we are standing here in front of the portrait of george herbert was director of central intelligence at a particularly difficult time in our history, following a pike and church committees in 1975. the agency was under investigation by congress. morale was pretty low here at the time. he is the first member of congress to serve as director, sent over by the president to help prepare those relationships between the cia and congress. ofrsight committees come out this investigation, as well, the senate select committee on intelligence and the house permanent select committee on intelligence. he was with us just 10 days shy of the year. he would like to have stayed on. on hise things to note, watch, he established a practice that we still use today, which b teamed a team, analysis. the agency would generate analysis on any given subject and set up another team to attack that. -- that theory. with osama bin laden is in the compound at abbottabad. it -- not, what explains if not, what explains it? another thing that took a new it or -- a new urgency on his watch was cia briefings for the p

. >> i, george herbert walker bush, do solemnly swear -- >> george bush took himself lightly and took his responsibilities to help his fellow man seriously. and he's a man of enormous love. >> he achieved the highest office in the land, but he did not abandon any of his principles, any of his decency, any of his caring for his fellow man. >> he would always ask you about your family. no matter who he talked to at the white house, groundskeepers, guy cutting the grass, he knew your name. and he never asked you how's your wife or how's your son. he would call them by name. >> in crucial things, unity. in important things, diversity. in all things, generosity. >> on my twitter profile, i have one of my grandfather's quotes. and it's "any definition of a successful life must include service to others." >> when people are giving back, those contributions are what clearly bridges all of us, democrat, republican, independent, and it's fair to say that you couldn't have a better model for that than george h. w. bush. >> i think george bush saw politics as the path to public service. >> you th

more people convicted of serious crimes than any administration in history the united states and george herbert walker bush issued pardons. clinton effectively issued a pardon i mean this is effectively a pardon. i don't know if any crimes jimmy carter did that need to be pardoned for but it's almost like we've got this this thing now of the imperial president the president is the king the president shall do no wrong and the and no in the future presidents will always let them off the hook is. it does the same reason to you all and that all along is a huge problem i mean we all know absolute power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely and i think what you're looking at is that you know you see the institution of the presidency through these pardons even bipartisan arden's well could it be a they are they don't want to undermine their own power their own ability in office i do think what if there were to let me go but in all crimes i mean you've got president obama killing people without judicial process american citizens including a sixteen year old kid which arguably is a crime and y

. >> it goes on where they are suggesting george herbert walker bush tell the u.n.e are not giving an ambassador. we are just going to sit and not vote. we will not officially pull out but not partake. >> what do you think of this new poll that suggests president obama is the worst president since president nixon? >> in the long game of history, you will see president obama ranked higher than nixon. presidents get an upward revision. george 41 is going up. nixon is toward the bottom because of watergate, obstruction of justice, abuse of power. the racial slurs. talking about people, that they are dirt. it is very hard in a sound bite americans who -- to flow -- any sound bite america to float very high. obama had a fine personal life. being a see obama historic first. he will not be by james buchanan or richard nixon. >> of all the people you have written about, who do you admire the most? >> theodore roosevelt and franklin roosevelt. they put public service first. they cared about the country. tr was more conservative. their pragmatism and love of the land. both tr

reagan was able to do that with george herbert walker bush. what you have to go back about 50 years -- but you have to go back about 50 years before that is true for a two-term to be succeeded by someone of his own party. that is one of the measures of the importance of a second term, that you mentioned before about staying relevant. >> erskine, do you feel different? >> i do. i have the opposite opinion. if i felt the presidents just spent the last year of a four-year term running for reelection, i might feel the same way. --that david does. but i don't. i feel the campaign almost starts the day they are reelected or elected. i also think too many presidents make decisions based on what kind of effect it will have on their reelection as opposed to what they might think is best for the country, so i would like to see one six-year term. i think it could be very positive. >> i'm influenced by the fact we made a bunch of disasterous local decisions we had to make. we were not thinking about reelection. we did not have that luxury. >> this is a go

actually, speaking of mail operations, george herbert walker bush i think in his memoirs mentioned in '73 when he was head of the rnc, you wanted him to do some mail order -- some mailings that he refused to do. do you remember having a clash with later president bush, in '73, just before he left? >> no, i don't -- he wasn't there very long, was he? >> well, you didn't overlap very long. he replaced dole as head of the rnc. he wasn't there long. >> when i went out of the white house, he was not head of the rnc. and i don't think i had any role after i left the white house. i'd be surprised. >> let me ask -- >> could have been. no. >> i think you overland just a month or two. >> could be. >> let me ask you about where you were on june 17th, 1972? where were you that day? >> i was at home, sitting in my swimming pool. it was saturday afternoon. and i had noticed in the paper an article about the break-in of the democratic national committee. i think that morning. i think i had seen that morning. i'm not sure right now. what i remember vividly is a telephone call from john erlichman on t

george herbert walker bush actually knew how to do it.esident doesn't like doing it, so he doesn't. >> do you think he even likes the job? >> he likes the perks of the job but he doesn't like the responsibilities of the job. >> i think he's just found it to be a very different job than he ever wanted, what i think. >> i think he discovered it's work he never counted on doing. >> the numbers are blink. thank y -- are bleak. nice to see you, sir. >> thanks for having me. >>> off the record, hollywood upheaval, two stars. have jer and penelope cruz stepping up, not each other but a pen to politics, talking about genocide and other actresses signed onto their bombshell letter and fired it off and kaboom and accusing israel of genocide disgusting many including john voigt. >> they retreated fast and p penelope cruz confessing on the topic of israel she's not an expert. that was obvious. and another problem erupted one hollywood never thought it would see again. bar del and cruz are being blacklisted by some in hollywood. and that's where john

. >> and it goes on there where he's suggesting that george herbert walker bush at the u.n. gets pulled as the ambassador and just tell the u.n. we're not giving an ambassador to the united nations, we're just going to sit and not vote on anything and listen. so we're not officially pulling vought tu n, but we're not going to partake in what reagan thought the united nations was a kangaroo court because of their treatment of taiwan. >> what do you think of this new poll that suggests that president obama is a worst president than president nixon? >> i think you will see in the long game of history obama being ranked higher than richard nixon. i say that because presidents tend to get an upward revision. gerald ford has gotten a great one. george 41 is going way up in the polls. but nixon gets stuck toward the bottom because of watergate, obstruction of justice, abuse of power. stanley cutler has a whole book on that. and the racial slurs. the nixons talking about people of india, that they were dirt and all of this. it's very hard in a sound bite of america to be floating th

air act passed the senate by 89-11 and the house by 401-21 and was signed into law by president george herbert walker bush. the clean air act has a proven track record of success. since 1970, emissions of pollutants have dropped 72% while the u.s. gdp has grown by 219% and total private sector jobs have increased by 101%. so while pollutants have dropped by 2% since 1970, private sector jobs have increased by 101% and the gdp increased by 219%. so all this fear mongering we hear on my friends on the other side about job losses disproven every time. if you take their quotes, they match-up with the quotes that we heard both in 1970 when nixon signed it and then again in when george herbert walker bush signed it. the president's proposal i believe will create thousands of jobs while ensuring big polluters reduce their dangerous contributions to climate change. i want to thank epa administrator jean mccarthy for being with us today and i look forward to her testimony. so i'm going to turn it over to senator vitter. i wanted to mention we have a vote at 11:00. we have two options. we can work as ha

c-span: there are pictures in your book of jimmy carter, of george bush, george herbert walker bush, of bill clinton. but unless i missed something, i can't find a picture here of richard nixon and you. is there a reason for that? >> guest: it probably is that -- that i had many pictures. there probably is -- there probable are some. those were selected by the publisher. but also, even at the time that the national council of negro women placed the monument to mary mcleod bethune in lincoln park, it was at the time that president ford had taken hold, and so i think there might have been a picture with president ford, because he was the person who accepted this, which is really the first memorial to an african-american or to a woman of any race to be placed in the nation's capital in a public park, and that was the bethune monument. c-span: that's 14 blocks from here, behind from the capitol, in lincoln park. >> guest: yes, it is. c-span: the national council of negro women, what is it, how long have you been associated with it? >> guest: i had been associated with it since that day i

president george herbert walker bush was about to send a half million american soldiers into the desertr combat. and he comes back to the white house and he makes a statement on the south lawn. i ask him a question, he barked at me. the next day, i get an apology note. at the bottom, he signed it, his initials, g.b., and a smiley face wearing a frown. i thought that was a remarkable moment for a president to take time to do that. >> pretty remarkable. and i cannot imagine anyone barking at ann compton. never misses a beat. always has a smile on her face. has done such tremendous work. congratulations, ann. >>> we want to go back now out the california where ryan owens is tracking this earthquake hitting northern california this morning. what is the latest, ryan? >> george, good morning. a 6.0 quake. the latest is we have new reports of injuries. a hospital in napa valley which is north of the san francisco bay area is reporting they have 70, 7-0 patients with mostly minor injuries. no reports of serious injuries. now that the sun is up, we're getting a better picture. of some of the dam

. >> you know, michael, the difference, of course, george herbert walker bush was not african-americanas not the first black president and not under the many, many constrainted that this president is under. do you feel that the president is under so many constraints that it makes it impossible to really show passion on this issue, or do you think he has more latitude than maybe the white house or president thinks? >> well, let me begin by saying that like charles, i've known barack obama since '92. the professor and i have joined together in defense of this president against vicious attacks on him. so i know that the black obama fans will go haywire because we're offering criticism and some pushing of the president. but i think he has far more latitude than he's exercised so far. he's got the bully pull bit. be a bully in the pulpit. but don't bully black people. yesterday was a low moment in the obama presidency because he distracted away from the facts of the case. a white police officer armed to the teeth with a gun has killed an unarmed black youth. the president turned this into a

there has been some pretty high visibility particular going back to the george herbert walker bush administration scandals essentially although nobody was ever prosecuted there's just published to be i guess about revolving doors you know about people from monsanto literally a vice president from monsanto becoming the regulator of the bush administration who determines whether or not genetically modified products can be allowed then says don't open a domino you're all just fine and then he goes back to being the vice president monsanto with a nice bonus is that kind of thing happening at the f.d.a. is that's what's going on here or is this just old fashioned incompetence or is this congress cutting their budget i mean what's why it boils down to political will so that both the u.s.d.a. and the f.d.a. there are plenty of folks who have revolved between industry and the agency and that still goes on there are still folks there that have industry ties and some of it is just they haven't been forced you know the congress hasn't made them and they've gotten away from it as if not having the political

actually, speaking of mail operations, george herbert walker bush i think in his memoirs mentioned in '73 when he was head of the rnc, you wanted him to do some mail order -- some mailings that he refused to do. do you remember having a clash with later president bush, in '73, just before he left? >> no, i don't -- he wasn't there very long, was he? >> well, you didn't overlap very long. he replaced dole as head of the rnc. he wasn't there long. >> when i went out of the white house, he was not head of the rnc. and i don't think i had any role after i left the white house. i'd be surprised. >> let me ask -- >> could have been. no. >> i think you overland just a month or two. >> could be. >> let me ask you about where you were on june 17th, 1972? where were you that day? >> i was at home, sitting in my swimming pool. it was saturday afternoon. and i had noticed in the paper an article about the break-in of the democratic national committee. i think that morning. i think i had seen that morning. i'm not sure right now. what i remember vividly is a telephone call from john erlichman on t

killing people really good at putting down insurgencies the slaughter the shiites in the south and george herbert walker bush said you know we're we will protect you go protest a protest of three hundred thousand dollars these are the key people who did the killing i mean these were this is hard you know and the first thing that the bush administration does is throw them out on the street on the unemployment line and those people are making up the core of isis right now at least in iraq and they've been and they've been an insurgency all along i think that so i think that's a point claim i enormously our intelligence did not yet know there. were twenty of the isis efforts and especially as they move into kurdistan which is a very stable area and you are in iraq it's really difficult to say but there are a lot of kurds and that there are a lot of kurdistan nationals or people who fled to kurdistan to begin with who are joining the isis ever so disabling all of that most of the isis members in iraq are iraqi ice assuming that why you know why do you think you're making such a quick gains because th

actually, speaking of mail operations, george herbert walker bush i think in his memoirs mentioned in '73 when he was head of the rnc, you wanted him to do some mail order -- some mailings that he refused to do. do you remember having a clash with later president bush, in '73, just before he left? >> no, i don't -- he wasn't there very long, was he? >> well, you didn't overlap very long. he replaced dole as head of the rnc. he wasn't there long. >> when i went out of the white house, he was not head of the rnc. and i don't think i had any role after i left the white house. i'd be surprised. >> let me ask -- >> could have been. no. >> i think you overland just a month or two. >> could be. >> let me ask you about where you were on june 17th, 1972? where were you that day? >> i was at home, sitting in my swimming pool. it was saturday afternoon. and i had noticed in the paper an article about the break-in of the democratic national committee. i think that morning. i think i had seen that morning. i'm not sure right now. what i remember vividly is a telephone call from john erlichman on t

now, the f/a-18 strikes that hit the artillery unit in northern iraq, they left from the uss george herbertin the persian gulf. indeed it is. now, chris, we're trying to find solutions here and you know what the critics will say. they will say that generals told you to leave a force behind in the event something like happens. well there was no force left behind. the president has defended himself on it. said he couldn't get agreement on behalf of the iraqi government. all that now is behind us. the question is what happens in the future? he says no more american forces on the ground in iraq. we do not know what happens next. how long can that position be defended and fought against? >> well, as a consequence of the libya debacle the president was disinclined to engage in syria. that civil war has raged on, raged on despite red lines being crossed, et cetera, more than 100,000 killed and we said we weren't going to engage. the president said the united states wasn't going to engage. guess what, syria engaged us, and spilled out over the borders, into iraq that we owe, we owe iraq a lot and s