does that work for -- >> that's good. >> okay. >> senator graham. it's all yours. >> thank you. >> so far has the hearings been phat you thought they would be? >> i'm not sure i had -- i'm not sure i exactly pictured it. >> let's try to go back in time and z say you're watching these hearings and you are critical of the way the senate conducted these hearings. are we improving or going backward? and are you doing your part? >> i think that you've been exercising your constitutional responsibilities extremely well. >> so it's all those other guys that suck, not us. >> i don't think -- >> it's all those other witnesses that were too cagey. all right. fair enough. now, do you know greg craig? >> will say one thing, senator graham. >> please. >> it just feels a lot different from here than it felt from back there. >> i bet it does. >> it feels a lot different when you're the nominee, too, doesn't it? and if it didn't, i'd really be worried about it. do you know greg craig? >> i do. >> who is he? >> he was previously the will counsel to the president. >>

does that work for -- >> that's good. >> okay. >> senator graham. it's all yours. >> thank you. >> so far has the hearings been at you thought they would be? >> i'm not sure i had -- i'm not sure i exactly pictured it. >> let's try to go back in time and z say you're watching these hearings and you are critical of the way the senate conducted these hearings. are we improving or going backward? and are you doing your part? >> i think that you've been exercising your constitutional responsibilities extremely well. >> so it's all those other guys at suck, not us. >> i don't think -- >> it's all those other witnesses that were too cagey. all right. fair enough. now, do you know greg craig? >> i will say one thing, senator graham. >> please. >> itust feels a lot different from here than it felt from back there. >> i bet it does. >> it feels a lot different when you're the nominee, too, doesn't it? and if it didn't, i'd really be worried about it. do you know greg craig? >> i do. >> who is he? >> he was previously the will counsel to the president. >> do

for example--. >> ifill: or by senator john mccain or senator lindsey graham or any number of people on capitol hill. >> you're talking about people i greatly respect, but they can speak for themselves. our position is extremely clear. as the troops draw down , the afghan security forces will replace them. so-- and, furthermore, as the president and secretary clinton have said repeatedly, economic and development assistance will and must continue. we are not going to repeat the abandonment of afghanistan that took place in 1989 and which left the country , after the soviet withdrawal, in a state of collapse , which led to the warlords which led to the taliban which led to 9/11. we cannot afford that. the american public understands the direct connection between our presence in afghanistan and our efforts in pakistan on one hand, and our national security on the other. >> ifill: i do want to ask you about pakistan. in pakistan, where you've also spent some time, you mentioned this question about relationships with the taliban. these things are all integrated, and you're the integratin

now, i announced this week that bob graham and bill riley, two respected individuals who have experienceoth on the environmental side and energy sector, are going to be examining the next six months what went wrong but forward looking how do we increase domestic oil production without seek the kinds of disasters we are witnessing on television. i think governor jindal and other parish presidents spoke about the immediate impact and what i said to them is the same thing i said to graham and reilly. if they can front-load some of the analysis of what went wrong and how you would solve what has happened and what can happen, and you can do that more quickly than six months, then let me know. don't hold the results of your review for six months and then tell me. tell me when you find out. what i told the folks in this room was i'm not going to cut corners on it and i'm not going to press them to move faster than it would take to do an accurate, independent job based on sound science, because i do not want to see this repeated and the american people don't and i promise you the people of the g

if you print that, katie graham, referring to katherine graham, the publisher of the "washington post," will get her tit caught in a big fat wringer. i wasn't accustomed to speaking to towns -- to attorneys general , and i kind of instinctively jumped back from the phone myself because of fear from my own parts aside from mrs. graham's because this guy certainly had the power to squeeze them. and then he went on to say, when this campaign is over we are going to do this story on you boys, too, and hung up the phone. of course in retrospect it's an amusing story, but i have to tell you we were 28 years old at the time and it was about the most chilling moment i think in all my years in the now 50 years in journalism than i ever experienced. this was a man of enormous power. and the threat was real. i believed the threat in terms of trying to be intimidating. so i called ben bradley, the editoo of the "washington post," to tell him what had happened in this exchange. and he said mitchell really said that? i said, yeah. he says you have it in your notes? yeah, it's all in the notes. and

. >> catherine graham back to us and ask us for lunch. i remember this much. we knew her a little bit. t very well. this is really an important management story. she blew my mind and with the question she asked about watergate. she had read everything we had written. she knew henry kissing who was the national security adviser for nixon. she even read sothing in the "chica tribune." i wder what she was reading the damn "chicago tribune." nobody does and wash -- nobody does in chicago. she was sweeping all of this in. i waseally stunned and later we described it as this capacity to manage mind on, hands off. intellectually involved but not telling us how to report or at it. at the end, she had the killer question. like a good ceo, which is when is the whole story goingo come out? when do we find out the whole truth? i said that we felt very strongly that the burglars were being paid, criminal conspiracy, they come are -- the compartmentalized information people were frightened, truly fearful to talk to us about this. my answer was never. she had this really awf

we will now move to senator graham. >> thank you very muc, mr. buffett and mr. mcdaniel said, per your insightful comments. mr. mcdaniel, you said that inc. the research into its rating process. e chart that is about to be -- ced to g >> can we place it where it was before? >> be real time keeps ticking. >> newborn. >> this chart indicates -- move on. >> this chart indicates securities that were rated by moody's. the blue and the red or the cdo's. the first of the yellow boxess in october 2006. it was something south of $1 biion issued. when a new pea research service issued a report -- moody's research service issued a report saying that the u.s. housing market downturn is in full swing due to single-family housing production, house prices are falling at an increesing -- in a increasing number of areas. the word crash is used to describe the situaon in areas of the country that represented about half of the outstanding mortgages. how was that information inc. and to the ratings process is of the new peace? >> the analysts and ratings -- moody's. the analyst and

. >> graham evans. >> yesterday, there was support on both sides of the house for raising the income tax threshold by 1,000 pounds. does the prime minister agree that the government that does that have to explain where the money is coming from? >> my honorable friend makes a good point. i noticed yesterday that everyone in the house supported the idea of raising the income tax threshold so that we take 880,000 people out of tax altogether. if people are going to support such a pledge, which could cost as much as 4 billion pounds, they have to say where the money is coming from, but so far we have not heard about one penny piece of one saving from any labour front bencher. in terms of labour's election for leader, it does not matter who that is, because they are not giving any figures to show where they would find cuts. until they do that, they simply will not be taken seriously. >> david crausby. >> the building work for the new 20 million pound maternity supercenter in bolton is pretty well finished, but can i be assured that the government's decision to review the "making it better

graham brady. >> as he strives to restore sanity to our national finances, will my right honorable friend also give a word of reassurance that the budget next week will seek to encourage and support those who save and provide for their own future? >> my honorable friend is entirely right. we have got to make sure that, in what we do, we actually help those who try to do the right thing, to save and to look after themselves and their families. the first thing that we have to do is keep control of inflation, to keep the bank of england independent, to make sure that the budget supports the tough approach on inflation, which is the worst thing for savers. the second thing that we can do is make sure that we do not discourage saving by having so many people reliant on a means test. that is why we are committed to linking the state pension back to earnings. but what i would say is this -- there are no easy ways of reducing this deficit. some people believe that it can be got all from one area or all from another. i am afraid that it is going to be a difficult task. we will do everything we can

we will now move to senator graham. >> thank you very much, mr. buffett and mr. mcdaniel said, per your insightful comments. mr. mcdaniel, you said that inc. the research into its rating process. the chart that is about to be -- ced to g >> can we place it where it was before? >> be real time keeps ticking. >> newborn. >> this chart indicates -- move on. >> this chart indicates securities that were rated by moody's. the blue and the red or the cdo's. the first of the yellow boxes is in october 2006. it was something south of $10 billion issued. when a new peace research service issued a report -- moody's research service issued a report saying that the u.s. housing market downturn is in full swing due to single-family housing production, house prices are falling at an increesing -- in a increasing number of areas. the word crash is used to describe the situation in areas of the country that represented about half of the outstanding mortgages. how was that information inc. and to the ratings process is of the new peace? >> the analysts and ratings -- moody's. the

let me ask you about the comments of senator lindsey graham, alluding to the decision from 2005 that the senate would not put it in a filibuster except in cases of extreme situations with regard to supreme court nominees. does the elena kagan nomination reach that level? guest: it probably does not. senator lindsey graham was referring to a deal five years ago in which there was a huge partisan standoff in the senate where democrats were refusing to bring a collection of george w. bush's more conservative nominees to a vote. the republicans were threatening with a call the nuclear option, essentially a very aggressive parliamentary move to end the filibusters of judicial nominees. now the situation has the issue of your foot. it is the republicans now who would have the power to filibuster. the deal was it would be only an extraordinary circumstances that judges were out of the mainstream that a filibuster would be allowed. you did not even here is senator tom coburn, one of the more conservative, saying that yesterday. the odds of a filibuster nominee are small. host: as tributes co

. >> last question, is the purpose ofhe graham commission. what changes should be made for the future. >> thank you mr. chairman. good to see you. i wanted to ask you a couple of questions. just to make i am clear about them. many of thendations apply to floating vessels. but i think this could potentlly leave out about 1/3 of what are called mobile offshore drilling units. only one third of those would be considered floaters so, are you consering that definition and have a tighter consideration and make sure we don't have a loophole or is something i missing about the difference between these facilities? maybe mr. black is better to answer this. i don't know. >> let me just say we are aware of the distinction and the moratorium in place applies deep water drilling. the notice that i tald about earlier that impose a safety requirements for dri occur is now in the shallow water waters i will have steve black comment on the concept of the vessel. >> senator, thank you. if i understand your question correctly, theres usually a different risk pro

i'm calling in about your lindsay graham comment. i think i take exception about elections result. republicans in the senate take this business as usual attitude. with nominee from this president in that the white house we're dealing with. they are fools because this man is a transformational president. this is not a business as usual country club setting with a senate just gives and asked appointed questions and you know, yeah and concerned about what the thoughts are. this is a man that's transformational they need all 41 to put her down. bye. guest: it takes some civil majority to confirm someone to any federal office including the supreme court. the senate has a filibuster rule and with 60 votes, you can overcome that. and the democrats and independents have 59. in theory if all republicans ban together to fill i buster her. we'll note however elena kagan is introduced as judiciary committee by her two home state senators. john kerry and john or scott prawn. i don't know senator brown said whether or not to support her or not but would could suggest he's open to the idea if he'

we will now move to senator graham. >> thank you very much, mr. buffett and mr. mcdaniel said, per your insightful comments. mr. mcdaniel, you said that inc. the research into its rating process. the chart that is about to be -- ced to >> can we place it where it was before? >> be real time keeps ticking. >> newborn. >> this chart indicates -- move on. >> this chart indicates securities that were rated by moody's. the blue and the red or the cdo's. the first of the yellow boxes is in october 2006. it was something south of $10 billion issued. when a new peace research service issued a report -- moody's research service issued a report saying that the u.s. housing market downturn is in full swing due to single-family housing production, house prices are falling at an increesing -- in a increasing number of areas. the word crash is used to describe the situation in areas of the coury that represented about half of the outstding mortgages. how was that information inc. and to the ratings process is of the new peace? >> the analysts and ratings -- moody's. the analys

thank you. >> thank you very much, senator graham. >> thank you, mr. chairman. congratulations. i think it will be a good couple of days. i hope you somewhat enjoy it. and i think you will. like everyone else, i would like to acknowledge the passion of senator byrd, who was a worthy ally and a very good opponent when it came to the senate. my association with senator byrd during the gang of 14, i learned a lot about the constitution from him and as all of our colleagues remember, just a few years ago, we had a real -- real conict in the senate about filibustering judicial nominees and senator byrd and a few other senators who came up with the extraordinary circumstances test that would say that filibusters should only be used in extraordinary circumstances because elections have consequences and senator byrd was one of the chief authors of the language, defining what an extraordinary circumstance was. i just want to acknowledge in his passing is going to be as will to the senate. and the thing that we all need to remember about senator byrd is that all of us are choosing to judg

i'm watching lindsey graham to see what he does because he was one of the republicans who voted to confirm sonia sotomayor. one of the only ones. i just wish we knew a bit more about the documents that clinton library is releasing. we only have a quarter of the memos that she authored because she does have razor thin experience. i look at that and put that in context with some of the things that she said and some of the people she's looked up to and people with whom she's sort of organized herself with. i just wish that she had a bit more of a record and that we were able to read a little bit more of more than 160,000 pages of memos and documents and a quarter of which has been released so far. it seems tough to make a decision based on that. >> larry: stephanie, william rehnquist was chief justice and was never a judge and he was a presidential assistant. >> someone just an upper east side liberal as of friday and just moved back to l.a., she's a centrist. for many on the left, she's not a liberal justice. she shouldn't replace who she's replacing. this court has skewed very much to the r

. >> catherine graham back to us and ask us for lunch. i remember this much.ell. this is really an important management story. she blew my mind and with the question she asked about watergate. she had read everything we had written. she knew henry kissinger who was the national security adviser for nixon. she even read something in the "chicago tribune." i wonder what she was reading the damn "chicago tribune." nobody does and wash -- nobody does in chicago. she was sweeping all of this in. i was really stunned and later we described it as this capacity to manage mind on, hands off. intellectually involved but not telling us how to report or at it. at the end, she had the killer question. like a good ceo, which is when is the whole story going to come out? when do we find out the whole truth? i said that we felt very strongly that the burglars were being paid, criminal conspiracy, they come are -- the compartmentalized information. people were frightened, truly fearful to talk to us about this. my answer was never. she had this really awful to go probably neve

senator ben nelson, and then senator graham will follow center in nelson, and then we will take a 10-minute break. >> thank you and your wife in your family for your continuing assistance to our country. we appreciate it, and the country is in your debt for taking on this assignment. i would like to start off with a couple of questions that i had a couple of weeks ago about the afghan population and whether or not they believe that the country is going in the right direction with the nato and u.s. forces there directing it. one said that 59% of the afghan people were of that opinion. much has been made about the july 2011 withdrawal. is there a way that we can -- particularly with your leadership -- assure the afghan people that this is not a cut d run deadline or drop dead date for decision? that may impact what furtter exact sense -- acceptance of the effort on their behalf. >> we absolutely can, senators john. i have sought to do that with my encounters with the afghan government, and also with are pakistani partners with whom we work very hard to forge a good partnership. they've

certainly mccain, lieberman, graham, aren't going to oppose that.ng to be a shift in tactics in the next 6 to 12 months. i think there's a huge concern as we move forward about this time line. to be realistic about it it's kind of a joke. it's not viable. i think there's going to be another showdown here 6 or 12 months down the road about where we're really headed on this mission. >> larry: ari, is this comparable to mcclellan in the civil war, patton in world war ii? is it comparable? >> no, i don't think so, especially with macarthur and truman because that was a real policy difference. here you have the same support for counterinsurgency. the point just made is the big point. can we win in afghanistan? can we win when the president says the withdrawal will start in july 2011? or do we need to leave it more open ended? that's a debate to come. i was pleased to see the president's speech today. he talked about defeating al qaeda. he said we are a nation at war. the question is, will he back up his military, as that deadline gets closer, and remain

i think he might be like stedman graham where we think he is real, but he could be a hologram. >> larryyou like his hair? >> he is perfect. of course i do. >> larry: lebron james. the great basketball star. >> what does she do. baseball? here is what i asked of you. >> okay. >> larry: living in the projects, how did you stay out of gangs? >> well, i kept it reals. i found that if i found my homies, jesus, of course is my -- jesus is my homeboy. and after that i kept it reals with the peeps. and then i would -- i would hit -- i would start with my beat box, and i would take to it the bridge. >> larry: gotcha. finally, the question i asked of the american idols. who would you most like to sing a duet with? >> well, naturally i would like to sing a duet with rosemary clooney, but she's dead. >> larry: let's skip to the next one. then who alive? >> i would like to sing a duet with celine dion. a france. >> larry: who? >> celine dion. >> larry: oh, celine. >> and her husband. and her bebe. >> larry: she is going to have twins. what do you make of that? >> i can't even sleep nights, i'm so ex

Ñi>> senator mccain and graham y the leadership in kabul is shaky.o you think the president should consider replacing both ambassador eikenberry and holbrooke? >> i don't they get will be helpful for me to speculate on the kind of change. one change per day is enough. >> what about the civilian leadership being dysfunctional? >> i don't think it is dysfunctional. there has been some disagreement. that is pretty well known even before the article. between general mcchrystal and the ambassador, ambassador eikenberry. that disagreement was well known before then. now, there will be a different matter in the field and i don't know what the relationship will bait. i hope it will b much stronger. now that general petraeus is still taking over. i have to hope that the friction that did exist between general mcchrystal and eikenberry will now be dissipated with a new commander. >> general petraeus was a field commander and there was criticism by your fellow democrats in the senate. it was suggested that he had been cooking the books on the statistics in iraq

you, i am going to enter the final committee of the point that has been fairly made here by senator graham that the taliban knows that we are going to have fewer troops in afghanistan starting in july of 2011. your answer is accurate in how many fewer and the speed of the reductions. it is also true that the taliban knows that the afghan army which is an army that thesu support is going to be far, far bigger in july of 2011 than it is now. and i think it is also true that the afghan government understands that those reductions which will begin in 2011 -- i think the point of them is, one of the points, is that will give to that government a greater sense of urgency about their responsibility to take their own security on. as their obligation more than it is ours. is that something that you would agree with? >> absolutely. >> and they want to fully exercise their sovereignty including providing security for their own people. >> we have done well. if there is a quick comment? >> mr. chairman, if i might follow up in terms of messages that we might send to the taliban. i don't expect this to

my former colleague from florida senator bob graham, is the cochairman of this. we need to know what went wrong and what we do about it so it won't happen again before we allow those exploratory wells to go deep. now, the production wells, they can keep going. we're talking about exploratory wells. >> lehrer: you're talking about the wells already in production, leave them alone, no pause, no stopping. >> there's not the drilling in those. those are already done. >> lehrer: all right, senator barrasso, where do you come down on that distinction, between those that are already drilling-- i mean, already operating, versus those that haven't been drilled at all. >> i think we ought to be able to continue all the production that's currently ongoing but we also should not be pushing the pause button because i think this is another assault on the economy and the impact of the people who live in this area in terms of employment , in terms of productivity . you know, the interesting thing is when you look at the b.p.'s emergency response plan, it had to do with seals and

. >> ifill: but republican senator lindsey graham said the administration has sent mixed messages. >> the vice president has been quoted as saying about this particular topic, come july, we're going to begin leave in large numbers. you can bet on it. is his view of the policy correct? >> secretary gates has said, i believe in testimony, that he never heard vice president biden say that remark either. for what it's worth. >> well, it's worth a lot because he's saying one thing to one person allegedly and he's saying another thing to you. they don't reconcile themselves. that is exactly my point. it depends on who you seem to be talking to. because a lot of liberal people in this country are being told directly and indirectly we're getting out beginning july 2011. how fast, i don't know, but we're beginning to leave. somebody needs to get it straight without doubt what the hell we're going to do come july because i think it determines whether or not someone in afghanistan is going to stay in the fight. (gun fire). >> ifill: for now that fight is still a struggle. control of the southern

. >> reporter: south carolina's lindsey graham was the only committee republican to vote for sonia sotomayor's nomination to the supreme court last year. he said it's hardly unexpected that kagan is a political liberal. >> what did i expect from president obama? just about what i'm getting. there are a lot of people who are surprised. well, you shouldn't have been if you were listening. i look forward to trying to better understand how you will be able to take political activism, association with liberal causes, and park it when it becomes time to be a judge. that to me is your challenge. >> reporter: after listening to committee members' views for several hours it was the nominee's turn to have her initial say. in her opening statement the 50-year-old kagan promised to be impartial and fair. she told senators she would be properly deferential to the wishes of congress. >> what the rule of law does is nothing less than to secure for each of us what our constitution calls the blessings of liberty. those rights and freedoms that promise of equality that have defined this nation since its foundin

former florida senator bob graham and former epa chief william riley will head the panel. >> i'm directing them to report back in six months with options for how we can prevent and mitigate the impact of any future spill that result from off-shore drilling. >> reporter: the president also discussed a separate investigation of possible criminal liability. to that end, u.s. attorney general eric holder was on the gulf coast today meeting with his state counterparts. >> we have already instructed all relevant parties to preserve any documents that may shed light on the facts surrounding this disaster. as our review expands in the days ahead, we will be meticulous. we will be comprehensive. and we will be aggressive. >> reporter: in towns all along the gulf coast even where the oil hasn't come ashore yet, people have been following raptly the news of the oil spill. this is the town named after the pirate jean lafeet who helped andrew jackson in the war of 1812. in this town some people are angry. some people are just resigned. but they're all deeply worried about their futures. while the feder

in the words of senator lindsey graham who worked closely with senator kerrey on the initial climate change energy legislation, he said republicans to work on the bill for months, there is "no where near the 60 votes to save the polar bear to get from the new orleans newspaper, what about the local seafood? the headline, as the local seafood supplies dwindle, restaurants are forced to get credit. the coast guard is telling bp, a little too slow. bp officials are expected to come back with alternatives today. the president will meet with executives on wednesday. if you go to a certain website, uppight citizens brigade -- this is their take on the situation of the oil spill. calm down. >> it will destroy all the fish. >> look at that. >> it is encouraging on my map . of map >> laptop. >> wait, i have a brilliant -pidea. >> ok, you have to hurry up. i think the public is getting suspicious. >> didn't workk >> oh my god, we are really screwed now. >> now there's coffee and garbage. >> wait, i have an idea. >> damn, i really thought that would work. >> well, maybe it does not work right a

graham was for, i made a mistake. the market did not discipline itself. in fact, the market took extraordinarily irresponsible steps. what i hear, i tell my friend from new jersey, the people saying is, don't let the big guys trample on us. don't let the big guys put us at great risk. don't let the big guys make decisions that they take the risk and we take the loss. that's what i hear the people saying. and that's what i think this deal is designed to respond to. this week mr. boehner compared reforming wall street to killing an ant with a nuclear weapon. that may sound colorful, but this is the greatest economic crisis that any of us, and i'm looking around this floor, have experienced in our lifetimes. and i'm closer to experiencing the last one than any of you on the floor. but none of us, even at my stage, were alive during the great depression. so this is the first time that we have experienced such a deep, deep recession. but i will tell you, the eight million americans whose jobs it took away, i think it was -- think -- away think it was a mighty

lindsey graham as well on the legal war -- were on terror. there is some substance, but it is surrounded by platitudes that we have come to expect. host: it seems that yes today and there was more talk yesterday and the day before about thurgood marshall and "the roberts scored." depending on whether you are democrat or republican. democrat -- democrat spring of the roberts scored and -- why all this talk about justices? guest: democrats clearly want to make a point of comparing and contrasting this nominee with what the roberts court has done the past couple of years. there is a feeling that chief justice john roberts came before them in 2005 trying to get that seats and he said he would be a neutral umpire, and yet he voted conservatively in virtually every single case, especially in cases involving big business. that is something that bothers the democrats. republicans are trying to link elena kagan, some of them, to the very liberal views of thurgood marshall. which, she said that, you are not voting for justice thurgood marshall, he has

the answer to that isyes. >> last question, is the purpose of the graham commission. what changes should be made for the future. >> thank you mr. chairman. good to see you. i wanted to ask you a couple of questions. just to make i am clear about them. many of the rations apply to floating vessels. but i think this could potentially leave out about 1/3 of what are called mobil offshore drilling units. only one third of those would be considered floaters so, are you considering that definitio and have a tighter consideration and make sure we don't have a loophole or is there something i am missing about the difference between these facilities? maybe mr. black is better to answerthis. i don't know. >> let me just say we are aware of the distinction and the moratoum in place applies deep water drilling. the notice that i talked earlier that impose a safety requirements for drillwill our w water waters i will have steve black comment on the concept of the vessel. >> senator, thank you. if i undstand your question correctly, there usually a different risk profile. the recom

. >> a live look here at senator john mccain and lindsey graham. we are alive at -- live at a senate armed services committee meeting. you may have seen a few moments ago they were hearing from general david petraeus, who took ill. he has left the room. they gaveled the meeting into recess. as you can see, conversations going on at that hearing table. this. the house in session today. they are in recess until about 11:30. on c-span3, a hearing on the gulf coast oil spill. you are watching live coverage on c-span. >> general petraeus appears to be doing very well, and we will make a decision as to whether to proceed in hopefully a few minutes. he is eating and has enough water to drink coming in here this morning. he appears to be doing much better. again, we will make a decision hopefully in a few minutes as to whether we are going to proceed this morning or not. until then we will stand in recess. >> we are looking live at the senate armed services committee. the hearing in recess now. they were hearing from general david petraeus, who took ill to

thank you. >> thank you very much, senator graham. >> thank you, mr. chairman. congratuations. i think it will be a good couple of days. i hope you somewhat enjoy it. and i think you will. like everyone else, i would like to acknowledge the passion of senator byrd, who was a worthy ally and a very good opponent when it came to the senate. my association with senator byrd during the gang of 14, i learned a lot about the constitution from him and as all of our colleagues remember, just a few years ago, we had a real -- real conflict in the senate about filibustering judicial nominees and senator byrd and a few other senators who came up with the extraordiiary circumstances test that would say that filibusters should only be used in extraordinary circumstances because elections have consequences and senator byrd was one of the chief authors of the language, defining what an extraordinary circumstance was. i just want to acknowledge in his passing is going to be as will to the senate. and the thing that we all need to remember about senator byrd is that all of us are choosing to ju

in 1999, a bill called the graham-leech-blyly bill repealed that act and created a new kind of holding company they called a financial holding company. i have introduced legislation, h.r. 4773, the to return prudent lending banking act which would take the glass-steagall separations and carry them beyond the federal reserve system to all federally insured depository institutions and require they separate commercial banking and investment arms as well as repealing the financial holding companies language from the graham-leech-blyly act. the bill before us late they are week will not do that. it allows them to conduct this integrated activity under this holding company structure. but separation is what's needed. but it is not what will end up being voted on on this floomple equally, something called the volcker rule was watered down in the conference committee this proposal by american economist and former value reserve chairman paul volcker would have restricted banks from making certain kinds of speculative investments if they are not on behalf of their customers. volcker argued that s

senator, graham, i'm very encouraged by everything he said since his appointment.o i'm -- i for one am encouraged by what i've been hearing from the cearimission ts far and by what the president has said about, you know, the commission being able to investigate whatever they need to, to make sure that this boesn't hntepen gisain. >> buffalo, new york, greg, welcome. caller: you look like you're about ready to cry. let me give you a little advice. we all love the birds, and you got to take it easy. you folks are getting excited. i love your smile. that's what i want to see. listen to me, searie birds are going to die. i'm worried about those folks with the shrimp so they can have their gumbo. the ocean is going to handle a lot of this. we'll get it cleaned up. it's not going to be a 100-year thing. take it easy. we all love the birds, but it's not the end of the world. guest: that was an entertaining call. i feel like i have a pretty good sense of humor. it's difficult for me to find my humor when we have an unprecedented environmental disaster occurring in the gulf

. >> catherine graham back to us and ask for lunch. i remember this much. we knew her a little bit.ery well. this is really an important management story. shelew my mind and with the question she asked about watergate. she had read everything we had written. she knew henry kissinger who was the national security adviser for nixon. e even read something the "chicago tribune." i wonder what she was reading the damn hicago tribune." nobody does and wash -- nobody does in chicago. she was sweeping all of this in. i was really stunn and later we described it as this capacity to manage mind on, hands off. intellectually involved but not telling us how to report or at it. at the end, she had the killer question. like a good ceo, which is when is the whole story going to come ou when do we find out the whole truth? i said that we felt very strongly that the burglars were being paid, criminal conspiracy, they come are -- the compartmentalized information. people were frightened, truly fearful to talk to us about this. answer was never. she had this really awful to go probably never. >> i sai

on behalf of the house, i thank sir alan budd and his fellow committee members, geoffrey dicks and grahamarker, for their highly professional effort. in the space of just seven weeks, i believe we have established the office for budget responsibility as a permanent improvement to economic policy making and the transparency of government. the legislation to put the office on a statutory footing will now be drawn up and i hope it will command all-party support. i now turn to what that fiscal mandate will be. the view of the international community was clearly expressed at the latest g20 meeting, and we will be taking the same message to the g20 summit in toronto this weekend. surplus countries should do more to support global demand. so we welcome china's announcement to come off the dollar peg. at the same time, the international community believes countries with high fiscal deficits need to accelerate the pace of fiscal consolidation. that is precisely what we now propose to do. the formal mandate we set is that the structural current deficit should be in balance in the final year of the

in the meeting will be reset rakowski, republican of alaska, richard lugar, lindsey graham, and joe liebermanpublican line, go ahead. caller: i had a question. $2 billion was given to a brazilian oil company down there. i believe george soros had $900 million invested in it. if the oil wells are shut down and they move somewhere else, who take their place? guest: i think the caller has a great question. one of the concerns about an overly broad moratorium is thht these rigs, which are multimillion dollar rigs, will be moved to other parts of the world, perhaps including south america, brazil, maybe off of africa. and they will never come back. when they leave, we lose the jobs that are now held by americans that work on the rigs. we lose the jobs of all the people that work on the supply chips -- the supply ships and all of the steel manufacturing and everything associated with that industry. your point about mr. soros an illustrates the point that we have a lot at stake. we have american jobs, the american economy at stake, and if we act irrationally, if we enact an overly broad moratorium,

conservative senator lindsay graham said every day we spend arguing about whether or not we're goingo put a price on global warming pollution is another day that the chinese, germans and span yards among others are going to get ahead of us in making clean energy our future. that's why it's important to put a declining limit on carbon pollution cl which will then drive investment towards geothermal and advanced bios other countries are making and that are pulling ahead of us in the ries to make the clean energy technologies that we need this century. host: what provision do you see being included in energy legislation because of what's happening in the gulf coast? >> well, we like to see a number of things. first, we believe that there ought to be a goal in there that says we will reduce our oil use by 27 barrels a day by 20 30. second, let's invest in natural gas-powered medium and heavy trucks and buses that's been promote bid t boone pickens. third, let's make plugin hybrid or all electric cars, we need places where people can recharge them. let's also invest in the factories to bu

dean kagan also joined with three over law school deans to write a letter in opposition to senator graham'segislation for determining who was an enemy combatant for the war on terror. she most recently, the nominee served as solicitor general for little over a year. but her shortenure there has not been without controversy. in her first appellate argument, miss kagan told the court that the first amendment would allow the federal government of banniban banning pam plephlets -- thomas pain's common sense. to suggest that the government now has the power to spuppress that kind of speech is breath taking. miss kagan approved a filing of a brief to the supreme court asking that it strike down the provisions of the arizona act which limits companies from knowingly hiring illegal immigrants. she did this after the 9th circuit had up held the law. this is an important legal issue which the court will resolve during the next term. despite comments to the committee that she would vigorousry ly defend the don't don't tell policy if challenged in court, the action she has taken as solicitor general to

and i'm extraordinarily pleased that bob graham and bill reilly have agreed to be its co-chairs. served two terms as florida's governor, represented florida in the senate for almost two decades. and during that time he earned a reputation as a champion of the environment, leading the most extensive environmental protection effort in the state's history. bill is chairman emeritus of the board of the world wildlife fund, and is also deeply knowledgeable of the oil and gas industry. he also was epa administrator during the first bush administration, serving during the exxon valdez disaster. so i can't think of two people who will bring greater experience or judgment to this task. i personally want to thank both of them for taking on this arduous assignment -- for demonstrating a great sense of duty to this country. very soon i'll appoint five other distinguished americans, including leaders in science and engineering, to join them. and they'll work alongside other ongoing reviews, including an independent examination by the national academy of engineers. and i've authorized the comm

an executive order establishing this national commission, and i am extraordinary pleased that bob graham and bill reilly have agreed to be as cochairs. bob turner -- bob served two terms as florida's governor, represented florida in the senate for almost two decades. he earned reputation as a champion of the environment, leading the most extensive environmental protection effort in the state's history. bill is chairman emeritus of the board of the world wildlife fund, and is also deeply knowledgeable of the oil and gas industry. he was also epa administrator during the first bush administrator, serving during the exxon valdez disaster. i cannot think of two people who will bring greater experience or judgment to this task. i personally want to thank both of them for taking on this arduous assignment, for demonstrating a great sense of duty to this country. very soon i will appoint five other distinguished americans, including leaders in science and engineering, to join them. and the war -- and they will work alongside other ongoing reviews, including an independent examination by the nat