so, harold really took me apart at that point. so my question for you, harold, is, you've been working hard now on many of these same issues, just as i did as the legal adviser. and i think you and i share a number of the same concerns. the problem is, is the legal adviser is not a solo operator inside an administration, or even inside the federal government. there are bureaucratic politics at play, where the defense department and the cia and the justice department and the white house may not agree with the views of legal adviser. as harold rightly said, to get a treaty through the senate, you have to get 67 votes through the senate. it's also an election year, this year, although in any year, unfortunately, there is just not strong support for international law and international institutions inside the united states. many of our senators tend to believe the treaties are things that we do to be nice to other countries, to be part of the international club, and fail to see that the reason that we enter into treaties is because the

that boy you keep talking about on the radio named harold ford, jr..hat would make you disagree with everything? she said i listened and believed all that up until yesterday. she said, i went to my kenner barden -- my granddaughter's kindergarten graduation. she said he walked into the auditorium and stood before all the kids, acknowledged their teachers, and started a speech about health education was important and how this graduation would not be their last. no sooner than when he started, all the kids fell asleep, and she said that did not stop him. he keptd talking and talking. when he was finally done, he shook all the hands of the students, took pictures with their parents and other family members. >> and radio post said, that is going to make you vote for him, because he shook hands with all the parents? she said what he did afterwards, when he finished taking pictures, he decided to go back in the kitchen where the kitchen staff was, and he took pictures with all them and did whatever they wanted to do. i realized then that he was going to be j

that boy you keep talking about on the radio named harold ford, jr..what would make you disagree with everything? she said i listened and believed all that up until yesterday. she said, i went to my kenner barden -- my granddaughter's kindergarten graduation. she said he walked into the auditorium and stood before all the kids, acknowledged their teachers, and started a speech about health education was important and how this graduation would not be their last. no sooner than when he started, all the kids fell asleep, and she said that did not stop him. he keptd talking and talking. when he was finally done, he shook all the hands of the students, took pictures with their parents and other family members. >> and radio post said, that is going to make you vote for him, because he shook hands with all the parents? she said what he did afterwards, when he finished taking pictures, he decided to go back in the kitchen where the kitchen staff was, and he took pictures with all them and did whatever they wanted to do. i realized then that he was going to be

harold practice by cases. he discovered, he had a remarkable career with the times of london and it is a great book. and i am rereading a couple of the books. "absolom absolom," william faulkner, which i go through line by line every few years it can also another book by a historic british historian alistair horne called "seven ages of paris" which is just a great history of paris. it is about his enjoyable history book as i've ever read. >> your book came out earlier this year. when is your next one? >> i don't know. we got in the top 10 for two or three weeks, and that was great. but it's kind of tough riding political books in this environment. unless you want to write a polemic, and that's not really my style. so i don't know. you know, actually, the best part of writing the book was the book tour. because we would go out and would actually have these great crowds and action would be republican and democratic and independent. we had a great -- it was like having townhall meeting all over the country. and w

in town we hit mid-20s on our stormcenter weather net in baltimore county and back to the west and harold carroll county. it is cold enough for it to be icy. a lot of main roads have been treated, and as kim pointed out, yes, if it looks wet it could very well be icy and as we are watching that storm depart off the coast and it did flair up. we hinted at this the last few days considering what happened over part of the weekened. storms have a tendency to push farther north and give us a harder hit. instead of 2 to 3 inches we wound up with 3 to 5 again the snow is done we have flurries back into the mountains and left over with fog but we should try to turn partly sunny as the storm pushes well out to see you can see the center of the storm at least on satle identity imagery off the coast. enough to pull it in our direction. okay. in reference to what is happening back towards the southwest. heavy rain across western and southern texas that is our next storm p. it appears as if all of the computer models have a pretty good handle on this being a major event. that does leave it open to a w

harold has his own problems understanding the health care debate the always seem to hear from the democratse republicans are stonewalling and all we hear from the republicans at that points the democrats will not take their ideas seriouslism then we hear from the democrats and president they are going to push their plan regardless. then there was this from robin in alexandria who commented on yesterday's weird news about the nude church. i say rock on. the body is beautiful as long as we take care of ourselves. sadly because of the exploitation of nudity we're taught at an early age that nudity is disgusting and shameful. i must admit the first time i visited a nudist beach i was nervous but after a while, it seemed natural to be natural. there are any number of natural things that most of us would acknowledge we don't really need to see all the time. just saying. we do need to see your e-mails. the address, mailbag@wusa9.com. and before we go some exciting news we want to share with you. starting monday, march 8, wusa 9 will offer you the first regularly scheduled 4:30 a.m. newscast. we re

i said harold, did you see on the news this morning president jimmy carter has made a statement that he intends to rid the world of nuclear weapons. he said it's the first time

. >> harold ford junior who is considering a run for the senate from new york was the keynote speakerat the new association of black and puerto rican legislative. the annual conference. senator gillibrand who holds the seat currently also spoke as did governor david paterson, there at the putting. and congressman charles rangel also speaking. this is about an hour and 20 minutes. >> jim and gary, thompson, senator schumer, senator gillibrand, attorney general cuomo, and controlled dinapoli, and all of you wonderful people who have come here to help this organization. i'd like to begin, in my remarks with a weekend where i began friday night in tribute to the late, honorable percy ellis sutton. [applause] >> but i would like to suggest that in only six weeks, we have started to make the chairman a mythological figure, and in some ways started to begin, why we remember him. he was an assemblyman, the borough president of manhattan, and ran for the mayor of the city of new york. but that's not why we remember him. he held a number of jobs, so many that i can't keep track of them. just th

>> let's see, and actually reading harold evans, buy paper chase which is a remarkable -- you talk about when the newspapers or in their heyday, carroll cracked spy cases and discovered he had a remarkable career in the times of london and it's a great book and i am reading a couple of other books by william faulkner i go through line by line every few years and another by british historian alistair horne which is a great history of paris. it is about his enjoyable history book as i have ever read secure but cannot earlier this year. when is your next one? >> i don't know. we got in the top ten for two or three weeks and that was great but it's kind of tough fighting political books and this environment unless you want to write a polemic and that's not really my style, so i don't know. the best part of writing the book was the book tour because we would go out and have these great crowds. would the democratic and republican and was like having town hall meetings all over the country and we were hearing back in june and july what is showing up in the polls now so that was the fun part of

i'm a fan of harold's too. i think she's getting a bad wrap.eps being said about her is she only raises money because chuck schumer helps her. she's an amazing fund-raiser and incredibly smart. oh, no. all about chuck schumer. she also gets the kind of jilted caroline kennedy social snob. when are we going to stop thinking certain donors in new york. a lot of those jilted kennedy people are supporting gillibrand. >> harold has a lot of people on his side too. >> a lot of people on his side. but i have had enough of guys who walk the walk and are very charming and women who do a huge amount of work and know about the detail are kind of dismissed. i think they are both bright people, but i think gillibrand is getting a bad wrap. >> why are you looking at us? >> i know you, and you too. you too. >> we have been up since 3:00 a.m. studying. >> exactly. >> studying all night and we didn't get the same grades. >> tina has actually writing blurb andrew young's paperback. >> revolting. >> high praise. >>> still ahead, debbie stabenow of michigan, gene

harold ford probably going to announce in the next couple of weeks.e, arizona senate, john mccain may be pull be 20 points ahead but his challenger is taking out his campaign parking lot yesterday. hayworth called for ten debates which mccain -- has mccain airing web ads like this one. we'll see. number four, kentucky senate, ran paul versus tray grayson. the nationally recruited candidate is finding himself trailing ron paul's son. the two are exchanging negative tv ads already, listen to one of them. >> rand paul opposes the war in iraq and doubts whether afghanistan is still a threat. he even thinks we should cut military spending and operations. >> rand paul will stop obama and the epa from crippling the mining industry. trey grayson, listen for yourself. >> i look forward to doing my part as secretary of state and the citizen of working with president obama. >> a friend of obama, no friend of yours. >> they make the case that grayson is the only one that can hold the seat. we shall see. last week it was number nine. this is the big mover for us.

. >> suarez: harold brown says they aren't even close to done with their work. >> when i came out thisorning, i didn't realize how bad it was, i had the company across street pushing snow right over to us. we had to plow ourselves out again. >> suarez: this is wisconsin avenue, a major north-south artery in and out of the district of columbia and adjacent montgomery county. it's a point of pride for jurisdictions to keep the streets open even when the snow gets bad up to a point. today the blizzard and whitehout conditions got so bad, even the snowplows were pulled. virtually everything in washington was closed. the federal government shut down for a third straight day, but that didn't stop congressman jim marshall of georgia from making the most of the morning. >> you don't see washington like this and i have never run down the middle of pennsylvania avenue in washington, d.c. so, this is a first. >> suarez: the region's governments and schools shuttered; some school systems for the rest of the week. the three major airports-- reagan national, dulles and b.w.i.-- closed, like so many

a recent study by harold love, a fine english scholar has demonstrated that manuscript publishing thrived throughout the late 15th, 16th, 17th, and well into the 18th century and a former friend of mine, now dead, don mckenzie, argued that it was cheaper in the early modern period, right up into the 19th century, to hire scribes to copy out books. if you were producing an addition of less than -- an edition of less than 100 copies, so scribal publication continued very well and not that i can extrapolate easily from the past, but i really think that digital publishing, the looks that you will be reading online are going to reinforce publishing through print, and there's a great future for publishers if they can get to people like you through the digital means, whet your appetite for a book and then persuade you to come to a place like the harvard book store and buy it, or who knows, you might use the famous machine down in that corner, i don't know if you've seen it yet, the espresso book machine, which is an example of now the new technology can reinforce the old printed kodaks. what do

that is always on that line and we don't know if we're going to have to cut him off, we love him, harold ford junior. he always has three talking was. >> but at least he allows us to tell him that he is full of the. >> how of you would like. to run for senate in new york? >> interest that i would love to know the political. how many democrats? , and republicans? i love it. independents? this is so great. it's so great that i like it. one more question? >> five were questioned. i see you in the back, sir. i will get to. >> i think i watched the show almost every day that i may have missed it but i don't never you've ever interviewing sarah palin. >> you'll have to call sarah palin's press office and asked him why does. >> she is on fox now. in fact, tonight she is on fox. >> we might take a look at that for our show tomorrow morning to see how she does, but she is so polarizing. >> is very interesting about that, that right now the people, if we have trouble, we get everyone on the show that we asked for, but right now we are simply more of the reluctance for some republican party leaders

from washington, illinois, harold on our republican line, good morning. caller: good morning.i would say no to our local 18th district congressman. the reason for that being is the healthcare issue, the enormous pork belly spending that's going on that's unnecessary. there's been constitutional values, and this does apply to me. i have had to file for pills for social security. i'm disabled with life-threatening illness and disease. and the congressman i have addresseded this with him and the courts, and they have not submitted or filed these appeals. there is billions of dollars worth of pork belly spending going on that is unnecessary spending. that could be applied to the healthcare issues. there's constitutional rights and values that are not being upheld for the united states citizens. there's also a question about how they're going handle a deficit for pensions and government and state employees, and their pay raises with 2015. there's a lot of concerns here that i see with the way the administration is operating. and i don't believe that they're fixing the problem. host

administration all the way through to bush to them than we were eventually able to get a forward by harold koh who is currently a legal advisor in the obama administration and put them together in a very big room so there's lots of space between the democrats and republicans end of an administration and ask them, pick your top three crises and walk us through the role that international law played. in doing so, think about, was applying the law, was it something that the foreign service officers secretary of state president thought they were bound by? was it clear? this is something important. oftentimes international law is simply not that clear and so cannot be binding if it is not clear? did they have an obligation to speak law to power? did they simply advised that this is the law or did they say this is the law and u.s. the president and the secretary of state have an obligation to follow this thought even if it constrains your foreign-policy object to is be the use of force, the recognition of country come the allocation of death. and finally, this was the most interesting question.

. >> we're running the harold ford for senate committee.e've been really tough on harold ford too. make subway jokes every chance we get. and helicopter jokes. >> but i thought he was great when he went on colbert and laughed at himself. >> maybe we can get kirsten gillibrand and bobby jindal. >> you're underestimated kirsten gillibrand. i'll make a bet with you right now that you are underestimating her. >> what about bobby jindal? >> not sure you're going underestimating him. >>> "wall street journal," doubts dashed for a recovery. >> "new york times," haiti charges americans with child abduction. the charges against the ten members of a baptist congregation will now be considered by a judge who has up to three months to decide whether -- >> do you think those people were really trying to steal kids? >> it doesn't make -- >> it doesn't make any sense. >> you can't show up anywhere and say, i'm going to take your kids because i think i'm going to give them a better life. >> unless you'ring an leana jea, and then you can, of course. >> "usa

host: harold ford may run for the senate in new york. what do you think? guest: i'm fortunate. i have financial regulation and other issues to deal with. i will let the great citizens of the state of new york decide what they think. it will be interesting to watch, if it happens. i get that question every day. while i am really tired today, especially with all that has happened, i will not take the bait. i will let the citizens of new york prevail. host: senator bob corker, republican of tennessee. thank you for joining us here on c-span. guest: thank you. . >> tomorrow on "washington journal" douglas brinkley compares the current administration to past presidents and their administrations. james alan fox, criminology block and public pressure at northeastern university exam is the reason declines in crimes and violent crime rates nationwide, especially in cities. that's "washington journal" at 7:00 on c-span. >> date -- david miliband spoke about u.s. intelligence on the alleged torture of a british citizen. they publish details about treatment of binyam mohamed was captioned

. >> harold watkins, and just a question to go to what you opened with, talking about structured finance and the need to restart it. what do both of you suggest as the strategy to get structured finance to come in and play something similar to the role it was playing two years ago? >> well, i'll give you -- there are three points that need to happen. one is everybody needs to have skin in the game, and that's in the house bill. we can't have originators of loans selling loans to the secondary market, with no risk of loss, because they don't have the right incentives to do the due diligence. second of all, we had this terribly complex structure off-balance sheet where -- and you see this in the investor community. you need simple transparent structures in which people really know what's happening. people don't want to buy the stuff, because you had second, third, fourth tier, you know, cdo squared, cdo to the third or cubed and -- so we need simple structures, much better disclosure. the s.e.c. can do a lot more on that. the third thing; you know, a lot of investors depend on credit ratin

>> let's see, i am actually breeding harold evans, my paper chase which is a remarkable story.out when newspapers were in their heyday. he discovered idi amin. he had a remarkable career with the times of london and it is a great book. and, i am reading a couple of other books, absolom absolom, william faulkner which i go line by line every few years and another book by british historian alastair horn called seven ages of paris which is just a great history of paris. it is about as enjoyable of a history book is that ever read. >> your book came out earlier this year. when is your next one? >> boy, i don't know. we got in the top-10 for two or three weeks and that was great, but it is kind of tough writing political books in this environment. unless you want to write a polemic and that is not really my style, so i don't know. you know, actually the best part of writing the book was the book to our, because we would go out and be with actually have these great krautz and actually there would be republican, democratic and independent. it was like having town hall meetings all ove

psychologist author of "the boy who was raised by a dog" also jasmineyuyota reporter for the "brownsville harold" what was life like as we saw for this girl as we saw in the closet, what more can you tell us? . >> just like you said, she was allowed to good to school every day. she held straed grades but at home not allowed to play with her brothers or watch television. she would do her homework coming from light -- using light coming from underneath the door. the bucket, they would let her out to the restroom during the day and to eat sometimes according to investigators but the bucket was what she would use at night to use the restroom and every morning would have to clean it up. >> jasmine, what was her physical condition? >> her physical condition she was very malnourished, 12 years old and investigators said she looked 8. she was old enough to be in seventh great but, instead, was in fifth. >> let me read a couple of facebook comments on this. many of you chiming in. vanessa writing. i will never understand the mind of some who call themselves parents. brena, writes -- some should just not

there's just individualistic action but i can tell you and alabama my role model was harold of the. i watched howell heflin and he became my role model. he was well positioned philosophically, politically and personally and i watch the way he did things. he was a progressive senator, but he is also coming and he was popular among the whites if our state but he also nominated to black federal judges for alabama which is something that no other state had so i watched howell heflin and i watched several other politicians but he was my role model. [inaudible] >> i learned that it is possible to be relatively progressive, even in george wallace's home state and it is possible to bring together black voters and black leaders and white voters and white leaders, if you, if they are convinced that you want to do some good things. it is possible to do so and if you are very careful and, we'll let you can the rationalize those kinds of situations, you have a chance not only of winning elections but doing some good things. >> i was just going to suggest in north carolina there were some thought

but i think and you will understand because we both understand chicago, if you look at how harold washington was elected from the 20 or 30 years ago, almost, if you look at the we talk about flipping the book and republican windows and doors, if movement led by workers that said we need change it and identify the candidates that said the and made it happen. so what happened there? he didn't change the world, he didn't fix everything that happened in the one term in few days that he had, but he was responsive to the people who elected him. who does barack obama have to be responsive to? that's the whole point that i was trying to make with the what i considered in the book was that we been so isolated and there's no hope really for right now. there's no social movement to make him respond to. and so i agree, it's not barack obama fault, in some ways what does he owe a labor union with only represents 12% of the workforce? nothing. >> this gentleman is the last one. [inaudible] >> [inaudible] >> she read the book and it was somewhere she said you didn't put that in there, did you? [laughter] b

to show you how bipartisan i am, harold holzer was bella abzug's press secretary.hen he was mario cuomo's secretary. he is now the vice president of the metropolitan museum of art in new york and a brogan scholar. he wrote a book called lincoln a cooper union. lincoln was invited in 1860 to go for the first time to make a major speech at cooper union which is a working man's college at that time in new york city. he spends, think about this compared to modern politicians, he spends three months researching at the law library and writes a 7200 words beach which takes two hours to deliver. he goes to cooper union, he gives a speech to a packed crowd. he then goes that night because it was a different era and edits the speech at four major newspapers to make sure they got it right. it is reprinted in virtually every northern newspaper, 7200 words and bred by one-third of the north and adult population. he goes to rhode island, and then becomes appear because his son is in the prep school in manchester and he gives a speech once in rhode island, once in manchester and

somebody like harold ford junior was considereconsidered an up and comer. >> host: who is considering running for senate. >> guest: yes. was interesting about the democratic party in 2000, 2004, back to back they gave these bright up-and-coming african-american men the keynote address. the first black person to do a keynote address was george in 1976 but then back to back in 2000 in los angeles, this was a convention by the way that barack obama could not attend. he tried to attend but he couldn't get into it he couldn't even get credentialed. by 2004, his fortunes had changed and he gave an extraordinary speech there that catapulted him really to the senate because he wasn't a senator even when he gave the speech. and into the white house. i would suggest, that he was the only person in that context who could have won. >> host: colin powell, who declined to run in 1996, with someone who polled really well. was he someone who could have been elected president of this country? >> guest: i think colin powell would've had a tough time getting his parties nomination. because colin powell

this event, hosted by the harold washington library center of chicago, is an hour-and-a-half. >> it is such a pleasure to be here this evening and i would like to start by jabari for sharing the stage. your book is titled what obama means for our culture, our politics, our future. i would like you to define "our." to whom are you referring >> i'm talking about all americans. there are things in the book that address the particular interest in questions involving african-americans, but i really had a wide audience in mind which is inappropriate in terms of the thrust of obama's campaign and his message, so i meant the country collectively. >> host: in the book you talk a lot about image, and obama's impact on young black men. so, do you -- talk a bit about that. >> i tried to place him in context in terms of images of black masculinity that we have seen in the culture. since about 1619 when african-american men first stepped foot on the continents i tried to place them in that context so why discuss certain aspects of what his public reputation became involved and the coolness for examp

it event hosted by harold washington library center it in chicago is an hour and a half. >> such a pleasure to be here this evening and like to start by thank you for being here and thank you, jabari, for being here. your book is titled, what obama means for our culture, our, politics, our future. i would like you to define our. to whom are you referring? >> i'm actually talking about all americans. i mean there are things in the book i think that sort of address the particular interest and questions involving african-americans but i really had a wider audience in mind which seemed appropriate in terms of the thrust of obama's campaign and his message. so i meant the country collectively. >> you, in the book you talk a lot about image obama's impact on young black men. so do you, so talk a bit about that. >> well, i tried to place him in context in terms of images of black masculinety that we've seen in the culture since about 1619 when african-american men first set foot on the continent. i tried to place him in that context. i discuss certain aspects of what his public reputation became i

we will also hear from harold ford jr. and aron shock.ney speaks with jonathan carl on "this week." "fox news sunday" welcome as jim jones and lindsey graham -- welcomes jim jones and lindsey graham. on "face the nation" bob c. for talks to joe biden from -- but seifert talks to joe biden from vancouver. these programs begin at noon, eastern time, with "meet the press", followed by "this week," "fox news sunday," "face the nation," and "state of the union." hear them all here on c-span radio starting a new, here in the washington area, or online at c-span.org. >> c-span 2's "book tv" we can begin -- continues with books about fdr, president obama, and ronald reagan. this coming week, we all live in prime time on tuesday night with contemporary authors, taking your phone calls, e- mails, and twitter. host: -- >> his film, "hillary: the movie" was a decision about campaign finance recently. david bossie, tonight on a "q&a." >> "washington journal" continues. host: douglas holtz-eakin is the former congressional budget adviser, president of

they are people like harold, and 18 year-old gay man who came to this country from the philippines withy, because he is undocumented, he cannot get a driver's license, a job, or a student loan. he is going to be arrested and deported to a country where he has no connections, no prospects, and where he cannot speak the language. there are people like victoria, an undocumented transgendered woman who was swept up by the immigration system, put into a detention jail, where she was denied hiv medication and medical attention, even when she was vomiting blood. this caused her her life. she died chained to a hospital bed with to immigration guards standing at the door. there are at least 36,000 by national couples who cannot live together here in this country because federal law bans recognition of their relationship. so yes, immigration reform is an lgbt issue. [applause] at some point, the president and congress will pick up immigration reform. this fight will make the push for health-care seem like a walk in the park. [laughter] it will involve incredibly hard choices, but let us be clear.

host: harold ford may run for the senate in new york. what do you think? guest: i'm fortunate.i have financial regulation and other issues to deal with. i will let the great citizens of the state of new york decide what they think. it will be interesting to watch, if it happens. i get that question every day while i am really tired today, especially with all that has happened, i will not take the bait. i will let the citizens of new york prevailed. host: senator bob corker, republican of tennessee. thank you for joining us here on c-span. guest: thank you. >> next, the president and a number of congressional leaders discussed a jobs bill. after that, a senate hearing on the impact of the federal deficit. followed by remarks by u.s. central commander general david petraeus. his film, "hillary the movie" was the focus of the recent supreme court decision on campaign finance. davis bossie tonight on "q &a." "american presidnetents -- lie fe portraits" -- see the entire collection on line. >> the president met with congressional leaders on tuesday. they discussed the jobs bill. the

harold on airline for republicans. good morning. what do you think about the proposal?caller: i think the proposal is no good. i like it the way it is. without that, you could 9 have debate about things. all the colors called n and they forget -- callers called in and forgot the democrats had the majority for three years, not one year -- republicans lost their last two years. as for all the voting goes and everything else, democrats had the party. the democrats are holding the democrats up. host: you are pretty much satisfied with the pace with which legislation is being passed? caller: i'm not satisfied with it. i tell you why. the smartest person that has been on the television so far is olympia snowe. she was right in the beginning. do not rush it. do it right. if they were to have her vote and listened to her, and i honestly believe that she is the only person that has made any comments on health care right now, she is a good person. she told the democrats. she turned around -- you saw what happened. host: there is this article. democrats raised to regroup after gop

in fact, that reminds me of something that the former prime minister harold macmillan said to a young difficult thing in political life?" "events, my dear. events." it is off events that lead us to change our agenda. -- is often events that lead us to change our agenda. that is what happened this time. we have met under the lisbon treaty, for the first time since the first of january, when i took office officially. this morning, as i said, the bulk of our discussion address the crisis in the bureau's own. -- in the euro zone. contacts in an attempt to form a consensus. a number of meetings were held with different compositions, and a consensus emerged. it was clear that it was emerging. i wanted to put that to the informal council of the 27th. we also had with us the president of the european central bank. in the meantime, we had been informed of this agreement. it is extremely important that agreement be reached. some have their doubts but those doubts turned out to be unfounded. it was possible for us to reach agreement through the two hours of discussion. we must now implement that

there are people like harold, an 18-year-old gay man who came to this country when he was 5 years old. this is really the only country he's ever known, but today because he's undocumented he cannot get a driver's license, cannot get a job, cannot get a student loan and is in constant fear of being arrested and deported to a country where he has no connections, no prospects, and where he cannot speak the language. there are people like victoria, an undocumented transgender woman who was swept up by the immigration system, put into a detention jail where she was denied hiv medications and medical attention even when she was vomiting blood. this cost victoria her life. she died chained to a hospital bed with two immigration guards standing at the door. and, of course, there are at least 36,000 binational couples who cannot live together here in this country because federal law bans recognition of their relationships. so, yes, immigration reform is an lgbt issue. [applause] at some point be, at some point the president and congress will take up immigration reform. this fight will make the

certainly in a certain context we could say that he leapfrogged over certain people, somebody like harold ford, jr.. >> host: considering running for senate? >> guest: what's interesting about the democratic race is that in 2000 and in 2004 back to that, they gave these up and coming african-american men the keynote address. the first black person to do a keynote address was barbara jordan in 1976 but then back-to-back in 2000 in los angeles and this was a convention by the way barack obama could not attend. he couldn't get in or even get credentials by 2004. his fortunes have changed and he gave an extraordinary speech. >> host: catapulted. >> guest: it catapulted to the senate because he wasn't a senator and then to the white house to a i would say yes he was the only person in that context who could have won. >> host: colin powell who declined to run in 1996 was someone who polled really well. was he someone who could have been elected president of this country? >> guest: i think colin powell would have had a tough time getting the party nomination and he knew that come to back because

consider two things, but i think most importantly and what's on everyone's mind now is the nomination of haroldraig becker to serve as a member of the national labor relations board. i first want to thank my colleague from ohio for, i think, a very poignant and very pointed and very clear kind of laying out of what really this is all about, and i want to thank senator brown for that. and while i'm always proud to discuss the accomplishments of a highly qualified nominee like mr. becker, i think it's really fortunate that we have gotten to this point. last year we had an agreement with the republicans on the "help" committee that we would move mr. becker's nomination as a package along with the two other nominees for the board, one of whom is a republican. well, what happened is at the end of the year, under the rules of the senate, one senator on the republican side objected to having mr. becker continue on the calendar. they did that, and it went back to the white house, came back to us. i was asked as the chairman of the committee to have a hearing on mr. becker. now, we haven't had a hearing

"the sydney morning harold," headline, "coming to america isn't easy." describes the difficulty of getting visas and coming to america. "the guardian" in england, "america, more hassle than it's worth?" again, difficulty coming to america. "the sunday times" in london. "travel to america? no thanks." says the headline. it's already a nightmare, the paper says, now they want to make it tougher, so let's not go says matt rudd. well, let me describe what is happening in other countries at the same time that we're taking leave on this issue. other countries are very busy advertising to the world to say, are you traveling? are you taking a vacation? are you seeing the world? come to our country. come to see what is happening. it says, "arrived looking for an experience to remember, departed with an adventure you'll never forget? come and see australia. sometimes you -- to find yourself, sometimes you need to lose yourself. in australia they call it going wawlg-about -- walk-about. if you're traveling, come to australia. come and see what we have to offer. a c