grassley: is the process that we're in morning business? the presiding officer: the senate is in a quorum call. mr. grassley: i ask the calling of the quorum be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. the majority leader. objection is heard. quorum call: the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: i ask the call of the quorum be terminated. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: mr. predent, we're trying to finish all the issues, work through the issues we need to address before we can finish this work period. i want to make it very clear to everyone, as i said a couple hours ago here on the floor, we can finish all of our work tomorrow. but if we don't finish it tomorrow, we're going to continue to work on friday, saturday, sunday, monday and tuesday until late in the afternoon. we have to get done a few things that are important. i know there are a lot of things that we aren't going to be able to do, but that's the way it's been all congress. i'm prepared to consent to move along on one very significant

host: we are talking with senator grassley of iowa.f you would like to join the conversation, call -- you don't serve on the foreign relations committee, but we would like to hear your perspectives on news that the u.s. ambassador to libya was killed in a. rocket is is breaking news. what would be the implications on this with our relations overseas with libya and egypt? guest: it ought to have very serious implications. no country, when you have an embassy in a foreign country, it's just like american soil. it ought to be respected and protected by. we do the same thing in washington. consulates around the united states. we make sure they are adequately protected. particularly, when you get a rocket attack like that, it is an act of war and all to be treated as an act of war. i don't have the details yet. if we had an embassy personnel murdered, that is a sad situation. you have to express regret for the families that are involved. but the most important thing is we have to show the world that we are a nation that lives by internation

we got to work every day. >>> senator chuck grassley joins me next.nds. >>> farmers haven't gotten any breaks from mother nature this year an they're not getting any from congress either. just 18 days to go before the massive farm bill expires. a coalition of groups have rallied outside the capitol wednesday in a last ditch effort to get the louse to act. the senate passed its version way back in june but a bunch of house conservatives are now breaking with leadership and pushing to finish the bill before lawmakers leave town next week. so far no vote has been scheduled. as the iowa governor explained last month, the reason has nothing do with those struggling farmers. >> the biggest problem i think a lot of people have is the massive expansion of the food stamp program. we have more people on food stamps than ever before. they've liberalized the rules and a lot of people think they need to tighten that up. >> it's true that funding for the food stamp program makes up about 80% of the farm bill. $770 billion out of $970 billion price tag. but should o

senator grassley said a coworker today.final case for the sabres defense of the law called the corrupt at. at the turn of the last century, montana's aura of corruption was so thick that it extended to this body from a committee that expressed horror at the amount of money poured into politics in montana. montana's recognize this for what it was good by initiative come in three quarters of montana voters including farmers, miners, ranchers, businessmen, democrats and republicans alike, including staunch republican newspaper editor who coincidently cells to migrate great, great grandfather enacted the current processes act in 1812. for century the law of democratic accountability by requiring individuals, real people to stand behind campaign money spent on behalf of their corporate interests. this year the supreme court ended an unsigned opinion. they doubted the willingness to consider montana's experience of corruption that they vote to deny, review rather than participate in the courts extraordinary summary reversal of a

letter, grassley atf documents. in which there are a number of comments we alluded to. >> without objection, so ordered. with that, we recognize the gentle lady from florida, ms. adams we met thank you, mr. chairman. i want to think you for letting me join the committee. mr. horwitz, i have sat here. as you know, come from a law-enforcement background and i sit here and i listen and i am very concerned that we had an operation that appeared to have no true oversight from anyone at an upper level. when an exit strategy is requested in march of 2010, and nothing happens, i have a few questions as to what happened to this agency? >> i think i need to go back to maybe even before. because as i've worked with this agency, years ago, in law enforcement, they had these oversight protections. you could not get a wiretap without going and getting someone from above review it and approve it and have it taken to a judge to be signed. you recall that? >> there was an evolving practice as you indicated, and the atf, that removed

compromise with them elongated the process by months and months to try to get people like chuck grassley from iowa and others on board and they voted no every single republican ok i mean in the end that we had to ditch that and i say i know the public it all is fair enough but the idea of the robbing let me go to you i mean but do people care about that now because people vote now are there circumstances how they feel now a lot of people don't think about history. well i want to say something i think it's the tip of the cation of the audacity of barack obama i think health care absolutely has to be reform and anybody that goes into emergency room anywhere knows that but at a time when we're in a horrible economic crisis when obama was elected one of the first things he has to ram down everybody's throat is this huge health care bill i think it was a mistake bill clinton told him that and he doesn't listen there's an arrogance with obama when adam was talking earlier about congress and both houses not working with president obama it's president obama's job as the leader of the free world

grassley: assistant u.s. attorney c.j. williams described miss rose's ability to quickly comprehend complex issues. former assistant u.s. attorney bob tigue who retired last year after 31 years said thursday that rose will make an excellent federal judge. he went on to say -- quote -- "she has experience in the courtroom and as an administrator. she has a broad view of the federal legal system and she's very intelligent. stephanie will make a good addition to the federal bench" end of quote. u.s. district judge mark bennett said -- quote -- "she is very skilled, she doesn't have a personal agenda, she goes by the law" -- end quote. u.s. district judge john jarvey of the southern district said her prosecution record is impressive, noting -- quote -- "stephanie has won the respect of prosecutors and defense lawyers" -- end of quote. miss rose is a member of the iowa academy of trial lawyers. membership in the academy is limited to just 250 attorneys whose prime-hour focus is on trial advocacy. membership in this distinguishe

task.horowitz says: "we found no evidence that the attorney general wassaware in 2010, before senator grassley's letter, of operation fast and furious and the tactics associated with it."((on cam tag)) horowiiz was careful to include in his report and his testimony frequent comparisons to operation wide receiver, a similar gun-smuggling investigation conducted by the phoenix a-t-f office during theebush era. the inspector the committee in january... for a progress report on whether the changes his staff has recommended are being immlemented by the justice department. in washington, james rosen, fox news. 3 3 3 3 3 a bus beatdown ,3 33 3 3 a bus beatdown at the hands of a mom. why she says she'ssnot sorry for attacking a 17 year old boy. the morning news is invaded by the latest dance craze. we'll show you what happened as the am crew got their psy on. 3 a ... a@uÑçñqañ1 mother attacks... after her son ...is bullied... on the bus. bus. this... is... felecia phillips... , throwing punches ...and wrestling... with... a... 17 year old student..../ she... says... the boy has been bullying... her son

uma: iowa senator charles grassley is the ranking republican on the judiciary committee. welcome.at to have you here today, sir. >> glad to be with you, uma. uma: let me ask you this. do you think this is the first step in restoring public faith and confidence back in the justice department and does it go far enough? >> will it's going to go a long ways particularly from the standpoint of an inspector general who did a pretty good report, very good report, and he showed his independence as he ought to have and i'm sure he had a great deal of political pressure not to say some of the things he did but that is the purpose of an inspector general. when you have transparency, you have accountability, and the more accountability you have, and if this brings accountability to the justice department, obviously it is going to help. uma: i know there were a lot of concerns about the use of executive privilege in this whole investigation. what do you think in terms of the way the report handled this concern? >> well, first of all, there's some documents at the white house that they didn't e

i also want to thank senator grassley's staff, in particular jeremy parris, ted lehman, and senator grassley's chief of staff, david young, for their help and support in advancing the nomination. on my staff, i want to thank my chief of staff, brian alberg, dan goldberg, derek miller and pam smith, all who have worked very hard to make sure that we had a -- a -- a thorough interview process, a thorough vetting of the candidates and to make sure that we got to the point today where her vote will be coming up later this afternoon. mr. president, stephanie rose possesses an abundance of the personal and professional qualities that we expect from those that we consider to take on the profound responsibilities of a federal judge. she is a superb attorney and among jurists, prosecutors and the defense bar, she has a reputation as someone who is unfailingly fair and ethical and who possesses exceptional legal ability, intellect, integrity, and judgment. as charles larson, the former united states attorney for 9 northern districthenorthern disr president george w. bush, wrote to the judiciary committe

anybody allied with the gps community, and senator grassley put a hold on the fcc nominees for months. i don't think they'll forget the rope they didn't get confirmed for six months is because of this lightsquared issue. so it's a controversial topic, they're trying to find more spectrum or a swap. they're still trying to find something to build the network. >> you wanted to add something? >> also a wait to share spectrum and lightsquared indicated they're interested in doing that. i wanted to bring back the topic of government spectrum. that where the government owns the most spectrum, and the chairman of the fcc has actually been meeting with military leaders to try to explain how some of the spectrum either underutilized, could return to the market, and so i don't think anything is going to happen in time for the 2014 auction, but this industry needs -- has already -- is already up on he hill lobbying for even another auction, another spectrum auction, after this one. so, they don't see their needs being alleviated by the incentive auctions. >> i think that's absolutely correct. ba

anyone who is allied with the gps committee -- senator grassley has put a hold on the new nominees for months. i do not think any of them will forget that the reason they did not get confirmed for six months or so was because of this light squared issue. i think they are still trying to find a way to find some other spectrum, maybe another swap out there. they are still trying to build their networks. >> there is also a way to share spectrum. and i think light squared has indicated they are interested in doing that, too. but i also wanted to bring back the topic of government spectrums. that is where the government owns the most spectrum. and the chairman of the sec has been meeting with our military leaders to try to explain how some of the spectrum that is either underutilized or used only in certain areas or at certain times could return to the market. i do not think that is going to happen in time for the 2014 auction, but this industry is already on the hill lobbying for even another spectrum auction after this one. they do not see their needs been alleviated by the incentive opti

a year later senator chuck grassley said the task force was just a press release committee.y were not making it a priority and now there were these generalities how by any objecttive measure they were bringing cases but they were all small-fry cases. they were not addressing why they were not investigating high level wall street executives, and it left us very frustrated. it left me feeling like its nothing less than an outrage, a stain on the american justice system. i felt like i had to leave town to tell the truth as i saw it at the committee. >> eliot: you have one of those platinum resumÉs. i'm not going to list everything but law school, the white house most skilled lawyer, and then for you to hear pipeline cases. either you sit at the top and you ask the hard questions and create the intellectual framework for those cases yourself. if you sit there passively, it's not going to happen. i'm with you. this was not just benign neglect but affirmative decision not to bring the cases that needed to be brought. goldman a couple of weeks ago getting the complete pass even tho

anyone who's allied with the gps commitment, and senator grassley put a hold on the, fcc nominees for months. i don't think they're going to forget that the reason they didn't get confirmed for six months was because of this light squared issue. -- lightsquared issue. they're still trying to find a way to find some other spectrum, maybe there's some sort of swap out there. i'm not sure exactly what the solution is, but they're still trying to find something to build their network. >> host: elizabeth wasserman, it looks like you wanted to add something. >> guest: oh, there's also a way to share spectrum, and lightsquared has indicated they're interested in doing that too, but i also wanted to bring back the topic of government spectrum since that is where, um, the government owns the most spectrum. and, um, the chairman of the fcc has actually been meeting with military leaders to try to, you know, explain how, um, how some of the spectrum that's either underutilized or used for in many only certain areas or at certain times could be, um, could return to the market. and, um, so i don't

leading republican, chuck grassley and congressman lamar smith released this statement. saying while potentially millions of illegal immigrants will be permitted to compete with american workers for jobs, there seems to be a literal if any mechanism preventing fraudulent applications and the program beginning this month before promises of what is going to be a tight election white house print one in which the hispanic vote will be pivotal. joining us now is josÉ antonio vargas. featured this month. >> the cover of time magazine. the piece entitled we are american, just not legal. it is good to have you here. >> is very great be here. lou: did you hear the president say that he is like a crusader there -- he didn't do anythinge. immigration when he had the house and the senate. he doesn't do anything on the three, he can do anything that is effectively implemented for probably three years by making a sublic announcement last friday. you have to be sorely. disappointed in the sky. >> actually, i am not. because -- [talking over each other] lou: are you still undocumented?

senator grassley said there are over 9000 non-citizens voting in iowa. every time anybody bothers to look, there is a lot of fun qualified voters voting. for that is an example because people both in new york once and vote in florida again. whenever you dig below the rock, you find this problem, and the problem is no better digs deep. if it is not a close election. >> you are saying the evidence comes from predominantly those close elections? >> i do not know what your margin of victory was, but nobody will check to see who the voters were. there is documented instances when it does look like -- >> one would presume if there were conspiracies or movements or plans to vote and numbers fraudulently, which presumes an intent to violate the law, just mistakes that occur when somebody puts down the wrong address or votes in the wrong district, that those kinds of plants or intentional violations of law would be in some way detected, even in non-close elections. >> i do not know if conspirators say they committed a felony. when half the time poll watchers are

we will show you a portion come up with remarks from senator leahy and senator grassley. a look. >> the person involved -- let me ask you this coming from a small state. in your experience of montana, including a small state like vermont, deeply that limitation in direct spending provides protection against corruption? do you agree with that? >> mr. chairman leahy, id for the judgment of the montana people who call this restriction on corporate spending a correct practice. in the record that we developed, the record that the supreme court never look back to in our case, we had hoped them talking about the problem in montana enlarged out of state corporations. that was the problem a century ago and. that is a problem today. overwhelmingly, there are campaign issues. the montana people saw it correct. we will have to see what happens this year or we do not have the protection of the law. i believe we are seeing the effects of outside corporate spending in our state. >> there is this double standard. do you see this as a double standard? >> its greatest moments have been whe

people like senator grassley who used to be very much in favor of the kind of plan that mitt romney hadachusetts and he wanted to take it national and democrats, say, wait, here is a guy we can work with. but, other unanimous that kind of thing, the president was in challenging times, we know that. the economy --. >>neil: should he give that a rest in we know you inherited a mess. maybe move on to another one. do you think the american people are in a mood to hearing my god here it goes again with the "here's the mess." >>guest: we do not think all republicans are evil. you know that is not true the i get along personally with paul ryan. we have strong differences on the issues. when it comes to the situation the president inherited, it is reasonable to point out we were losing 800,000 jobs a month. and we now have seen 24 straight months of positive private sector jobs. >>neil: that is another place where you move the numbers. now that they talking about look at the four million jobs created so that is the new chant. not when he assumed office when it got going in february of 2010 but

>> the letter you heard referred to there, was the one that doj sent to republican senator chuck grassleybruary 4, 2011, in which the department falsely claimed it always tried to intercept weapons headed into mexico. it took doj ten months to correct that false information and the i.g. concluded senior holder aides should have done that much sooner. >> you had people who didn't know information, making substantive edits to a letter, along with people who did know information providing inaccurate information. and sorting out how that letter ended up the way it did and blaming one person or two people for the particular information was the difficulty we had. >> lannie brewer's deputy, jason weinstein, resigned from the justice department yesterday. shep. >> shep: james rosen on capitol hill. thank you. the elderly woman who experts say ruined a 19th century painting of jesus nowen wants royalties. it was a botched restoration to hear it from her and it's now an internet sensation. the before and after. the woman tried to fix it, i mean, come on. the painting is inside a spanish church that

in 45 minutes, senator charles grassley from iowa talks

when the letter came in from senator grassley nine months later or so in january 2011, we believe, as the altman testified, that he should have alerted the department to that. those were the findings we may. as to what the discipline and decision is as to discipline or administrative or other conduct, that is really a decision ultimately under our system to the attorney general. i have the authority to investigate, make the findings, which i did, and then is that to the attorney general to decide what, if any, discipline to impose. >> thank you, mr. chairman, and mr. horowitz for the very thorough job you did. i appreciate the way you connected the dots and drew the line so we understood where there was instability. my line of questions really goes to why this investigation has gone on for so long and why the public was concerned about it. the face of this investigation, the poster boy, as it were, has been the attorney general of the united states. the committee has had hearings where over and over again, it was alleged that gun walking was known at the highest levels, even by the at

danny breuer received an e-mail that was the false letter given to senator grassley.e wants us to believe that he responded good job, that in fact he sent it to his personal e-mail, about he not only never read it, but for ten months he saw no connection of the false statements the of gun walking and what he clearly new about past gun walking. so to that extent there's an absence of candor. >> that's a nice way to put it. did you believe him? do you think he is being straight with you? >> no, i don't and i think he's trying to shave the edges. as an officer of the court and as an attorney, you are not supposed to do that and i think that's where tray gowdy, as a former prosecutor, he gets it that you've got to be absolutely candid and honest or the whole system falls apart. lanny brueur was not candid and onest. he missed an opportunity to correct a record he had to know was false. >> should the attorney general have used -- to use tray's words, to can him and why don't you think he did? >> he has want the us to believe he acted quickly and decisively and made correct

that from the iowa republic senator chuck grassley to c-span this morning.ay on "studio b," former state department spokesman p.j. crowley noted we are still very early in the investigation. >> we don't know all that we need to know about what happened yesterday. but certainly this would be consistent with the struggle that we have been dealing with since 9/11. a struggle against al qaeda, either its formal affiliates or sympathetic supporters. >> the u.s. is set to give libya as much as $20 million in aid this year. tonight, some lawmakers are calling for the u.s. to cut that off. and now the u.s. embassies in egypt and six other nations warn that the violence in libya could spark more anti-american protests and more attacks. wendell goler at the state department for us tonight. we can't know yet, despite the statements that have been made today, but if this is an act of war, who is the enemy? >> well, shep folks here feel it's too early to tell. libya is really controlled by a number of militias that banded together to take down muammar qaddafi and now jea

>> there is in the senate -- senator grassley, senator moran and senator brown have been supportive.what is the production tax credit do for rural communities? it is a cash crop that's predictable every year. most of the wind blows in agricultural areas. we also have manufacturing states like yours in the midwest that are dying to regain a manufacturing footing and so again, i just -- this is -- beyond tone-deaf on the part of the romney campaign. let me say one other thing the wind industry doesn't expect to have the subsidy forever. they want it phased out. but it is a fledgling industry. it needs these incentives. they've been helpful in building our manufacturing base back to where we want it to be. >> jennifer: you personally have been testifying dozens of times on the senate floor about this. and do you think that in lame duck, it can get renewed? what's the likelihood of getting this production tax credit passed? >> it better get renewed in the lame duck. by waiting that long, we will have hurt the industry because a lot of projects are being put on hold, as you know, and what

look being as stiff as any two-by-four in the house while chuck grassley was out in iowa?within an administration that believes in trickle-down government. we believe in a philosophy according to the constitution we want to trickle government up to government. >> can someone get that man an empty chair? okay. better try someone else. how about ann romney working the female factor at a women for mitt rally in ohio? >> when did it become unpopular in america to be successful? we are not going to apologize for our success. and we are not going to apologize for america. >> that's funny. i don't remember anyone asking the romneys to apologize for their success. then again, no one apologized for america either, did they? let's get right to it with msnbc's lawrence o'donnell, host of "the last word" who joins us now live from the convention in charlotte. they are cheering behind you, lawrence. before focusing on the details of the first lady michelle obama's speech, what was your overall impression? this wasn't a kind of laundry list of thoughts thrown together in 30 minutes. thi

when the letter came in from senator grassley nine months later or so in january 2011, we believe, as the altman testified, that he should have alerted the department to that. those were the findings we may. as to what the discipline and decision is as to discipline or administrative or other conduct, that is really a decision ultimately under our system to the attorney general. i have the authority to investigate, make the findings, which i did, and then is that to the attorney general to decide what, if any, discipline to impose. >> thank you, mr. chairman, and mr. horowitz for the very thorough job you did. i appreciate the way you connected the dots and drew the line so we understood where there was instability. my line of questions really goes to why this investigation has gone on for so long and why the public was concerned about it. the face of this investigation, the poster boy, as it were, has been the attorney general of the united states. the committee has had hearings where over and over again, it was alleged that gun walking was known at the highest levels, even by the at

>> right, he doesn't know about this until early 2011 when senator charles grassley of iowa in his officels him about it, hands him a letter and says "i'd like you to look into this." he wasn't aware that there were two firearms at the scene of the bryan terry murder that were tied to this operation and he apparently-- the first thing he did was ask for an investigation by the inspector general, which is why this has come forward now. >> brown: now, is it therefore now up to eric holder as to what kind of disciplinary action is-- or whether there is any against the people that were cited? >> he's taken a couple of actions. weinstein's gone, ken melson, the former head of the a.t.f., has retired. and i'm told that the a.t.f. is now referring to the report to all the other employees who were there in-- are seen as responsible. i'm told by an official that he admonished lanny breuer for his failings here. but what we expect now is that there's going to be an internal process, some of these people are covered by civil servant rules and it takes time to see who is going to get forced out or an