we'll get gerry connolly's insights on that.ut the fact that harry reid has mitt romney on the ropes a lot not just a little bit. in terms of releasing his tax returns. nia malika, jim in larchmont new york, has a quick comment on that. or a question. >> caller: good morning, bill. yeah, here's my thought regarding mr. romney and his tax returns. this may be some type of chivalry. let me explain. even his greatest -- the man is a great husband loving husband lovely family. now if he did anything untoward with his income taxes and his wife cosigned the taxes then if they're both liable to prosecution, she has ms unfortunately she does. and a person with ms, i've done a lot of medical reading or so, relapses can be enhanced by stress although you would think that the stress of a presidential campaign would be pretty stressful. is it possible he knows that he's done bad and she's cosigned this stuff and out of a sense of chivalry, he's trying to protect his wife? >> bill: you know, jim? i have to tell you i admire very much your lo

and that's the highest office that's in the land. >> woodruff: democrats including congressman gerry connollyhatically reject the charge. >> it was republicans who refused a clean debt ceiling vote. they were the ones who walked away from the super committee, remember that? >> woodruff: connolly and others say what matters most-- despite the prosperity that blesses this part of the state-- is the economy: who connects with those middle-class, swing voters especially moms. >> cutting taxes across the board sounds great, everybody would love to have their taxes lowered. but what are you going to cut in order to allow that to happen? >> i think the hard part is, well, if he's not delivering, what are you going to do that is delivering? what would you do so differently? >> woodruff: the choice of ryan as his running mate energizes republican and democratic voters in virginia, but for governor romney and president obama, questions like these continue to hang in the air. so, just what does each campaign need to do to win virginia? we asked professor farnsworth his answers are on our website. >> ifi

virginia conman gerry connolly is not satisfied. >> i think it's a very self- justifying report by verizon and begs the question of what happened on the weekend of june 30th? and why didn't you have backup? >> reporter: why was't the system test? how come multiple fail pures. jim moran and frank -- failures? jim moran and frank wolf sent a letter to the federal communications commission wanting telecommunications companies to provide at least eight hours of backup power at all cell sites. >> the whole point of 911 is in an emergency is works. we could have had people die. >> reporter: some of connolly's constituents also have thoughts about the summer's 911 outages. >> we were complaining about the electricity being out and that's all you saw on the news was that, but 911 is a little bit more of a big deal. >> that's definitely dangerous for 911 going out for even a short amount of time. that's dangerous thing. so i'm not sure if auditing costs a lot of money, but even if so, i think that's a good plan. >> reporter: now verizon shouldn't have problems paying for their internal audits. the

virginia democratic congressman, gerry connolly voted to keep the house in session and cancel the august> the idea that we have a crisis that could affect jobs in this region particularly, but all around the country. and that it has to be resolved. why are we going out on recess for five long weeks? >> capitol hill will not be completely dark in the month of august. some members will show up for informal sessions, but the big ticket items will have to wait until lawmakers return in september. >>> amtrak is in the middle of a massive food fight. lawmakers say food on the trains cost too much and in the end, it is costing millions in losses for amtrak. yesterday florida representative, john mika highlighted what he calls outrageous taxpayer subsidies. he says it cost passengers $9.50 to buy cheese burger on amtrak trains with the cost to amtrak being just over $16. >> just went into this mcdonald's and i could buy a drink for $1 and a hamburger for $1. if you buy a hamburger on amtrak, it costs a taxpayer $6.65 for every hamburger. now these people make a profit. these people lose $6.65. >

also democratic congressman gerry connolly

later on, we will speak with gerry connolly and "mother jones"magazine. nextel is -- next is stephen moore. we will talk about congress and its last measures. >> the political parties are holding their platform hearings. democrats are voting on the final platform recommendations in detroit. republican start their platform process at their camp a convention site mid-month. the complete coverage of their party coverage begins monday, august 27, with live coverage of the republican national convention. and the democratic national convention live from north carolina starting monday, september 3. >> sunday, look for our interview with andrew nagorski. >> i had no idea about my predecessors. despite all the times i had spent in germany, i had not thought about what it would have been like to have been a correspondent in the 20's int 30's. how would you have operated? what would you have noticed? much was, how would you attack it? >> sunday at 8:00 p.m. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we are pleased to have our first guest. here is stephen moore. he has