. >> columnist and author mark stein has published nine books, his latest "after america" is a "new york times" best seller. he writes the happy warrior column for the national review and he's a frequent guest host on rush limbaugh's show. live sunday on in depth your chance to call, e-mail and tweet with your questions live at noon eastern on book tv on c-span2. >> the president addressed attendees of this year's national prayer breakfast on thursday. in his remarks he said his actions and policies are motivated by jesus' teachings in his work on health care reform and leveling the playing field for everyone. the annual event is hosted by the fellowship foundation, a nonpartisan christian group based in the washington area. [ applause ] >>> while we have your attention and focus, so we can keep on schedule, mark and i and many, many others have been working and praying on this remarkable breakfast for months now, and we're all excited to share it with you. we've all had dwo different experiences of what can happen when we bring faith into the world of government and business. when we lo

. >> columnist and author mark stein has published books his latest, "after america."e writes "the happy warner" column and is a frequent guest on rush limbaugh. live sunday on in-depth, your chance to call, e-mail and tweet with your questions live at noon eastern on book tv on c-span 2. >> house oversight committee chair darrell issa repeated his threat to issue a contempt citation if the justice department doesn't hand over documents with the fast and furious investigation. testifying before the committee attorney general eric holder said he will not provide documents related to internal department deliberations. he also said prosecutions could begin as early as the end of march in the case of slain border agent terry. guns linked to the fast and furious were found at the crime scene where terry was killed in december 2010. fast and furious run out of phoenix. >> oversight committee mission exists for two misunderstand ment -- fundamental principles. first, money spent, second, americans deserve an efficient government. our duty on the government oversight committee

. >> columnist and author mark stein has published nine books, and he also writes "the happy warrior" column for "the national review," and also guest hosts for rush limbaugh. now is your time to tweet your questions live on book tv on c-span 2. with talk of the possibility legislation to improve the nation's cyber defense, former cia director deals with national aware, of the cyber threats from an aspen homeland security group discussion. >> in some ways, cyber mirrors a little bit the discussion that we used to have about terrorism in the '80s and the '90s and a great deal of difficulty coming to the national consensus about what to do about it, until we had 9/11 which crystallized everything, and then when the nation moved forward we haven't had that event in cyber yet. we image ine it, and in the attk of stratmore where i lost my credit card, the only good thing that comes out of it is that a few more of those, the public awareness that it is a serious vulnerability that will overcome some of the private sector reservations about working with the government on this. >> watch the r

. >> mark stein has published nine books, his latest "after america" is a new york times bestseller, he also writes the happy warrior column for the national review, and he's a frequent host on rush limbaugh's radio show. sunday your chance to call, yo c-span2. >>> the senate budget committee this week heard from a panel of experts that u.s. lawmakers should pay attention to what's happening financially in europe. the eurozone crisis is a significant reason for the u.s. to cut its debt and spending. this is a little more than two hours. >> the hearing will come to order. i want to welcome everyone to the hearing. we have three really distinguished witnesses this morning. i want to thank each of them for being here. first, we have dr. simon johnson, sr. fellow at peterson institute and professor of entrepreneurship at the sloan school of management. dr. johnson has testified before this committee on several occasions and we welcome him back this morning. we also have dr. fred berkston, director of the the peterson institute. he recently announced after 13 years of ably leading the pet

. >>> mark steines takes us inside "vanity fair's" birthday bash. >> reporter: coming up, inside thenity fair" oscar party's past. from brad to george to oprah, we have the candid moments you have never seen. >> reporter: last year, tom hanks, anne hathaway, robert downey, junior, youngsters selena gomez and taylor southwest made it quite a night. hollywood brings together sher, madonna. and a stoic daniel craig with seinfeld. the tradition began in 1994 with a very young tom and nicole. and there was anna nicole smith, sharing a conversation with director oliver stone and candacebergin. the next year, oprah and steadman made their first "vanity fair" appearance. matt damon's 1998 dates were with mom and oscar, just like his buddy ben affleck. two years later, ben was with gwynneth, while he was with aniston. >>> also, whitney houston on the set of her final movie. and we have the latest on the death investigation. that and so much more is coming up later on entertainment tonight. >> and that's at 7:30, here on wjz 13. >>> no heart where you'll be this weekend, as long as the weather

. >> mark stein has published nine book. his latest, after a america is a new york times best-seller. he writes the happy warrior column for the national review and is a frequent guest host on rush limbaugh's radio show. live sunday on in-depth your chance to call, e-mail and sweet with your questions live at noon eastern on booktv on c-span2. >> let me preface my talk about kurt vonnegut by reading the first page of the prologue that will serve as a spring board for what i have to say to you about his life and his work and the relationship had with him, our friendship. this is from the prologue out of print and scared to death and it starts like this. kurt vonnegut planned to give this new teaching job at the university of iowa his best shot. he is doomed to cross the midwest in early september of 1965 in his sun's new volkswagen beetle, frame pressing against his head and pressing is head against the roof line. of failure were clattering behind him like tin cans tied to the bumper. the ashtray was stuffed with crushed butt

and i guess i'd like to hear from sam stein, mark haleprin, and ed rendell.ere. we are hearing from the republican candidates, criticizing the president for apologizing. seems like such a small sliver of the issue, and i'd really like to hear from the candidates thoughtful ideas, exchange as to what to do with these countries, with each potential scenario that could lay out and how exactly we can sort of extricate ourselves from this situation without leaving the work, the work that we've done there high and dry. sam, you go first. >> i mean, you basically said the whole point which is the whole debate over whether or not an apology was warranted is so trivial when you think about it in the context of the weightier issues over what exactly we're doing in afghanistan a decade into the war. and you know, there are great disagreements over this. they exist within the democratic party, the republican party, but the question remains, you know, as people who are trying to assume the office of the presidency, do you continue to push a policy that seems inherently un

mark haleprin and sam stein are with us. the "daily rundown," chuck todd. chuck, we've got a couple of stories going. >> you made it. >> what? >> weather events. >> oh, my gosh. >> very concerned. it was raining here, are you guys okay in new york? >> you see my response, right. the end of the world, the great new york city frost of 2012. >> sorry. >> let's go to the bloomberg story. chuck, we want your input on the two big stories of the week. one hhs, and there's a lot about the infighting that led up to this that provides some light. but also mitt romney getting absolutely hammered by all of the conservative outlets today. not a good week for mitt romney or obama. >> vice president joe biden and white house chief of staff bill daly raised early concerns about the potential political backlash to an hhs mandate requiring faith-based groups to offer employees birth control. the article says biden and daly were concerned the provision might alienate catholic voters. kathleen sebelius was a leading voice in pushing for the man

back with us onset in washington we've got sam stein, michael steele, and mark halperin.e barnicle. you guys were all at c pac yesterday and, sam, you actually said you were ready to contribute to a certain candidate. >> joe the plumber. he won a huge endorsement yesterday. herman cain got up, gave a rousing speech, said joe the plumber's endorsed 9-9-9, hence he endorses joe the plumber. >> that simple. >> he was a rock star. >> made for these moments. the only thing i found kind of interesting was herman cain obviously has endorsed newt gingrich. he never mentioned newt's name once the entire time. he gave a good endorsement for joe the plumber. herman was made for those moments. the crowd loved it. >> yeah. >> started with a classic teleprompter joke. those never get old apparently. >> well, i'll tell you if you look at the front page of "the washington post" you talked about newt gingrich. here are some shots from c pac and the headline "romney stuck in lukewarm advisers fear" and mark halperin you say that is the big story out of c pac. at the end of the night when i