, robert kagan, fred kagan, kimberly kagan were prominently featured in your newspaper all the time,ushing the latest neo con war. now they we find out they're in bed with general petraeus, who reports to commander in chief barack obama. how did they get inside when they were from the other side idealogically? >> because, chris, four star generals have a lot of leeway when they're out halfway around the world. this arrangement wasn't well-known at the white house, at the white house. certainly if they knew they would have objected the extraordinary access that the kagans got. petraeus was able to do much of this just because he was the general. and managed to get what i understand his lawyers to sign off on the arrangement, which, you know, they got these desks, they got the security clearance, they traveled around the war zone that. >> got face time with him regularly. >> who are his people? is he part of the neo con crowd? is he one of them, those people that pushed this? let's put hit the way, heavily encouraged the war in iraq? or is he part of the more progressive stream of the

how are the kagans involved with that whole strategy. >> kagan has pushed a certain strategy in my newspaperapers. they were vocal proponents for it. and then they were proponents for taking a much tougher line against a various taliban factions. in fact, the irony here is while david patraeus was talking a good game on using troops to protect civilian populations, what the kagans were lobbying to do was to use those to conduct strikes. >> we'll redo more on this later. let me salute you. your story ment the test of ben bradleys. he said holy. i can't use the word here. this story, i want everybody tonight to go back and look it up on goog. this is a story of penetration. thank you much for joining us from the washington post. as always, we'll be right back. y with less chronic osteoarthritis pain. imagine living your life with less chronic low back pain. imagine you, with less pain. cymbalta can help. cymbalta is fda-approved to manage chronic musculoskeletal pain. one non-narcotic pill a day, every day, can help reduce this pain. tell your doctor right away if your mood worsens, you have u

justice elena kagan, she seemed like the best champion in the courts. and she said that she was going to carry this cause into the court. just a few months ago, she gave a speech where she was asked about it. and she said well, you know, i have been thinking about it and maybe not -- maybe it will be the right thing to do. maybe it will change the dynamics of the justices. so i am not so sure anymore. it is almost like the order of the court descends on new justices. and they suddenly decide that cameras are not a good idea. >> justice souter famously said there would be cameras in the court over his dead body. you know, i agree with tony. i know tony has been the most eloquent about talking about the chances of this happening in our lifetime are slim to none. i do think they will be more receptive to increased audio availability. they now release all of the audio at the end of the week when the arguments take place. i read that in 10 years that they will stream the arguments live on the web in terms of audio. i think that video is a very different stor

and no one has called me justice kagan, nor have they call justice kagan justice sotomayor. [inaudible] they are very active in questioning at oral argument. so, now the perception is women are here to stay. and when i'm sometimes asked when will there be enough, nine. there were nine men and nobody really raised the question about that. [applause] >> so on the left, right side you were marked when you were a younger boy. you would often say something. it would be ignored. than a male colleague might say the same thing and people would say wow, what a great idea. does that ever still happen to you? and candy reflect on why inclusiveness in our society, be it gender or race, still is a continuing challenge? >> it doesn't happen now, only because of the very good job that i have. and there are only nine of us, and when i see my colleagues listen, just as i listened to each of them, but that experience, the women of my generation, all of them have had. when a woman -- [inaudible] she would not say anything very important. but most of that i think is gone. today. >> the challeng

more importantly for supporters of same sex marriage, they're counting on elena kagan's vote. the court. she's presumed to be a vote in favor of same sex marriage. so it is not just sort of, well, isn't it good that it won't be 4-4. it is going to be same sex marriage supporters are breathing a huge sigh of relief that they didn't take the gill case because losing elena kagan's vote, which we don't know for sure how she will vote, but that would be a tremendous loss for the supporters of marriage equality and they, so they're very happy that kagan is in this case. >> and wasn't to take a look at a usa today poll done just this week, it was done by november 26th and 29th and apparently 53% of those questioned felt that same sex marriage should be legal. 46% said it should not be legal. 2% they were not sure, but, jeff, let me ask you a question, i don't know if i misspoke earlier, is this, you know, about equal protection and that all individuals having the same rights under the united states law? >> well, what makes this case so momentous, the proposition 8 case in particular

justices alina kagan, sote sota-meyer.oing to be justice kenne kennedy's case as it often is and he has in several cases cast his vote with the liberals. >> thank you so much. harvard and stanford law school professor. great to have you on. hope to have you back again, sir. >> my pleasure. >>> straight ahead, bo knows trees. the first dog. that's right. our favorite dog gives us a tour of the holiday decorations at the white house. >>> up next, though, why rush limbaugh regrets bringing up sandra flicks name. try running four.ning a restaurant is hard, fortunately we've got ink. it gives us 5x the rewards on our internet, phone charges and cable, plus at office supply stores. rewards we put right back into our business. this is the only thing we've ever wanted to do and ink helps us do it. make your mark with ink from chase. uh... um... hm... umm... uh... oh ! the windows phone 8x by htc on verizon. it features easy to navigate live tiles that are simple to customize. just pin what matters most right to your homescreen. ex

in the confusion some thought kagan gunman was firing shots, -- that was not the case. >> i imagined gun or just someone coming to the store and threatening us. >> we hid behind the jewelry i was like we need to get out. i'm not about to get shot. >> sacramento police say they arrested four people, nobody was hurt. >>> happening now, president obama is in the air right now on his way back to washington from hawaii to try to reach a deal to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff. he boarded air force one overnight and will be arriving in maryland around 8:45 this morning. the president cut short his vacation. democrats and republicans have just four days to reach a deal before mandatory budget cuts and tax increases kick in january 1st. >>> new senator representing hawaii will arrive on capitol hill today. lt. governor will fill the seat left vacant by the death of senator daniel inouye. he was chosen from a list of three yesterday. the 40-year-old has served as state lawmaker and chairman of the hawaii democratic party. he will serve until an election in 2014. >>> lance armstrong has until

kagan says, my name is, indeed, katherine dale. my home institution is the congressional research service, colonel vowell, congratulations on your upcoming gig. question's basically about the ansf. right now on the ground in afghanistan we're in the middle of what is actually a very uncomfortable shift from partnering to advising. 101st is a great example, but both strike and bathstone are doing this experimental how do we advise thing. now, part of what eeg happening right now on the ground is a really curious, emerging narrative that not only is it time to move on from partnering, but that partnering was a bad idea in the first place, because we did it for them, we raised expectations, all kinds of stuff. i wonder if you could say a few words about your own experiences partnering with ansf and whether and how those actually paid off in constructive ways. thank you. >> sure. that's a great question. previous life here a few months back, i was the g3 operations officer for the 101st with my commanding general trying to adopt what t

and it's really funny, because if you watched the hearings for elena kagan the other day, one of the questions they asked her, you know, was, like, "where were you christmas day?" because that was the day of the bombing. and she was at first, like, very defensive, because she didn't know, whether, you know, it was a terror question, or whatever. and they're like, "no, we just want to know where you were." and she laughed, and said, "well, like all jews, i was probably at a chinese restaurant." and in new york city especially, it's sometimes twice as popular at least, compared to your next popular... your second most popular day. because, you know, for a long time chinese restaurants were the ones that were open on christmas. and it just became this interesting american jewish tradition. and it's specific to america. i mean, it's not like they're doing this in israel. >> hinojosa: it's also because of the fact that these are two immigrant groups that are not christian. >> yeah, the two largest non-christian immigrant groups. and they... you know, so chinese restaurants are open on sun

[laughter] >> is madeleine at canaan. >> it's not elena kagan. for so long, my favorite justice was david souter. because he was so delightfully odd. he didn't have a cell phone or computer. he didn't have an answering machine on his phone. he was late for william rehnquist's funeral because they couldn't leave a message and find out where he was. he didn't like and doesn't like electric lights. he moved his chair around his office over the course of the day to catch the sunlight. that's a true story. but the great thing about justice souter was that he sort of got the joke about being a supreme court justice. he understood it was important, but it wasn't all about him. i will just give you one example of that. for reasons that remain obscure, david souter and stephen breyer are frequently mistaken for each other. if you know what they look like they don't look anything alike. but people only have a vague sense and one time not too long ago, justice souter was driving from washington to his home in new hampshire. he stopped at a restaurant to get

>> isn't there a chance kagan to recuse herself? >> stephanie: i hadn't heard that.rs. >> stephanie: the good news is, i'm not a legal expert but it seems like the consensus is that doma is a slam dunk. which is good news. >> right. didn't ted olson ask obama to prepare a brief for the supreme court for it. >> stephanie: really? can you give the president an assignment? >> hey why don't you throw in on this. since you're not defending the law. >> stephanie: we were just talking to rob reiner a few minutes ago. i have to say that he and ted olson and david boyce are confident and that gives me confidence because they know a lot more about it than i do. >> i get the feeling this is one of those occasions where if we take it that roberts is now you know, thinking about a legacy that does he want his legacy to be the guy that stopped the progress of the country. >> stephanie: and i think scalia doing fox news talking points about the affordable care act, you know, may have had something to do with his ruling there in terms of the court being seen as this hyperpartisan bo

the kagans have been right there in the room with the the head of the afghan mission today advising him every step of the way. why? why did general patraeus assume the right to allow the people to advise him? what agenda was he seeking here? what was he buying into? why was he buying the hawkish agenda of those who advocated war in iraq in the first place. if so, why was he working for president obama who stood out there against that war. i have to think that patraeus doesn't understand politics or ideology or he shapes his ideology or accepts the ideology of those who stood against obama from the beginning. this is really strange. someone in the administration better start paying attention to who was getting into the tent and who they are indeed working for. backing the iraq war in the mentality behind it is no small thing. and that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. politics nation with al sharpton starts right now. >> thanks, chris. and thanks to you for tuning in. tonight's lead, take the deal. for weeks, republicans have been playing a juvenile game of chick nl refusin

now we discover the kagans have been right there in the room at the head of the afghan mission, advising him every step of the way. why? why did general petraeus assume the right to allow people, who represent the very opposite of president obama's philosophy to advise him? what agenda was he seeking here? was he buying into the hawkish agenda of those who advocate war in iraq? if so, why was he working for president obama, who stood out there against that war? i have to think that petraeus either doesn't understand politics and ideology, or he shares the ideology of those who have stood against obama from the beginning. this is really strange, really strange. and someone in the administration better start paying attention to who is getting into the tent, and who they are indeed working for. backing the iraq war and the mentality behind it is no small thing. and that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. "the ed show" with ed schultz starts right now. >> good evening, americans, and welcome to "the ed show" from new york. wants new gun laws, right now. this is the ed show. let'

>> well, it seems to me if justice kagan can recuse herself from the boston case, justice scalia needsing himself. he is obviously not unbiased. he is clearly biased in this situation. so how can he look at the issue and make a judgment fairly? i really do think first of all, that statement was a repugnant statement to equate homosexuality with murder. any justice who has so little thought before he speaks should not be participating in the ruling on the cases involving doma or proposition 8. >> george, one thing we know -- >> i'm not a lawyer. >> but you are quite the social media guru. you might not be a lawyer but you mastermind twitter and facebook. you tweet a lot of things. this one caught me by surprise that i really loved. i want to get it up there for everybody. so the name of the judge performing midnight wedding services for same sex couples in washington, mary yu. the judge was named mary yu that got the honors to perform those services which i think is just awesome and fascinating. there she is. but what do you think about the approach you have been able to have and the in

[laughter] [applause] and howard kagan and jeffrey richards who are here tonight produced it, god blessyou, and it's a kind of a pass tier of -- patty lieu pone plays a weatherman, one of the bombers, you know? one of those killers, bill ayers, bernadette dohrn, angela davis, all of those political icons who are now teaching in our higher education. but she plays an amalgam of -- not quite kathy pew dean but maybe -- what was the, there was another woman who just got caught after 30 years -- >> susan something or other, she went back in the joint. so she's -- or one of the mine of women. so patty plays one of these women who was a or terrorist, and she's been in jail, and she's up for a parole hearing, and the person who's been her parole officer played by deborah winger is trying to make up her mind trying to let her go or not. and i think it's pretty cute. i mean, you're going to leave humming selections from marx, and who could ask for anything more? [laughter] thank you. [applause] >> for more information, visit the author's web site, davidmamet.com. >> you don't always find many ne

, and you reprint that testimony, your back and forth with elena kagan in "the debt bomb." what was the question you asked can her about fruits and vegetables? >> well, the question i asked is could the government tell you, mandate to you how many fruits and vegetables you would eat a day? and it really arises is what's the role for the government in terms of our lives? can, in fact, the commerce clause be viewed so widely as what was done in filburn v. united states, can it be interpreted so widely that we could eventually get to the point where we could mandate? well, we're doing it. we're doing it right now, as a matter of fact, because in terms of what they'll feed in the school lunch program, we're having an uprising across the country because of the rejection of what the government is saying, here's what you have to eat. here's what's available. so the point is our founders knew that for true liberty and freedom to be there, there had to be personal responsibility. and when the government dose beyond the level of -- goes beyond the level of a prudent exercise of gover

i remember saying that once to justice kagan, and she said only 25?- she's younger than i am. and so you learn to get along. you appreciate that you're working together on a common enterprise. so those two things. i think the level of the discussion at conference and the extent to which the justices have a very collegial relationship with each other. >> now, since you chose two things, i'm going to follow it up with a flip question which is is there anything that has unpleasantly surprised you sin joining the court -- since joining the court? >> yes. um, i'll limit it to one though. [laughter] and it's -- unpleasant's e the wrong word. as a chief justice, i have a fair amount of administrative responsibilities. the court is the highest court in the land, it's also essentially a small government agency with the $200 whatever million budget. people fall on the front steps, and they want to complain about it, you've got to get the right computers for the court. we've just completed a renovation of the court that involved a lot of administrative concerns.

we've seen kagan's cues herself from one case. i believe it was an immigration case, i'm not sure. of people on the left were saying he should recuse himself on healthcare. >> bill: he did not. >> exactly. >> bill: of course, we famously in 2004, justice scalia and dick cheney and the duck hunting trip down to louisiana. and scalia says the proudest thing he's done on his time on the bench was not to recuse himself in that case. even though cheney energy task force case was before the court. >> that's right. >> i don't think that's the proudest thing he's ever done was to be a jerk to keep himself on. >> bill: i think the bottom line is the chances that scalia will recuse himself are probably zero to none. >> remember, he wanted to be chief justice. he was almost openly campaigning for it. so i just think that you know, roberts probably is wincing when he sees those reports of scalia going out there and making those comments. >> bill: now, you know, you people -- your people at the hill know more than anybody about what's going on at the white house and the capitol. and john boehne

fred kagan, who works at the american enterprise institute, and his wife, two conservative think tanks. they have been openly pressing for more troops in afghanistan. they were against a withdrawal in iraq. they do have a more conservative, hawkish position on iran. they seem to have more access than anyone else. i was aware of this at the time, a lot of people were aware of it. i do not think anyone believes david petraeus was taking his cues from the kagans, but it does show part of this strategy that he thinks is necessary to learn from and influence people on the far right who are not in the administration, and he did so very skillfully. own investigations into the story. i do not think the article points to any impropriety or illegality. it's just sort of shows you how this man, david petraeus, created this community around him. unfortunately, that community is now irrelevant because he resigned. >host: robert had this on the twitter page. everyone knew ben does he was a hotbed for islamic radicals. they should have full security detail. next phone call. caller: hello, i just want

jean kirkpatrick's dictatorships and double standards and i also recommend you read my friend bob kagan'sdemolition as a leader and commentary. i would just say this, but alice alighieri knows what he's talking about when he says democracy is a cancer and is spreading through the most impolitic and is perhaps the number one thing they fear. ayatollah in iran knows what he says that we've got to kill a democracy because then i ran for they have a fraudulent democratic system, the process of actually going out to vote created the earthquake in 1997 and created even greater earthquake in 2009. there's not a single cleric from a single first-rate cleric in iran with the exception of ms. bios see who argue against now. i do not have enough time here to explain, to name the individuals who are diehard, revolutionaries, diehard anti-american islamists in iran who have fallen away because of the practices of the theocracy. we don't know what the evolution will be under a democratic system as opposed to a dictatorship. unrated readership we will see a complete falling away of the intellectual clas

i remember saying that to justice kagan and she said, only 25? [laughter] she is younger than i am. you learn to get along. you appreciate that you are working together. and those two things, a level of the discussion and the conference, and the extent to which the justices have a very collegial relationship with each other. upi'm going to follow it with a question -- is there anything hasn't a unpleasantly surprised you in the court? >> yes, and i will limit it to one. [laughter] as a chief justice, i have a fair amount of responsibilities. it is the highest court in the land. it is also essentially a small government agency with a $200 million budget. people fall on the steps and want to complain about it. you've got to get the right computers for the court. we just completed a renovation of the court that involved a lot of the administrative concerns. if you have been in washington and visited the court, you may wonder why the front is obscured by a scrim. a scrim is one of those sheets -- they try to draw it so it looks like the corporate and has chunks of marble falling off of

deciding to take the case, and when they took it, only eight justices acted on the order because justice kagan was the solicitor general when the government filed an amicus brief in support of the university of texas, so she is not sitting on this case. and so we have only four -- eight, excuse me, eight justices on the case, and the potential for a 4-4 tie is earnly there. despite these problems and despite the fact that ms. fisher has dubious remedies even if she could prove that she was harmed and that the system is unconstitutional, the court nevertheless took, took the case. some of the briefs have pointed out that among other minorities the asians are discriminated against, and, of course, it's historically true that the chinese and the japanese were discriminated against for long periods of time in our history. if you are interested in the data, and i don't know what they prove, you might as well have them. in texas they're about 3% of the population is asian-american. by the way, there's another problem with all of these numbers, and that is do you use the overall percentage in the pop

i strongly recommend that you read jeane kirkpatrick's and my good friend bob kagan's demolition of thaty later. i would just say this. ayman al zawahiri knows what he talking these talking about when he says that democracy is -- and it's spreading through the muslim body politic and that it is perhaps the number one thing they do. the ayatollah in iran knows when he says we have to kill off democracy because in iran, where they have a fraudulent democratic system, the process of actually going out to vote created the earthquake in 1997 and created even greater earthquakes in 2009. there is not a single cleric, single first-rate cleric in iran with the exception of him, who will argue against democracy now. he is the only one. i do not have enough time here to explain all the individuals who were die hard, revolutionary, die-hard anti-american islamists in iran who have fallen away because of the practices of the theocracy. now we don't know what the evolution will be entered democratic system as opposed to a dictatorship that under a dictatorship, we have seen a complete falling away of

. >> it's not elena kagan. for so long, my favorite justice was david souter. because he was so delightfully odd. he didn't have a cell phone or computer. he didn't have an answering machine on his phone. he was late for william rehnquist's funeral because they couldn't leave a message and find out where he was. he didn't like and doesn't like electric lights. he moved his chair around his office over the course of the day to catch the sunlight. that's a true story. but the great thing about justice souter was that he sort of got the joke about being a supreme court justice. he understood it was important, but it wasn't all about him. i will just give you one example of that. for reasons that remain obscure, david souter and stephen breyer are frequently mistaken for each other. if you know what they look like they don't look anything alike. but people only have a vague sense and one time not too long ago, justice souter was driving from washington to his home in new hampshire. he stopped at a restaurant to get something to eat. and the couple came up to him an