got it, she was very, very shrewd about cramming things through, and we believe the barack obama got it partially because she dragged the research. we have reason to believe that he would be advisers read this book and they got the move quickly so imagine there was a feeling in the administration to put health care off until things settle down a little bit. the point man for health care had a tax problem. he was suddenly no one great part of the administration team and a lot of people said its february of the first year let's put this off. some of the people in the room put it off and it never passed. now imagine if they had put it off to the point where bill clinton actually put health care on the congressional hopper that would be the first month of the second year january of 2010 what happens in january of 2010? scott brown wins the special election and health care would never have passed. lesson number one, move fast. there's lots of other lessons. one of our favorites is learn to

bush to serve as transportation secretary. in george w. sh's second term, norm mineta stuck around. he did not leave until close to the end. so president bush never appointed another democrat, but he did have that one democrat, norman mineta during that term in his cabinet. barack obama at this point has doubled the record of cabinet bipartisanship of his predecessors, and more than that. you'll recall that he picked bob gates to stay on as secretary of defense. so republican at defense. president obama also picked ray lahood for the norm mineta honorary bipartisanship chair over at the department of transportation. transportation was held by a democrat under bush. it has been held by a republican the whole time under obama. but beyond that, beyond defense and transportation, president obama also had another attempt at bringing another republican into his cabinet. you remember when he offered judd gregg the job of commerce secretary? judd gregg initially accepted the job, and then he inexplicably turned on a dime and decide he was offended

it happened to ronald reagan, it happened to bill clinton, george bush. and that is, obama fatigues. three years from now, people will be writing columns about obama fatigue, just as they did about clinton fatigue and bush fatigue and reagan fatigue. franklin roosevelt only gave 30 fireside chats in 12 years. he understood instinctively the dangers of overexposure. he also controlled the media to an extent that modern presidents could not hope to. host: looking back, fdr broke the unwritten code of serving more than two terms. wetoday's modern age, could have more than two terms for any president? you worked for ronald reagan. if his health was better, of third term? guest: i doubt it. he talked about it after he left office. he was going to campaign for appeal of that amendment. he thought the american people should be able to vote for anyone wanted to vote for. it is very difficult to imagine after eight years of office -- we've used up our presidents. that is why this string of two- term presidents is really so unusual. we have a string of one-term pres

. >> developing news: the first president george bush is out of the houston hospital where he has been since november. a spokesman said the 88-year-old was released from methodist

y lleva mes y medio hospitalizado george bush padre y aÚn los doctores no le dan salida. >>> las noticias prueba el big hot pastrami melt. un sándwich perfeccionado -- lleno de jugosito pastrami, mostaza amarilla, queso derretido, y lo que tú quieras. disfrútalo hoy en tu pan favorito recién horneado -- en tu subway local! subway. come sabroso y fresco. ♪ ♪ >>> el sospechoso de masacrar a doce personas en colorado fue a la corte. preguntan si debe ser llevado a corte justo cuando hablan del recorte de armas. >>> en la audiencia preliminar no se permitieron cÁmaras, pero decenas fueron a la corte para verle la cara. holmes es responsabilizado por la masacre en colorado. la audiencia comenzÓ con dos policÍas hablando del caos. y dijo que la gente salÍa gritando. y el otro oficial recordÓ ver un rastro de sangre, y dijo que homes no se resistiÓ. tambiÉn dijo que el sospechoso parecÍa estar relajado y muy indiferente. >>> la corte no determinÓ el estado de salud, pero la masacre de connecticut y otras traen el tema de las armas, la gran mayorÍa de personas con problemas siquiatricos no comete

and one other interesting note is that speaking of bush, george w. bush and george h.w. , father and son, neither will be here. george 41, the older, was in the hospital. he was just released. the younger said that he is not coming because he wants to be with his father. we know, covering george bush, he likes to stay low-key, and this is not the kind of thing that he likes to come to for lots of reasons. last time he was here when he was departing the white house, it was mixed when you look at the public perception and the public reaction to it. but i think that, you know, he likes to stay out of the limelight even at traditional events like this. >> think about it. george h.w. bush was here for both reagan inaugurals, then his own inaugural, bill clinton's inaugural. i'm not sure we had a bush at the second inaugural. both were governors. the bush name has been around a lot. >> since 1997. >> and that clinton name. >> that clinton name, yeah. who says we don't have dynasties in american politics? >>> up next, a look at what's to come over the president's next four years

and the and the patriot act and post george w. bush america all of this can happen to any of us just as it happened to have she should shut up. the american citizen and mother of twin boys she now lives with p.t.s.d. in fear that this might happen to her again. in my wildest dreams. i would have never imagined this situation and i have to think about what would have happened if me and what if have been there with me. every time i fly i wonder if today is the day it's going to happen again. i wonder if i believe the fight on my own accord i owe everything that i have i know. i know now that i think i'm on that day that's having an ethnic name and i think. none of us can imagine this happening to us but all of us should our national war on terror has run now for more than a decade with it we've seen two full fledged wars fought in afghanistan and iraq killing hundreds of thousands of people and destroying the lives of millions at a cost to us of trillions of dollars we've seen multiple covert drone wars launched in places like pakistan y

these are jefferson, cleveland, coolidge, franklin roosevelt's and george bush. it failed due to their inability to lead congress for jefferson, monroe, grant, well some, truman, johnson, nixon and bush. franklin roosevelt and richard nixon. for he did not affect the philly communicate their agendas or initiatives for jefferson, monroe, grant in cleveland. obviously failure for second term president has been their inability to successfully work with congress. only 82nd term presidents have failed second terms to directly to the fight between congress and the white house. i've been a majority of their own party of relief. those presidents who served in the congress have a majority of the opposing party during his second term included wilson, eisenhower, nixon, reagan and clinton. the competitive battle between the president and congress, over the treaty. after considerable after working with members of congress, compromising and cajoling. and i was at the congress of right-thinking federalist senate president hu is revered. when they went in his second term, eisenh

they said you idiot, 9/11 happened under george bush.o come back the next day and say listen your moronic liberal s.o.b.s, i was in 9/11, i was in the building in '93 and 9/11 when the buildings were attacked. i know all about it. i meant since then. the point being liberals are clearly more intolerant than republicans. can we talk about zuckerberg for one second? >> dana: sure. >> eric: zuckerberg pledged $200 million to the state of new jersey if they were to reach certain goals on, for schools. education grants to the state of new jersey. they hit it $200 million from zuckerberg. $200 million comes from a matching grant. why would liberals be so intolerant they don't want more of that? that is something they should want more of. >> bob: the reason they pulled it back is simple. they don't want to get him in trouble because he gives money to democrats. >> dana: in the old days they used to call up and yell at him, right? instead of putting a post up. >> bob: we'd put fire in his car. >> dana: do you want to talk about into janet libera

we saw that with george w. bush and 2006, and president's team is hoping that that does not happen with him which is why they're hoping to win some big victories in the upcoming months hoping that that helps to play out let him do better in the years after that. >> john: well, i assume you're talking about the midterm elections in 2014. it seems the next six months are really about the years 2015 and and 2016 for this administration to have both houses of congress back. >> if they don't win them in the midterm the historical track record shows that the president will not be able to get a whole lot done in his last two years. it's the way things have worked in presidential second terms. if you remember george bush was very ineffective in his last two years in the white house. bill clinton was wrapped up very much with the monica lewinsky scandal, so he had extend extenuating circumstances, and they're fighting some fights that they hope they can win. the chuck hagel nomination is a fight that they hope they can win.

war in iraq i put on the credit card no provisions for paying for george bush's tax cuts over the crisis george bush's medicare put on the credit card and now that the republican the republican drunken spending bill is coming due they're publicans are saying to him to the president now you can't pay the bill filibuster over because this treasury secretary could say i'm going to look at the priorities and those will get funded and i'm going to save a trillion dollars a year by not paying these other things we want of money coming in i'm only going to spend to pay off our old debts the funds that are actually. coming in and if a few people say what is it we're not going to extend new credit to you since you're not paying so much the better i thought conservatives thought that that was executive overreach of the executive side of the executive branch decided you know well you know we're not going to fund this program for the department of defense actually i think it was richard nixon no phantom we fans of but who tried impounding and it was the progressives who insisted. that it

and george w. bushral boos in the audience not just for george w. bh,

and george h. w. bush would probably be an example of a president who was a very successful in business, and an effective administrator but he didn't communicate his position well to the american public, and he lost after his first term. so that i would, i would say that -- oh, i think there were some candidates out there that had strength of character, and this was over the years and both the republican and democratic party, governors, one who is now a senator from virginia who had great depth of character who have self-confidence in a quiet sort of way that could have made them excellent presidents. but they chose not to -- they were not able to win the primary. that's one thing, you could ask whether primaries are better than the old smoke-filled rooms, not equal today. but that's another topic, another question, another paper. any other questions? well, thank you very much. [applause] spent is there a nonfiction author a book you would like to see featured on booktv? send us an e-mail at booktv@c-span.

. >> can you imagine george bush-- >> and you learn. >> can you imagine george bush having a symposium, why it's-- on how to cover the iraq war or something? this is so-- >>, but the administration did try it clarify that all the evidence it had at the time showed there were weapons of mass destruction, and meeting with forums of journalists trying to make clear there wasn't-- >> and a hostile thing and-- >> is there any difference here, charles payne? >> there is a difference because i happen to think that when they go into the room that adam is talking about, not only the presenters will be advocates and so will the participants. >> the secret service agents and-- >> media, because they're in with obama, and we've come so far, every magazine, every newspaper i see, they've come out of the chos set on anti-capitalism, anti-republican, anti-god. they were the-- >> no, no, adam. >> and it's so bad. >> a lot of this is part of being a journalist, you have to know if you're being spun. how many times has-- >> how many times, i don't know, there are plenty of really good journalists out th

george h.w. bush and george w. bush won't be here. there have been pres debts where presidents in the past haven't made it. george h.w. bush just got out hospital, which is why they won't be here. mitt romney won't be here. the last time a vanquished opponent didn't show up was in 1985 for ronald reagan, and walter mondale was a no-show. that was the last time that the 20th state fell on a sunday and they had to do the monday as i rememberrial, versus another day. and back in those days, it was the coldest one on record, 7 degrees. there will be differences between the obama 2009 and 2013. four years ago, the crowd estimate was nearly 2 million people. there is a big parlor game about whether the crowd estimates on the mall are ever accurate. but nearly 2 million. now they are saying between 600- to 800,000. and there are a series of other things. and the money. four years ago, the obama administration, the obama campaign raised $53 million for the inaugural with personal contributions, all capped at $50,000 or less and there was disda

he was a very conservative member of the senate who happened to lose to george w. bush and took out all the grudges of george w. bush, then he was a mavericky liberal. went back to the right, now you have a guy here his term is going to be up in 2016. he will be 80 years old. this is an issue he really cares about and i think he really looks at it, i'm going to leave the senate in 2016, what is my legacy beyond being a sore loser and holding grudges, well, here is something worth fighting for. >> krystal ball, steve kornacki -- the teleprompter didn't get that right. >> no worries. >> thank you all for helping me to t tonight. >>> coming up, president obama and hillary clinton do 60 minutes together, what is that all about. >> and we're two days from knowing who governor duval patrick will appoint as the next senator of massachusetts. it is really very simple. he will appoint barney frank or make a big mistake. >>> and it is all over for sarah palin, nobody is sorry to see her go. sarah palin, the presidential candidate who never was is in tonight's rewrite for possibly

if you have a guy named obama, that isssein different from george bush. somebody who has a grandmother who lives in a village in africa without running water and heat. and without indoor plumbing. a village that has been devastated by h.i.v.-aids. when i go to africa and i am not speaking as based on what i have read or what i hear in the hearing or what i have seen visiting the ambassador 'presidents in nairobi, i am speaking from experience. when i speak about issues facing the inner-city, i am not looking at it from a distance. i am speaking from somebody who has worked in public housing projects and dealt with trying to find sex felons a better life for themselves. - ex felons a better life for themselves. tavis: people do not really like hillary clinton. one could argue that dig deep in the numbers, people really do not like hillary in the numbers suggest that she is not the most electable democrat. with two or three people on the other side. what do you make of that? >> the question is can we get beyond the gridlock that we experienced during the 19

george h.w. bush polaroid camera and have congressmen sit on the lincoln bedroom and take a picture of it knowing no congressman was going to throw away a picture taken by the president of the united states. does it lead immediately to post partisan hall hall awe, absolutely not. the politics is about giving as well as taking. what is practicable must control what is pure theory and the president charlie your question's exactly right, i do think this president continues to think and overly theoretical ways about how he speeds his time. >> rose: i want to come to the legacy of the question of of course and equality and declining standard of living. jon meacham in we make the case ronald ronald reagan was a great president what makes him a great president. >> i think what made ronald reagan a great president is his life experience as a union negotiator was put to work in foreign policy. and what do you do if you're a negotiator you ask for a hundred percent and several for 50. you say the union reserves

it happened to ronald reagan, it happened to bill clinton, george bush. d that is, obama fatigues. three years from now, people will be writing columns about obama fatigue, just as they did about clinton fatigue and bush fatigue and reagan fatigue. franklin roosevelt only gave 30 fireside chats in 12 years. he understood instinctively the dangers of overexposure. he also controlled the media to an extent that modern presidents could not hope to. host: looking back, fdr broke the unwritten code of serving more than two terms. he was elected to four terms. in today's modern age, could we have more than two terms for any president? guest: great question. >> you worked for ronald reagan. if his health was better, of course, would he have run for a third term? guest: i doubt it. he talked about it after he left office. he was going to campaign for appeal of that amendment. he thought the american people should be able to vote for anyone wanted to vote for. it is very difficult to imagine after eight years of office -- we've used up our presidents. that is why t

what to grow off of the legacy of george bush or do you think it can move in another direction? to democrats have a third way for instance? triet astana because of 9/11 they will always be before and after and the legacy to change things for the better and i wouldn't disagree on some counts, but i think i would like a return to the gold watertight of conservatism that a little bit more polished and etymological, and there's a great explosion of recent conservative thinkers like jonah goldberg and shelby steele. these are genius top-notch thinkers and most of them are not old. i am hoping that with their increasing popularity the dialogue shifts a little. these are very thoughtful economics and i think that we need more of them. estimate in terms of the bush legacy for harry truman very unpopular during the administration extremely unpopular when we leave office. history will judge them a little bit differently. i think the decisions that he has made on foreign policy with respect to the war on terror will be viewed as some point in the future as more courageous and less in that

president carter already came out but george h.w. bushbush and laura bush sending their regrets and wishing the first family all the best on this special day, and their family. >> all of the dignitaries come down, they are seated, then the families will be announced and seated. the biden family announced and seated, just after 11:00 in ten minutes. then the obama family will be announced and seated. and then you'll have the ceremonial announcement of the first laid doe and dr. biden as well. megyn: bill clinton has done this walk a lot. >> there you see former president jimmy carter and rosalyn carter. jim angle is there right in front of the capitol. jim. >> reporter: hello, breath. as you saw both the president and vice president and the former president's coming in, the crowd could see that on a jumbo-tron and they all started cheering. in fact they started cheering when the president's motorcade got on to the capitol ground. so there is a lot of excitement here as you can imagine, and not only here but as you mentioned all the way up

george herbert walker bush came up with new world order which was his. he got that from somewhere else that made it his own and popularized it. george bush came under a lot of criticism for a lot of his terms and i took them all at face value. i look them up. the cheap shot -- and he was entirely off-the-wall. but i did find -- which was one of his. it injured the language in 1583 and the word resonate came into the english language in 1531. one of the words that is always attributed to him is strategy. it was actually a creation of saturday night live. but the one you can really hang on him is mis-underestimate. but there've been several pretty well-known people who write about language on line including one of the top writers in england who said, he said it actually works. to underestimate by the state which he said happens to all of us especially during a building contract or go especially works like normal sea which will gradually become more and more except of old. i guess i have to jump here. invisible government is his and that secret on between g

bush ing george w. bush when he uses drones to assassinate people abroad so one of the few things they've had is to say well you're not protecting classified information you allowed disclosures of information to wake you leaks on your watch you allowed these instances where the new york times are publishing sensitive information about national security programs and so that's something that they have used and i don't think it's actually worked so their vantage because what you had happen is that barack obama even when he was campaigning puts on a campaign web site how proud he is that he has convicted these people how proud he is that he is gone after the whistleblowers and be a legit leakers and as clam down and has posed these safeguards of classified information that impacts freedom of the press and the mass and that they're obviously this is going to have some type of impact on freedom of the press have to say how much chemical stella blogger at firedoglake thank you for joining me thank you still ahe

paul o'neill, treasure secretary under george w. bush has an idea. >> you really wanted to scrap the entire u.s. tax code? >> i do. >> why? >> because it's inefficient. it's ineffectively and fundament ally unfair. i believe this. revenue system should be used to raise money. it shouldn't be organized to distribute benefits. >> so no tax deductions? >> no deductions, no credits, no nothing. it's to raise revenue and ideally we should do it with a progressive value added tax. that means -- >> that's a national sales tax. correct? >> well, it's not quite because progressive is important to me. i don't want people to pay taxes if they have $20,000 a year worth of income. but it's $30,000, i might like for people to pay $1, just $1 so they have a legitimate claim for saying, i'm part of this society and i don't pay a lot but i do pay somebody. everybody participates and there's no game playing. it's a very efficient way to raise revenue. right now, it costs $431 billion a year to administer the tax system we have and the tax gap, the money w

elaine chao served as george w. bush'sf labor. >> what would you do to create more jobs in america? >> i think you have to keep the tax rate low. they're a direct burden on the resources of an employer. the unemployment rate has dropped to 7.7% but that's primarily because the labor rate has dropped to 6.3%. one of the lowest we have seen in current years. so what we're seeing actually is a lot of discouraging workers, people who can't find jobs and they've given up, they're no longer working and they're not included the work force. it's the private sector who does the bulk of the hiring and they've got to have the confidence and that confidence coming from a more reasonable taxation level, more reasonable regulatory reform, and then also the fiscal discipline that we need in our country to restore our country's overall financial ratings. >> democrats say what's most important is a stable predictable set of rules, whatever the levels of taxation. steven rattner helped general motors get back into the black as president oba

when george w. bush appointed a known family retainer to the attorney general, i did a column that ran alberto gonzales with loyal umbrellas. and we both read about animals than times. he famously wrote a lot of things about cat. my daughter said once at the dinner table and somebody brought up cats, daddy hates cats. and i said that he does not hate cats. that would be prejudice. and you crows have been brought up to a poor prejudice. daddy has never met a cat that he likes. [laughter] and i've written about corgis. i wrote in a column once the corgis look like a breed of dog had been assembled from parts of other breeds of dog. cannot the part that those other breeds are all that sorry about giving up. [laughter] i'll admit there's never been a broadway show called corgis. [laughter] i am a second generation poet. i don't know about elliott. my father was a grocer for most of his working life, but he had a restaurant for a few years and take a vantage of that to read a couplet on the menu at lunch ever