john murtha's leadership and commitment to the memorial will be sorely missed. reverent silence in remembrance of congressman murtha. thank you. >> thank you, gordon. i am now have the honor and pleasure and the privilege of introducing you to mrs. laura bush. this is not her first time here to the site. in the days immediately following 9/11, mrs. bush was here. she came to pay her respects and to grieve with those that lost their loved ones. during a time of unspeakable tragedy, mrs. dish brought calm -- mrs. bush brought call and comfort to those she visited with and those who watched around the nation. each time mrs. bush has come to this place, her compassion has been felt by all who had been with her. she is a lifelong love for of our national parks, and her presence here at one of our nation's newest national parks help convey the importance of this place. please join me in a warmly welcoming mrs. laura bush. [applause] >> thank you, you all. thank you very much. thank you, you all. thank you, joanne. thank you for your good work here for the national par

but the truth is the speaker of the house already said she wanted john murtha to be majority leader. we've already seen that this speaker of the house is amazing at the wielding of power. been far more effective at the wielding of power, both with carrots and sticks, to get things done than our speaker was my first two years here in 2005-2006. she knows thousand wield power. and -- she knows how to wield power. she said she wanted john murtha to be majority leader, jet steny hoyer of maryland won the election. why? because there was a secret ballot and the will of the democratic party here in the house was that steny hoyer be the majority leader. so because of the secret ballot, because there had been no card check bill that had been rammed through to change the rules in the house of representatives, here in the house of representatives, there was still a secret ballot. when i was growing up, mount pleasant, texas, i went through public schools. i'm pretty sure most of my teachers i had voted in the democratic primary, voted for democratic candidates. and i had some wonderful teacher

the flight 93 national memorial lost a true champion this year with the passing of congressman john murtha. mrs. bertha -- murtha has joined us today and we acknowledge her presence in the power of the congressman, who was one of the most ardent champions of this project in washington. he spearheaded the creation of the memorial and was responsible for making sure that the early seed money to the project was provided. the families of flight 93 could always count on the congressman to assist us in our efforts. his leadership and commitment to the memorial will be sorely missed. i ask you all for a moment, silence in remembrance of congressman murtha. >> thank you. >> thank you, gordie. i now have the honor, fletcher, and privilege of introducing you to mrs. laura bush. this is not her first time here at the site. in the days immediately following september 11, she was here. she came to pay her respects and agreed with those them off -- lost their loved ones. during this time of unspeakable tragedy, she brought, and comfort to those that she visited with, as well as those that watched from a

john murtha's leadership and commitment to the memorial will be sorely missed. sk you all for a moment of reverent silence in remembrance of congressman murtha. thank you. >> thank you, gordon. i am now have the honor and pleasure and the privilege of introducing you to mrs. laura bush. this is not her first time here to the site. in the days immediately following 9/11, mrs. bush was here. she came to pay her respects and to grieve with those that lost their loved ones. during a time of unspeakable tragedy, mrs. dish bught calm -- mrs. bush brought call and comfort to those she visited with and those who watched around the nation. each time mrs. bush has come to this place, her compassion has been felt by all who had been with her. she is a lifelo love for of our national parks, and her presence here at one of our nation's newest national parks help convey the importance of this place. please join me in a warmly welcoming mrs. laura bush. [applause] >> thank you, you all. thank you very much. thank you, you all. thank you, joanne. thank you for your good work her

am sorry, i thought you were trying to suggest that i did it because it has something to do with john murtha. it is the reason i have advocated earmark reform since i have been there. i have never supported and earmarked for a private institution. i am the only senator -- it is all about transparency, whether it is being done in the congress for in the administration, people are spending all kinds of money that they are not focused on. >> let me get the last word. i want to make a promise to you. i will not use your misstatement in a commercial. [laughter] [applause] >> will you promise for karl rove and all those people who are funding your ads for you? [applause] >> we will go now to closing comments. based on the coin toss earlier, senator bennett will go first. you have three minutes. >> thank you. that is one minute more than i thought i would have. let me just say thank you to all of you for hanging in there so late tonight. it really has been an incredible privilege to travel 25,000 miles in this state in the last 20 months to listen, to hear people. i don't give long speeches. but i

they should keep this in mind is what happened in pennsylvania's 12th congressional district after john murtha died. the special election to replace him all the republican polls showed that the republican candidate was winning. but what the republican polls didn't ask was about voter intensity and the democratic candidates themselves, the democratic polls did ask about voter intensity. in the last few days before that election, the 7, 8, 9 -- the 5, 6, 7,'s became 8, 9, 10. democrats turned on their machine and now the democratic is a congressman and the republican candidate lost this race by 8 points when republicans expected to win. so democrats will become more engaged. they will turn out more. the question is whether or not that enthusiasm can really be there and whether or not it's enough. we'll see if it's enough. but the commenter has a good point. host: one last phone call here. orlando, florida. john, republican line. go ahead. caller: good morning. i'll make three points. first, i'd like to commend this gentleman for making the comment on the fact that there are racists elements in e

murtha, the wife of our beloved and late congressman john murtha.urrent first lady of pennsylvania. [applause] and mrs. michelle ridge, the former first lady of pennsylvania. [applause] former secretary of the interior and national parks director, welcome. senator kucinich and county commissioners, as well as representatives from our senator and congress offices. neal mulholland and chris sullivan. [applause] and the architects of our beautiful memorial and our landscape architect. [applause] we also just want to recognize that there are many students here from the high school. also, welcome to our general counsel. [applause] most important is all of you, not only our partners, the flight 93 federal advisory commissioner, are newly formed friends -- our newly-formed friends of flight 93, and all of you who show up to support this memorial. we hope that our flight 93 families are comforted by you, there american family. -- their american family. there have been many changes and much progress with the help of our community, our partners, our friends,

is it true that you gave $1.5 million to an airport named after congressman john murtha from pennsylvania that serves fewer than 20 people per day. -- per day? >> i am sure that that was contained in legislation that i voted on, but was not of interest to me. [groans from the audience] >> the $1.5 million is of interest to all of us. [cheers and applause] >> i am sorry, i thought you were trying to suggest that i did it because it has something to do with john murtha. so i misunderstood what you said. it is the reason i have advocated earmark reform since i have been there. i have never supported and earmarked for a private institution. i am the only senator -- it is -- i list not only the earmarks that our request, but all the earmarks of my office. more than that, it is all about transparency, whether it is being done in the congress for in the administration, people are spending all kinds of money that they are not focused on. >> let me get the last word. i want to make a promise to you. i will not use your misstatement in a commercial. [laughter] [applause] >> will you promise for kar

they should keep this in mind is what happened in pennsylvania's 12th congressional district after john murtha died. the special election to replace him all the republican polls showed that the republican candidate was winning. but what the republican polls didn't ask was about voter intensity and the democratic candidates themselves, the democratic polls did ask about voter intensity. in the last few days before that election, the 7, 8, 9 -- the 5, 6, 7,'s became 8, 9, 10. democrats turned on their machine and now the democratic is a congressman and the republican candidate lost this race by 8 points when republicans expected to win. so democrats will become more engaged. they will turn out more. the question is whether or not that enthusiasm can really be there and whether or not it's enough. we'll see if it's enough. but the commenter has a good point. host: one last phone call here. orlando, florida. john, republican line. go ahead. caller: good morning. i'll make three points. first, i'd like to commend this gentleman for making the comment on the fact that there are racists elements in e