with a crossword puzzle is a bit checkered, you may have fallen foul of the ingenious 91-year-old john gramm, a former vicar who has been setting puzzles in a national paper for 50 years. he sees clues everywhere. is it an affliction? >> i too would be an exaggeration to call it an affliction, but it is there. you are not appreciate it because you have been sidetracked. m o one across -- article 4 crosswords and powder, eight letters. magazine. come see the privates on parade ♪ >> simon russell beale knocking them dead in the west end in "province on parade" finds the crosswords a nice change after all that cross dressing. >> for the company i'm in at the moment, -- when you say through the evening, not while the show is going on? really? >> well, you've got five minutes. there is a direct connection. i think a lot of his solvers think they know what type of man he is, and i have an absolutely clear picture of the type of sense of humor he has. >> it is a wonderful process because i do not get to know my solvers but they get to know me. i do not understand quite how it works, but they do. th

why should a democratic president allow people like lindsey gramm, john mccain, who ran for president -- the federalist papers speaks directly about the filibuster. hamilton's book about this. when a small minority is able to -- is able to stop the progress of the american people, please put somebody in have of them speak on the filibuster. pull some -- put somebody in and have them speak on the filibuster. host: here are some quotes about the luster -- the filibuster. an independent culpa --call from michigan. caller: there are more important issues. i think this is a slap to our presidency and an insult. host: on twitter -- being park, illinois, chris and the republican line. caller: if you look closely at what republicans are objecting to, it is one or two things. especially because mr. hagel is a republican, he looks alarmed getting attacked on those accounts. if he has an honest disagreement with them, they should take that up in another form. to bring that to national defence seems to be tit-for-tat at this that are dick at this point. it seems they are going to nominate him any

>> a lot depends on john mccain, then see gramm, if they come out against a think -- lori: let's talkyria. let me retaliation over the israeli air strike warning serious consequences for tell of beef. we know they have the nuclear program. you wrote about this in the "wall street journal" this week. how does all of this end up? it sounds like it could be the precursor for more bad things to come. >> let's look at the reason for the israeli attack which is potentially uncontested. the story a sophisticated air defense system being moved from syria and lebanon. the israelis did not want that transfer to take place. why? because they did not want to have this anti-aircraft system capable of defending hezbollah in lebanon which has a lot armed with rockets that can cover a essentially all of israel. what this means is that tehran was trying to protect hezbollah, perhaps to launch its own preemptive strikes against israeli civilian populations or to be in a position to retaliate if israel strikes and runs nuclear-weapons program. lori: having to go at it alone here in terms of the u.s. pol

outstretched hands from republican senators john mccain and lindsey gramm, both -- graham. both tough critics of obama's foreign policy. >> send me send a comp men'sive immigration -- comprehensive immigration bill in the next few months and i will sign it right away and america will be better for it. >>> also, a star student at u.c. berkley revealed he's an undocumented immigrant. he shared his story as part of an online campaign for the dream act. that's the proposed immigration law that congress is considering that would allow certain students like himself the path to citizenship. critics say that this plan, however, may just encourage and invite illegal immigration. d.c. lawmakers are expected to take up the issue this year. >>> and today pope benedict blessed thousands of pilgrims from his window overlooking st. peter's square. >> that was the second to last angelus blessing before he steps down at the end of the upon. he outstretched his arms. he made no mention of his decision to resign but thanks the faithful for the affection and spiritual closeness. >>> now there'

both gramm and senator john mccain said the meeting well. still, no deal.i: and there is where we stand. thank you. fox news chief white house correspondent. one of the state's potentially hurt most by the defense request to cut is virginia. get this. some 90,000 civilian defense department employees to be furloughed. the army space operations funding would be cut by about 146 million in virginia, and funding for air force operations in the state would be cut by about $8 million. my first guest, virginia congressman randy forbes, a member of the armed services committee offering his prognosis today. >> if you take the wrong medicine to try to cure an illness, it can sometimes be worse than taking the medicine. if you have the wrong compromise , it can be worse than no compromise a vault. i want to point out to everybody , the dca itself, sequestration, the problem that we are all now facing was, in fact, a compromise, a compromise that was proposed by the president and even though i voted against it, we are looking at it and facing today. lori: the congress

going on the interesting thing will happen, the president will be back in washington, lindsay gramm and john mccain significant republican figures going to come to the white house and talked to him allegedly about immigration reform which is important but also have a conversation about sequester and budget and we will see what happens. lindsey graham said yesterday it saves the defense industry and the defense establishment, talk about putting revenue on the table, police and democrats, interesting statement. we will see if he is speaking for anyone but lindsey graham. lori: the sequestration itself announced 2% of a decrease in spending, worst case scenario, we are hearing this doomsday scenario the country will be more susceptible to terrorist attacks, teachers will be laid off, flights won't be as safe and they will be delayed and these horrible things but it is such a minuscule amount of spending decrease. correct? will we be that impact will? >> over time it would be better immediately and won't be. the federal government does everything slowly including rolling out spending cuts that w

they note that senator gramm, senator john mccain will meet with the president today to talk about immigrationeform. the front page of the new york times, republicans signing a brief in support of gay marriage. 75 people have signed an amicus brief, a friend-of-the-court brief, before the supreme court takes up a california ballot initiative at baring same-sex marriage. -- there are republicans who have signed this would not previously talked about the issue, mega wittman, who supported proposition 8 originally, congresswoman lee some of florida, richard hanna of new york, stephen hadley -- back to your phone calls, sam in west point, new york, he works for the department of defense. what is your take on sequester? caller: well, there is waste in the federal government, but there is also waste in the private sector. you cannot quantify it. we have already had cut. we have had about 5-10% cuts. mostly for people who have not -- have been hired. we had contract employees, and they are now on their way out. we have not had cut since the clinton administration here. host: larry, where are you call

the white house sent a letter to senators john mccain, lindsey gramm, kelly ayotte, who have been demanding more information. they hoped from soundness yesterday or the day before that they would be able to change minds and make these centers -- senators vote yes. there is information that republicans say they want. it also seems like they were unhappy with his pick, they wanted -- wanted a different tack, and they did not -- they did not want to be conciliatory about it. host: 1 vote for present. why did they go that way? guest: senator hatch of voted present. it beats me why he did. you either vote yes or no. there is a rumor that he did not believe in the filibuster. if you do not believe in the filibuster, you should probably vote yes. republican leadership was actively whipping. that would be the reason. of the people who voted to block it, one was center collins -- senator collins from the northeast. also, senator johanns from nebraska, who was one of senator hagel's colleagues from nebraska. host: what happens from here in terms of having a defense secretary? guest: i think the white

john leopold. she had the county's economic development council -- headed the county's economic development council. back to d.c. -- jim grammmendelson asked the council to reprimand felt -- jim gramm. the ethics board suggested that the gramm violated ethics rules in 2008. the board concluded he improperly intervened in a contract dispute. he is challenging the ethics board ruling. the time now, 5:37. about 31 degrees outside. >> still ahead, we will show you the unique way one of the biggest airports in the u.s. is [ harry umlaut ] here we go. [ sally umlaut ] what? the five stages of muller. ah yes... stage one: suspicion. "it's a yogurt how good can it be?" stage two: revision. "actually, this ain't bad." stage three: surprise! "look at this cool cornery thing! i love this stuff!!" stage four: desolation. "it's gone!" stage five: anticipation "i guess i could always have another"... "have you beenbehrough the five stages of muller yet?" "yeah, just now." [ male announcer ] muller. the european for yummy. >> good morning washington. >> i love that. good morning washington. it is friday. we are all happy about that. i do n

when lindsey gramm and john mccain are saying that this is really crazy stuff, you know there are people both in the senate and house that get it and want to avoid this. anybody on the defense side, everybody knows we have to trim our sails. at least we should allow the secretary to make the decisions as opposed to this crazy across the board. >> talking about the budget issue your state is facing. you had to raise taxes in your state to meet the budget deficit. what is the way ford for governors in this country who are facing similar scenarios? you raise taxes. and other states that is not tenable. is that a mix of spending cuts and tax increases? >> i was the first democrat elected governor and 24 years. the outgoing governor handed me a deficit larger than any other state in the nation representing 17% of revenue. there was no way to cut your way out of it. there was no way to tax arena of it. you had to do both. we had to respect the relationship as the employees and we did both of those things. so much so that and relate -- respecting our relationship we have $21.5 billion in saving

when lindsey gramm and john mccain are saying that this is really crazy stuff, you know there are people both in the senate and house that get it and want to avoid this. anybody on the defense side, everybody knows we have to trim our sails. at least we should allow the secretary to make the decisions as opposed to this crazy across the board. >> talking about the budget issue your state is facing. you had to raise taxes in your state to meet the budget deficit. what is the way ford for governors in this country who are facing similar scenarios? you raise taxes. and other states that is not tenable. is that a mix of spending cuts and tax increases? >> i was the first democrat elected governor and 24 years. the outgoing governor handed me a deficit larger than any other state in the nation representing 17% of revenue. there was no way to cut your way out of it. there was no way to tax arena of it. you had to do both. we had to respect the relationship as the employees and we did both of those things. so much so that and relate -- respecting our relationship we have $21.5 billion in saving

host: senator lindsay gramm, senator of south carolina, is to block two nominees. he will hold up defense secretary john brennan as the head of cia unless he gets more answers on benghazi. here is what he had to say yesterday. [video clip] >> did the president ever pick up the phone and call anyone in the government to help these folks? what the the president do? we know he talked to the israeli prime minister on september 11 about a gust of the democratic platform and the fact he did not need the prime minister of israel when he came to new york. but that is not related. what did he do that night? the american people need to know. >> i am not sure i understand, what do you plan to do if they do not give you an answer? are you going to put a hold on these nominations? >> yes, i am going to ask my colleagues. no confirmation without information. host: senator lindsay gramm on face the nation yesterday. our coverage begins at 8:00 p.m. eastern time tomorrow night. if you go to our facebook page, we have this for all of you. if you are low -- if you are planning on watching president obama will deliver the

john mccain does not like that term. it is the group of eight. i give him a huge credit for his work, and marco rubio, and lindsey gramm, and jeff like. this might not just be an opportunity to fix immigration, which would be huge, but an opportunity for us to demonstrate to the country that finally we can do something that is hard, and we can do it in a bipartisan way. >> when you think about it and you stepped out these principles, including finding a track for citizens to get legal but you bump them back behind those that are there. i have read through them. but what point, when you get into deeper specifics -- i have read through the colorado compact and what the group of eight have put on the table. it reads as principals. it does not read specifically. when do you begin losing the bipartisan flamboyance? >> there will be bumps in the road. it will not be an easy thing to do. if it worries you -- were easy to do, it would have been done a long time ago. there are parties ready to get this done, who have heard from home the same things i am hearing. i think we have momentum and need to keep pushing. the principles we enunciated ar

lindsay gramm will be on sunday and the grand paul on ky. chuck schumer from new york. wyoming senator johnsso. and house intelligence committee mike rogers of alabama. we will groundout our plays with four o'clock p.m., bob schaefer and chief of staff mcdonough. new york but new jersey mayor -- new jersey mayor and the archbishop of washington d.c.. we are at 91. fm. online at c-span radio.org you can also listen with your free apps for your iphone, android, or blackberry. >> i had dealt with a number of other religious cults that had similar philosophies. i had found in some of these cases, when they are leading such a group, they lend themselves to search and auspices of things that are going happen. when they do not happen they begin to lose face. when they begin to lose face they have to do something to make it happen. let us face it, he had a purchase on the ground. he had everything going for him. he wasn't about to give that up. one of the situations that i was concerned about with similar groups in the past was that he needed to do something in order to bring about his prophecy of

john mccain. stated that -- "if state of the union," follows at 3:00 p.m.. at 4:00 p.m. here "face the nation." bob schieffer talks with lindsey gramm and jack reed. as well as mike rogers. the sunday network tv talk shows, this afternoon on c-span radio, brock you as a public service. it begins again at noon eastern with "meet the press," at 3:00 state of the union, "four- o'clocks state of the nation." listen to them all on c-span radio. nationwide on xm satellite radio channel 119. you can listen on your smart phone or go online to c- span.org >> if someone paid him to write 10 columns for $2,000 each and they published only six, he would summon the editor at issue and say -- what did the editors expect me to say? we paid you. saying it may be the columns were not good enough. here is a check back for the columns you did not print. we asked -- why would he give back the money? he was entitled. that was his business and philosophy, because he wanted to do business with the other party again. very rare behavior now. i admire that. the life of the 30th president of the united states, tonight at 8:00 on a "q&a." >> "washington journa

john mccain does not like that term. it is the group of eight. i give him a huge credit for his work, and marco rubio, and lindsey gramm, and jeff like. this might not just be an opportunity to fix immigration, which would be huge, but an opportunity for us to demonstrate to the country that finally we can do something that is hard, and we can do it in a bipartisan way. >> when you think about it and you stepped out these principles, including finding a track for citizens to get legal -- but you bump them back behind those that are there. i have read through them. but what point, when you get into deeper specifics -- i have read through the colorado compact and what the group of eight have put on the table. it reads as principals. it does not read specifically. when do you begin losing the bipartisan flamboyance? >> there will be bumps in the road. it will not be an easy thing to do. if it worries you -- were easy to do, it would have been done a long time ago. there are parties ready to get this done, who have heard from home the same things i am hearing. i think we have momentum and need to keep pushing. the principles we enunciated