from the pulpit in florence, he pretty much put up with the insults as long as he was political leon board. he didn't mind being called a lustful, greedy, corrupt man. he said pretty much i am. host: i wrote down a quote when i was reading your book, "i believe christ speaks through my mouth" was his quote. and then you give the impression, or maybe it's the truth, that he was an evangelist. guest: he was a fundamentalist. he was a religious visionary. he's an interesting character because he had some very scary attributes and some very admirable attributes. host: but who was he? guest: he was a dominican friar who came to florence in 1492 from ferrara. so he was a foreigner, which always made him a bit suspicious to florentines. but he quickly gained the reputation of a fire and brim stone creature, calling on florentines to reform their ways, saying the judgment is at hand, you know, fire and pest lens and floods will -- pest lance and floods will come. he got a good response, because i think florentines felt guilty about their lifestyle, the corruption. i think this is the most admirabl

board that convoy. defense secretary leon panetta says gadhafi is on the run but admits he's not sure where he is. >>> i always wonder how they come to these conclusion. they know he's on the run but you don't know where he is. >> nobody knows where he is except for gadhafi. >> lots of speculation. >> maybe his sons. >> i don't recall in other sort of manhunts of that scope, there being so many publicized clues about he's here and we're closing in on him. one day i think they'll find him. >>> ahead on "american morning," big changes coming to airport security. welcome news for passengers. from size e to triple e. we'll tell you about it when we come back. >>> after the attacks of 9/11 a wall street man pulls a professional 180, leaving behind a lucrative career and salary to open his own business. guess what it is? take a look. we're going to have his story. 12 minutes after the hour. we're back after this. ♪ everything you need to stretch out on long trips. residence inn. ♪ everything you need to stay balanced on long trips. residence inn. [ engine revving ] [ male announcer ] you won't find the toughn

board cuts. >> so they do have this hanging over their heads, and nobody wants it. the secretary of defense, leon pennetta has said that the defense cuts would be completely unacceptable. i assume republicans would agree with him. that is the only light there because it might force them to do their jobs, and so in the end -- and i don't know if you agree with me or disagree with me, david, on this and, john, but i think that if you could come up with some form of tax reform or the promise of it in which you could kind of muddle what's a tax increase because if you lower a wealthy person's top rate, but you take away their deductions, does it even itself out? maybe you could play with something like that. >> well, gloria, you're right. there's an important point. if you did get tax reform that economists would say would increase growth, that will bring more revenue, and republicans would support that. >> right. >> you know, it would -- more growth brings more revenue, and that's a good thing, but i have to -- i don't know about you, but -- and i'm not sure of the feeling in washington, but don't y

hear from leon panetta and mike mullen for the first time since don't ask don't tell became history. troy davis is scheduled to be executed at 7:00 p.m. tomorrow evening after a georgia boardlemency. the family of the man he was convicted of killing said it was the right decision. reverend al sharpton. "news nation" is minutes away. o. really? [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus liquid gels fights your worst cold symptoms, plus it relieves your stuffy nose. [ deep breath ] thank you! that's the cold truth! [ horn honks ] ♪ oh, those were the best of days ♪ ♪ i still feel the summer rays ♪ that graced our backs as we went down the lane ♪ [ horn honks ] [ male announcer ] when your car is more than just a car to you, the right insurance matters. are you getting the coverage options you need and the discounts you deserve? for an agent or quote, call 800-my-coverage or visit travelers.com. she won't eat eggs without hot sauce. she has kind of funny looking toes. she's always touching my hair. and she does this dancing finger thing. [ male announcer ] with advanced technology from ge, now doctors can diagnose diseases like breast cancer on a cellular level. so that women, like

leon panetta said, if you take 600 billion dollars out defense on top of what we are trying to do you will be shooting the country in the head. i want an across the boardcut as a trigger. the whole government being on the table with a 5% reduction for the whole government and cut our pay by 10%, rather than devastating the defense department. i hope the super committee works. if it fails, let's don't destroy the defense department. >> chris: as i discussed with david plouffe, you're in danger of letting the government run out of money again, danger of a shutdown, no continuing resolution. don't republicans who are calling for a -- more for people mark, -- [ unintelligible ] aren't republicans going to get a lot of blame if the government shuts down? >> government is not going to shutdown? most americans want us to deal with disasters in front of us and disasters to come. that's what we are trying to start to pay for things that we haven't paid for before. house proposal is reasonable. i would ask harry reid to take it. it does fund disasters. it gets us on a glide path -- >> chris: what do you mean the senate already tabled it sir. >> come up with a pr

boarded three people. the director of the cia and his successor -- tenet was appointed by clinton. the other two were appointed by bush. leonetta was appointed by president obama. they have all said that the information that came from those enhanced interrogations' constituted a large fraction of what we knew about al qaeda and that in some instances, it contributed to the mosaic that led to the killing of osama bin laden. my view is that the people in the cia did what the president asked them to do. they did it professionally. it benefited the information needed to tackle the new problem of a terrorist network like al qaeda. >> after almost a decade, the u.s. finally got osama bin laden. do you think his death represents a moment when america could stop feeling fearful? >> you say america as though we are distinctive. there's been a lot of successful terrorist attacks around the world. they just happen not to have been in the united states. they have occurred in a number of other locations. i think osama bin laden is replaceable and that there will be a replacement. i think the broader, deeper task is to weaken their fund-