tell me a little bit about george h. w. bush the person, and his loss of a foreign policy of. >> guest: the person first. a guy who i believe people saw him in private as often as i did what i thought much better of them. this guy got dana carvey like. you know big iron saturday wall under life to imitate him i tell the story where we were out there for dedicating a police memorial when i was drug czar. he used to jog with me. very generously he would slow down. >> host: i have read the part that i think are in a hotel room and he wants to go jogging with you, and with all due respect, though, i didn't think it as a as a type of jogger. >> guest: i climb mountains. no, no. , he slowed down and this is what happened. when we finished the press corps there said how is the drug war going, mr. bennett? in his i was out of breath. he took the first questions until i got my breath. now that's a good boss. so he is a good president. but before we're going to do this run, there was a demonstration outside, some would was bring the fligh

is most likely the united states post-mac speaking of the elder george bush, h. w. bush, he was in my mind one of the best and perhaps most underrated foreign policy president we had, where there was how he handled cautiously and successfully the demise of the soviet union, the end of the cold war, the fall of the berlin wall, or likewise how he handled the middle east them the persian gulf and the kuwait situation. tell me a little bit about george h. w. bush the person and his philosophy of foreign policy. >> guest: the person first. a guy who i believe as if people saw him in private as i did often would have thought much better of him. this guy got dana carvey like, you know the guy on "saturday night live" to imitate him, and public. but in private he was naturally eloquent. i tell the story being in portland, oregon. we were out there for dedicating a police memorial and i was drug czar. we were going to jog. used to jog. very general as he would slow down and. >> host: i have to say i read the part, i figure in a hotel room and he wants to go jogging with you,

president george h. w. bush met with gorbachev in december a few months after the director at moltke on ships, at the summit there was no mention of a biological weapon at all and one of the reasons was that bush was afraid to bring it up, it would blow up everything else he was working on with the unification of germany within nato, strategic arms control, and gorbachev didn't want to bring it up because all he knew about the defector and realized talk of biological weapons program on his watch would cause the world to ask questions about new thinking and glasnost. and there was a little bit of a conspiracy of silence but the soviet leadership for a terribly how to respond if they got ask questions and his continued to enveloped gorbachev and bring in his top advisers including a foreign minister. they had numerous meetings how to respond and then decided if we get questions we will come up with a confidence-building measure and proposed to exchange experts. on may 14th, 1990, the american ambassador's end of b

. >> host: speaking of the elder george bush, h. w. ush, he was in my mind a line of the best perhaps most underrated foreign policy presidents whether how he handled cautiously and the end of the cold war and the berlin wall or how he handled the kuwait situation and persian gulf and middle east tell me about george h. w. bush the person and his philosophy t. y. in the first a guide to peoplesoft deprive would have thought much better of him. he was very much like dana carvey in public but in private was very eloquent. weaver in portland for a dedicated police memorial and we were going to jog very generously. [laughter] >> host: i read the party were in the hotel room and he wants to go jogging with you. with all due respect i did not think if you. >> guest: he slowed down. of rebranded houston and when we finished the press corps said how is the drug war going? he saw that i was out of breath and he took the first question morale i got my eight braff. that is a good boss. but there was a demonstration he said that is the one thing th

and then the start treaty and the late 1980's finally signed by president george h. w. bush that cut the arsenals in half. ever since then we have been on a steady decline in both countries. host: if ronald reagan was significant for beginning the declining process, is there an earlier president you look to us most responsible for the build up? guest: it was during the eisenhower years, not because he wanted to do it. but he like most presidents really thought these weapons should be eliminated. every single president has said that. but it was during a time of intense competition between the u.s. and the soviet union. we had built a bomb in 1945, and used it. the soviets caught up in 1949. that is when the arms race began. in the 1950's it was thought that atomic weapons were the thing to do. we had nuclear death charges, torpedoes, mines. the army even had a nuclear bazooka called the david crockett that would filefire abt half a mile. these were seen as prestigious items, weapons to be used in the normal combat. but the time kennedy came, that is when we began to limit the

she has been at senior positions in the george h. w. bushcampaign in 1998 and eventually was appointed to chief of staff of the rnc. she was a host for cnn and ran her own talk show. she reinforced her position as an important voice on the right. without further ado, it is my pleasure and honor to introduce one of my great friends, our very own mary matalin. [applause] >> who dat? who dat? roger, who knows all things, did not say the secret code word. if you want to stay here tonight, you have to say laissez le les bon temps roulez. i am so happy to see you all. we are trying to decide our conventions coming down the road. this place is really like the entire south. i am now an official steel magnolia. there is a yankee version of that. it rhymes with rich. the southern persian is more graceful and prettier. i feel like an adopted sister of the south. the many wonderful things of the south are on display here tonight. the richness and the heritage and the culture and the art and the music and the food is so much of what you will enjoy it. th

single republican saying a thing when judge kimberly and the more was nominated by president george h. w. bushor the federal circuit. she had had years as a federal clerk. no one felt this disqualify her. or, when judge j. harvey wilkinson was nominated by president reagan to the fourth circuit. he had had one year as a clerk, five years as they newspaper editor, two years in the government, five years in academia. he was confirmed. judge frank westbrook, nominated at the age of 36, he spent one year as a clerk, five years in the government, seven years in academia. he was confirmed. let's talk about reality. let's leave these straw men complaints out of it. we have some many people sitting on our courts of appeals, nominated by a republican president, supported by both republicans and democrats who do not begin to have the kind of background that you do, nor began to have the kind of bipartisan support that you have. i think we should not forget that. the american bar association, the standing committee of federal judiciary, found you unanimously well qualified. that is the highest possible r

senate committee on finance and he served as deputy secretary of labor in the george h. w. bush administration. he's currently a partner of the influential law firm covington burleigh. he also came up with the acronym tefra for which many people are still angry at him. [laughter] rolph friend served senator tefra and a staggering number of roles that men graduation of tebeau in 1986 and in 2000. those include in terms, senior adviser and body man in his last capacity handled the logistics every single one of them both in the senate and during the election campaigns. as we know from his visit last year might serve as the director of vice presidential operations for the mccain palin 2008 presidential campaign. a position that has enriched the lifetime of stories. [laughter] he's a president at llc international public relations communications corporation. please help me welcome sheila c. bair, rob dearment to the institute. >> things to all three of you for coming tonight. it's special to talk about senator tefra and his accomplishments as an individual. i would like to begin by a

those 20 years were eight years of president ronald reagan, eight years of george h. w. bushour years of georgia bush and a years of bill clinton. in those 20 years of republican leadership, including president reagan, president bushes, the u.s. created 15 million jobs. in the eight years of bill clinton, there were created 21,600,000 jobs. it is a remarkable contrast. [applause] the only balanced budget in the entire half century for which many of -- through which many of us in this room have lived. by bill clinton, a democratic president. it is important in terms of perspective to see where we came from. i do not need to be critical of ronald reagan. i enjoyed him enormously. i disagreed wihwith him on three out of four issues. he truly had a great sense of humor. one facet was that ronald reagan from time to time used to say things that were not exactly true. there was no attempt to deceive. the section was not in the man's soul. he pick things up and they get on the five play cards and get in the speeches. sometimes, they did not have a strong research base is to them. we

single republican saying a thing when judge kimberly and the more was nominated by president george h. w. bushor the federal circuit. she had had years as a federal clerk. no one felt this disqualify her. or, when judge j. harvey wilkinson was nominated by president reagan to the fourth circuit. he had had one year as a clerk, five years as they newspaper editor, two years in the government, five years in academia. he was confirmed. judge frank westbrook, nominated at the age of 36, he spent one year as a clerk, five years in the government, seven years in academia. he was confirmed. let's talk about reality. let's leave these straw men complaints out of it. we have some many people sitting on our courts of appeals, nominated by a republican president, supported by both republicans and democrats who do not begin to have the kind of background that you do, nor began to have the kind of bipartisan support that you have. i think we should not forget that. the american bar association, the standing committee of federal judiciary, found you unanimously well qualified. that is the highest possible r

single republican saying a thing when judge kimberly and the more was nominated by president george h. w. bushor the federal circuit. she had had years as a federal clerk. no one felt this disqualify her. or, when judge j. harvey wilkinson was nominated by president reagan to the fourth circuit. he had had one year as a clerk, five years as judge frank nominated by president reagan at the age of 36 spent seven years in academia. let us talk about reality. let's leave these complaints out of it. we have so many people sitting on our courts of appeals nominated by a republican president, supported by both republicans and democrats who do not begin to have the kind of background that you do. they have the kind of bipartisan support that you have. i think we soon forget that. the american bar association found unanimously well qualified. you have strong support of both of your home state senators. [unintelligible] telos again the difference between the role of academic commentators as opposed to the role you have to play as a judge. tell us the difference and if you think you have any difficulties

single republican saying a thing when judge kimberly and the more was nominated by president george h. w. bushr the federal circuit. she had had years as a federal clerk. no one felt this disqualify her. or, when judge j. harvey wilkinson was nominated by president reagan to the fourth circuit. he had had one year as a clerk, five years as they newspaper editor, two years in the government, five years in academia. he was confirmed. judge frank westbrook, nominated at the age of 36, he spent one year as a clerk, five years in the government, seven years in academia. he was confirmed. let's talk about reality. let's leave these straw men complaints out of it. we have some many people sitting on our courts of appeals, nominated by a republican president, supported by both republicans and democrats who do not begin to have the kind of background that you do, nor began to have the kind of bipartisan support that you have. i think we should not forget that. the american bar association, the standing committee of federal judiciary, found you unanimously well qualified. that is the highest possible ra