congressman gephardt, a wrap-up question for you.if rick santorum, who seems somewhat likely to emerge as the challenger to -- we don't want to -- we don't want to preclude what's going to go on in the election. right now at this moment that's how it looks. could republicans take control of the u.s. senate with rick santorum at the top of the ticket? >> i think it makes it less likely. i think the senate with olympia snowe stepping out makes the senate tougher for the republicans. there are a lot of tough races. democrats have more seats up than the republicans. before she stepped out and bob kerrey came back in in nebraska, it looked like republicans would have a good chance. but i think if they don't have a really dominant presidential candidate, it doesn't look like they'll have that, this will be a close presidential race. i think the senate probably stays in democratic hands. >> comparatively, is it better to have -- for republicans to have mitt romney at the head of the ticket or rick santorum at the head of the ticket in so fa

have a listen to dick gephardt. >> if the economy is still going forward even at 40 miles an hour, 50 will stick with president obama. i think people look at politics like they hire a plumber. i hire you to fix the bad pipe. if you fix it, i'll rehire you. if you don't fix it, i'm not going to rehire you. >> and that all sounds fine until you look at the head-to-head match-ups. look at the recent poll by "washington post" and abc. head-to-head match-ups between romney and obama? uh-uh, romney has him by two points. santorum is trailing by three. you know something, john, those numbers don't always lie, they don't always tell the truth either. but what do you make of that? >> well, at this point, even if the election were held today according to the polls it would be a close race. it could go either way. i think the real key is what congressman gephardt said, how does the economy keep moving in the next few months? do we have another dip or relatively strong job growth. if the things are heading in the right direction and looking good, president obama will win re-election. >> and gas p

when you had five or six candidates, maybe for the reason you alluded to, he mentioned in 2004 when gephardt and howard dean then in iowa did a pretty good job of destroying each other to the benefit of john edwards and john kerry. so, i guess that's part of the dynamic that you're talking about. >> absolutely. >> are there examples of -- this is to both of you -- of other negative campaigns or comparative campaigns in the commercial space that, you know, might provide good lessons and models for political candidates? >> there's a famous case back in the 1950s when people were getting into pressure cooking. slow cooking through pressure cookers. and there was a case where one or two of the pressure cookers blew up. and the maker of that pressure cooker ran a full-page ad in the newspaper, said "will not blow up." and people didn't buy pressure cooker for years because they'd never heard that they could blow up. >> it's like airlines don't advertise about the fact that there were no crashes last year. >> right. >> which is an astonishing feat but it's not -- >> the reason they don't do that i

when you had five or six candidates, maybe for the reason you alluded to, he mentioned in 2004 when gephardt and howard dean then in iowa did a pretty good job of destroying each other to the benefit of john edwards and john kerry so i guess that's part of the dynamic that you're talking about. are there examples of -- this is to both of you of other negative campaigns in the commercial space that might provide good lessons and models for political candidates? >> there's a famous case back in the 1950s when people were getting into pressure cooking. slow cooking through pressure cookers. it can come back and bite you. >> advertisers don't advertise about the fact that there were no crashes last week. >> the reason they don't do that is god forbid they should crash the next week, the next month that that would be thrown in. i think there's a lot of keeping your powder dry for brands that wrath their than risk the gotcha back and forth they will choose not to advertise. i think that's happening more and more is that it's like comparison. political advertising feels like it's gone to the extrem

. >> lehrerr and there was tom harkin• >>>smmth: dick gephardt. &->> lehrer::paul tsongas -ick gepharrtunn, those folks had decided not to run. >> smith: it sounds lot like frankly tte race now. >> lehrer: absolutely. >> smith: you know, where3 you• ú& -> lehrer::bob kerrr was in that group• >> smith: •group, ight. -> lehrer: and had reaaly table.& -ut the wweding went on, just likee t'ss3 &-gging on now. &--et me move away ffom, from the book nd the topic of debatts and ask you to tep ú& back and llok t the media. &->> lehrrr: yeahh >>>smith: you've been doing thissfor a long time, that's a great thing for all of uss >> lehrer: es. >> smith: but it also ives >> lehrer: sure. or bad about our profession some elements f oor profession..3 i don't feel so good about other elements of our profession. >> lehrer: okay.3 &-firrt of all we are in our profession is in the iddle of aarevolution. >> lehrer: and, being in the middle of a revolution is not terrific.3 you don't• >> smitt: right. well i caant that's the point. [laughs] iffyou could ask. >> smith: if i could ask, i >> lehrer: he's say,

president and the democrats took the congress it was dead on arrival officially they even had dick gephardt at one point had a giant stampede to do your way so us only who would know this whole drama obama had democrats in charge of congress i don't see any increase in spending well there was a little bump there that was the right after his first term in office that was the stimulus bill but i'll agree with you on that but the fact of the matter is we all know this if the republicans really or the democrats for that matter really don't want something to get through they've got a filibuster in the senate and a pretty much doesn't but harry reid's taking the filibuster away that he's actually exercise the nuclear option or want to cater to filibuster is no longer safe gingrich up there not giving him any credit for all the help of the during the clinton years there and the whole year is a house he's going to flatten flat want to marry you know so i spend i want to know personally whether this data is based on legislative projection directly dollars spent to talk about the stimulus proposal wh

i had a discussion with dick gephardt talking about getting out of a race and how hard that is.says, listen, when i was doing it, you know, the tip-off is when you ran out of money and you couldn't pay money. now you have folks that are doing these super pacs that keep folks going when they might not have, you know, three elections ago or four elections ago. but there does come a point when folks who are funding the super pac and pouring money into it say, you know what? this is a dry hole now. millionaires don't get to be millionaires by wasting their money. >> or billionaires either. >> exactly. hard for me to thing that. >> who's on "state of the union" on sunday? >> harry reid. >> that will be a rare interview. we haven't had him in a long time. >> i know. you have to be talking with him. as well as dick gephardt and steve forbes as far as when the jig may be up. >> also good to speak to steve forbes after forbes magazine comeses out with their billionaire. you didn't make the list this year, did you? >> i did not. i'm open for next year. >> thanks very much. we've got much

say they don't understand, for example, why president bush, even after september 11, joins dick gephardt and tom daschle in espousing amnesty for illegal aliens when we know for a fact that these very amnesty programs have been abused by terrorists. brian: the immigration and naturalization service has 32,000 employees according to you. michelle: mm-hmm. brian: the budget has gone up significantly since 19 9 3 when it was $1.5 billion and in 2003, you say it will be $6.1 billion. what is the i.n.s.? michelle: that is the chief agency that'ses in charge of enforcing our immigration laws. and we're talking about the border patrol as well. policing all of our ports of entry. and then also in charge of granting immigration benefits. everything from asylum to legal permanent residence to the awarding of american citizenship. brian: the budget has tripled in almost 10 years. what have they done with the money? michelle: squandered it. and i this i the problem starts at the top. unless you have somebody that's the head of the i.n.s. who is committed to enforcing our immigration laws rather than

male strippers will get a larger audience than dick gephardt. he was a guest for the whole show. bob dole was a guest for the whole show. you will let's see that anymore. i've already made the point. this documentary fell off of the marquee in six minutes. this has a wheelchair. the delta region of the daytime talk shows were not interested -- the daytime talk shows were not interested. host: the documentary phil donahue is talking about is called "body of war," a feature about thomas young, a 25-year- old paralyzed from a bullet. he was serving in iraq for less than a week before he was shot. kenny, mobile, alabama, democrats line. are you with us? guest: i know this fng

lloyd benston, dick gephardt, and the others. >> al gore. >> john kerry. >> and then it's this bomb from arkansas. >> i think he won. >> did he won? >> i think he did all right. >> they made fun of him, willie. and so i guess the big question, and you could also say it's like '91, also like 1988 when george h.w. bush was absolutely skewered by the medias, skewered by conservatives like me. and george will didn't have a lot of nice things to say about george h.w. bush in 1997, 1998. >> so which of those candidates is going to do so much better than mitt romney that it's worth turning the whole race on its head? >> let me also say this, too. it's not just about winning. it's about winning and then advancing the conservative cause. we all remember when chris christie came in here. he was a new governor. his approval ratings were in the low 30s. and you would ask him offset, hey, it's looking bad for you. he was like, i don't care. do you remember that? >> oh, yeah. >> do you remember all the times, you're at 30%. you better change course. he said, i don't care. i'm going to do this. they wa

and male strippers will get a larger audience didn't get gephardt, who by the way was a guest on thedonahue show. abdul was on for the whole show. two talking heads. you will see that anymore. and by the way, i party made the point, this documentary south of the marquee in six minutes. this, you know, it's got a wheelchair. the daytime talk shows were not interested. i wanted to be on to promote the film. they don't want anything to do with wheelchairs. >> host: in the documentary is phil donahue is talking about his "body of war," a feature about thomas jan from a 25 throat paralyzed from a bullet to his spine. he was a veteran of the war in iraq, but he served there for less than a week before he was shot. penny is our next caller in mobile, alabama. hi, danny. are you with us? last call for danny. just going of this feeling. >> host: walter is the next caller to new bedford, massachusetts on our independent line. >> caller: good morning, how are you doing? i was a fan of your show years ago when i was younger. we used to sit and watch her crazy show. we couldn't even believe half

male strippers will get a larger audience than dick gephardt. he was a guest for the whole show. bob dole was a guest for the whole show. you will let's see that anymore. i've already made the point. this documentary fell off of the marquee in six minutes. this has a wheelchair. -- the daytime talk shows were not interested. host: the documentary phil donahue is talking about is called "body of war," a feature about thomas young, a 25-year- old paralyzed from a bullet. he was serving in iraq for less than a week before he was shot. kenny, mobile, alabama, democrats line. are you with us? guest: i know this feeling. host: walter is our next caller. massachusetts. independent line. caller: good morning. i was a fan of your show years ago. i used to sit in my living room watching your show. we could not believe half of the stuff you used to have, and looked at what we have now. guest: i am glad you were watching. caller: i appreciate what you are doing with your video. i always thought war in our country was taken for a joke. growing up as a kid, wars work romanticized. it always se