, and again they are impressed by the spanish prime minister, by bruce toney, -- berlusconi, by john howardut it was not because they said we could not do this thing by the march timeframe, but strategically speaking, it did not matter whether it was in january or in march if you believe as i do that it should have been wrapped into a coherent political and diplomatic strategy. >> and there was an awareness that the military buildup is taking place. >> that is what happened, and it goes back to what i said earlier. the resolution turned 1441 on its head, and it is time for proof of innocence, and we found ourselves in the intolerable position of having to prove his guilt by finding weapons of mass destruction before a military deadline, which proved impossible. >> on this meeting january 31, you mentioned already the aftermath you came up with their. we have had discussions about worst-case with weapons of mass destruction that turned out to be rocky -- wrong, and we have the case of what would happen after the war. was there any concept of all of how awful it could be outside of everybody,

, and again they are impressed by the spanish prime minister, by bruce toney, -- berlusconi, by john howard but strategically speaking, it did not matter whether it was in january or in march if you believe as i do that it should have been wrapped into a coherent political and diplomatic strategy. >> and there was an awareness that the military buildup is taking place. >> that is what happened, and it goes back to what i said earlier. the resolution turned 1441 on its head, and it is time for proof of innocence, and we found ourselves in the intolerable position of having to prove his guilt by finding weapons of mass destruction before a military deadline, which proved impossible. >> on this meeting january 31, you mentioned already the aftermath you came up with their. we have had discussions about worst-case with weapons of mass destruction that turned out to be rocky -- wrong, and we have the case of what would happen after the war. was there any concept of all of how awful it could be outside of everybody, what the aftermath to be? i think the worry at the time was that there would be s

howard taft the, stanley reid, robert jackson and thurgood marshall. and two current justices served in the office of the solicitor general, chief justice john roberts and associate justice samuel alito. now, justice marshall said that being solicitor general was, quote, the best job he ever had, and he had some good jobs. i hope we'll learn this evening if our panel agrees with justice marshall's statement. gentlemen, let me begin by asking paul as the most recent occupant of the office of the solicitor general to briefly explain the job of the solicitor general in today's justice department, and if it's possible to do so, to describe what an average day is like in the life of the solicitor general. >> well, i'd be happy to try, ken. i think as to the average day in the life of the solicitor general, there probably isn't an average day, and that's part of what makes the job so interesting and so fascinating. the job's basic responsibility in a nutshell, i think, is to probably start with the most public role of the solicitor general, and that is his representation of the united states of america which most often means the executive branch of the united