this is what max baucus at. i was there when all the single-payer people got up and disrupted the senate hearings and were thrown out. max baucus apologized and said we really should have, you, at least at a hearing on this and talked about it. but again, it's the idea, these are not the things that are most likely to happen. i think they can focus on the things that are most likely to happen. . . years, we have styled ourself the world's greatest deliberative body. it requires discussion of issues and to take it today, which gathered to -- discussion of issues and to pay. today, we gather to discuss >> guest: no. there, not really. first of all there is no filibuster in the house but, a conference is basically a committee. so they can, if you, you can, there, in the end there will be, if they do go to formal conference, there will be a conference report, you need a certain number of signatures on the conference report to get it out of conference but, so you can block a bill from coming out of committee but not

but this company, value max, caused me both financial and mental hardship. it took me close to a year to recover my money, money that i did not give them permission to take. i'm 27 years old. i use the internet constantly. i both understand it and able to utilize it with ease. i've even earned computer credits in computer application. with that said i believe i would not have agreed to a financial obligation i knew nothing about nor wanted. it is still unclear to me at this point how they were able to access my account. that is unless you consider the fact that this company chooses to use deceiving methods in correlation with other companies to take advantage of online consumers. this is nothing short of theft. my country promised to take care of me when i returned home. but without laws to govern these unethical practices identity allowing my country to be taken advantage of. this must be resolved. it's not just vets but all americans. if not today or tomorrow or next week. the bottom line is, if left unchecked these kinds of practices will spread out of co

kriz and max and i are all classmates together.we were all sworn and the same day. -- as one in on the same day. -- sworn in on the same day. this is a starter home. it has a great foundation. we are expanding health-care coverage to 31 million americans. it has a protective rules -- were roof. this is not the end of health care reform, this is the beginning of health care reform. i am just proud to join my fellow senators and doing whatever i can to make sure we get over the goal in the next few days and have the president signed into law as soon as possible after the first of the year -- president sign it into law as soon as possible after the first of the year. >> [inaudible] >> i work with -- i worked with every democratic senator and many republican senators to come up with the merged bill and the amendment to that bill. negotiations took place with the people up here at the podium and sometimes individually and he was just like the rest of them. we worked with him over a period of many weeks. we have -- as you look through th

kriz and max and i are all classmates together.l sworn and the same day. -- as one in on the same day. -- sworn in on the same day. this is a starter home. it has a great foundation. we are expanding health-care coverage to 31 million americans. it has a protective rules -- were roof. this is not the end of health care reform, this is the beginning of health care reform. i am just proud to join my fellow senators and doing whatever i can to make sure we get over the goal in the next few days and have the president signed into law as soon as possible after the first of the year -- president sign it into law as soon as possible after the first of the year. >> [inaudible] >> i work with -- i worked with every democratic senator and many republican senators to come up with the merged bill and the amendment to that bill. negotiations took place with the people up here at the podium and sometimes individually and he was just like the rest of them. we worked with him over a period of many weeks. we have -- as you look through this bill, y

people, and people buying our debt, whether we can increase the limits of our credit card because we maxed it out. media reports indicate that the majority intends to slip this provision into a bill on funding our troops in afganistan. because, frankly, they're embarrassed to have a stand alone vote on raising the debt ceiling. especially because they know that there are many of us here on both sides of the aisle that will insist on some measure to affect some discipline on this spending binge as a condition to voting on the debt ceiling. but whatever the vehicle that the majority leader decides upon, they cannot hide the fact that we are borrowing money so fast that we'll have to raise the debt ceiling another 15%. conveniently this increase will get the government through the next mid-term elections, it's reported, according to some experts. not a coincidence. no one, particularly those in control of the congress, want to have another vote on lifting the debt ceiling or asking the american people to raise the credit card limit before the next election. because they know the american peop

but for max baucus, we would not be here.months of the time spent with that committee when we did not have 60 votes, efforts were being made to attain that, as so i have said before but i say again, the leadoff for this whole venture has been max. chairman baucus. he hit the leadoff sometime he could hit from the left or right. had he speed. he had power. and that's chris dodd. a great -- if you look at some of the great players that batted third, who are some of those players? how about lou gehrig? lou gehrig was a setup man for babe ruth. the reason they had lou gehrig there is that they knew that they had to pitch to him because if you got past him you have babe ruth. that's what managers look for. and so for me, for once in my life, i'm batting cleanup. because when i played baseball i couldn't bat cleanup. but by the time it got to me, through baucus, dodd, and harkin it was pretty easy. so i appreciate the nice words everyone said to me. by the time this thing got to me, most of the hard work had been done. every one of

chairman max baucus pushed unfinished work to the senate floor where mr. reid is pressing to pass a bill in a race against rising unpopularity and president obama's falling approval ratings. mr. reid made this case with his usual intellectual nuance this week -- quote -- "instead of joining us on the right side of history, all republicans can come up with is 'slow down, stop everything, let's start over.' if you think you've heard these excuses before, you're right. when the country recognized the wrongs of slavery, there were those who dug in their heels and said slow down, it's too early, things aren't bad enough. equating opposition to medicare cuts, he related that to women's suffrage, social security and medicare. he would have done better if he listened to mrs. snowe's comments about durable social reform needing to be bipartisan, because while social security passed when the democrats controlled both congress and the white house, she pointed out that 64% of the senate republicans and 79% of the house g.o.p. supported it. civil rights passed with 82%

max baucus who never gave up. he started out early and just persisted and persisted and persisted and persisted. no matter what blog was thrown in the way. chris dodd who kept the flame of ted kennedy and the spirit of doing the right thing and doing the good thing and reaching for the highest values of this country alive. this is a happy day. mitch mcconnell said on the floor that we are going to go home -- i do not believe that. i believe that the negativity that ms. mcconnell and others have continually displayed on the floor and now when people learn what is actually in the bill and all the good it does, it will become more and more popular because it is good for america and good for the american people and the true symbol of what we can do if we all pull together. >> over at the white house, president obama reacted having the latest departure -- having delayed his departure for hawaii until the senate passed the health-care package. >> members of the senate joined their colleagues in the house of representati

images underscore the points made by leaders reid and max baucus and dr. wilson. i suspected you can only have one organization and the group of people that important to the bill, but choice to make is the one you're hearing today. but it's important to have other organizations be supportive. there's nothing more fundamental when you get right down to it than the relationship between a patient and their doctor. not that the most fundamental level whether or not you have access to that doctor or the resources to be able to accommodate the doctor for his or her services. and so all the organizations and individual groups that supported this bill, i rate this one of the most important because it speaks to the relationship of patients and doctors. their number of of provisions in the spell some of them articulated already by leaders reid and max baucus. one that tom harkin and i worked on by senator kennedy cared deeply about was making it possible for young men and women who have desired to become physicians in our country to be a lot to do so by reducing the tremend

max baucus never gave up.started out early and persisted and persisted and persisted and persisted. no matter what lock was broken away. christopher dodd kept the flame of ted kennedy and the spirit of doing the right thing and doing a good thing and return to the highest about use of of this country. this is a happy day. mitch mcconnell said on the floor that we will go home and hear our constituents or elegances bel pre i don't believe that. i believe that the negativity that leader mitch mcconnell and others have continually displayed on the floor has peaked. now, when people learn what is actually in the bill and all the good it does, it will become more and more popular because it is good for america, good for the american people, and the true symbol of what we can do if we all pull together. [no audio] >> after the senate passed the health care bill, the president spoke briefly with reporters at the white house. >> members of the senate voted to pass a health care bill that was revolutionary purposes a c

that's what max baucus has done. he has set the tone for what this team has done. he was always at practice early, he had a lot of people he had to deal with. you know, a leadoff hitter has to be able to bunt, has to be able to hit with power, and max has done all of that. but for max baucus, we would not be here. the months and months of the time spent with that committee when we did not have 60 votes, efforts were being made to obtain that, and so i have said before but i say again, the leadoff for this whole venture has been max. chairman baucus. [applause] and the personal that bats second is someone if you look at some of the great players that have batted second, joe morgan. he hit, he was leadoff sometimes, mainly he hit second. he was a switch hitter, he could hit from the left or the right, he had speed, he had power. and that's chris dodd, a great -- [laughter] now, if you look at some of the great players that have batted third, who are some of those players? how about lou gehrig? lou gehrig was a set-up m

but i'll say i can speak for our side of the aisle, snars max baucus came -- senator max baucus came to me more than a year ago and sat down in my office to talk about health care reform. he was preparing for this battle as chairman of the senate finance committee and knew he would play a central role gathering the opinions of members of his committee and members of the senate. efforts were underway with senator kennedy from his remote location in massachusetts recuperating from surgery and from cancer therapy, trying to keep his committee on track toward health care reform. he turned over that mantle to senator christopher dodd of connecticut, who did an admirable job with the senate health, education, and labor committee. they prepared and had hearings. they entertained hundreds of amendments, and, in fact, i believe there were over 160 amendments that were considered by the republicans and many of them were adopted in the "help" committee. senator coburn of oklahoma filed 212 amendments during the "help" committee markup. he offered 38 amendments to the bill. 19 of his amendments

value max. the bank manager for it for me this the bin the reoccurring transaction that i had supposedly agreed to. there were unable to give me any more information. i had no idea of the company was and still to the states do not know what they do. i started searching the web in hopes of finding some way of contacting this company. what i found was hundreds of blogs asking the same question. eventfully at founding e-mail address for valli maxon fennan emile to which are receive no reply. later on i found it phone number. when i call the person who answered repeatedly asked for personal information on myself, the things that's such as social security number and e-mail address is bracketone ebsen reluctant to give up the information i was told they'd reach the rung division of the company and i needed to call another branch in another state. this process repeated itself quite a few times and threw it all i still had no answers. so i decided to write the better business bureau. time pass with no r

those senators have spoken most often, senator max baucus, senator john mccain, dick durbin, and lamarxander and finally tom coburn. senators who have spoken along this on this -- senator max baucus has logged eight hours and 20 minutes. senator charles grassley has logged seven hours, 52 minutes. senator dick durbin, 7 hours 53 minutes. host: linda in bethesda, maryland, you are opposed to the senate health care bill, why? caller: good morning. i apologize for my laryngitis. i feel that this bill will eventually kill of innovation in medical research in the united states once we go down this slippery slope. the government will pay for more and more. we already know that nih grants are down. doctors and people considering going to health care, the bright ones will not go in because all the market incentives will be gone very medical schools are very expensive and i see this as a slippery slope into a government run health care eventually because that is what legislation does once you get it done. host: what kind of health care do you have? caller: have healthcare with an employer. i am

they're now in 21 nations, and there's max 300,000. probably less. and they're going fast. many of them -- they're in patches, and many of them -- on the other hand, there are large areas set aside for conservation. the defor restation is something i am passionate about. they're allowing tourism in the right way. you have to find a way to give african governments the incentive because at the moment china can go in with lots of money and take out basically the african children's future. so we have to be able to come up with something that is as attractive, and to pay people not to cut their forest down. the tourism thing, it does work, but it's not big enough. it's just four months, but over the long term. >> host: i thought 50 years ago it was impossible to imagine this world, you never would have guessed. who would have guessed. so, it may not be fair to ask you to try and predict where we might be 50 years from now if we were to get things right, or whether -- >> guest: hairs too many imponderables. if you take all the people that worked on global warming and the -- it's

madam speaker, president obama and congressional democrats have maxed out the national credit card and reckless -- with reckless spending and they're back for more. the american people are tired of overspending and tired of policies that have done nothing to lift us out of this economic downturn. democrats ram through a so-called stimulus that left us asking, where are the jobs? now congressional democrats are asking for more money that they will turn around later this afternoon and spend on another stimulus bill that spends even more on failed policy. madam speaker, it's time for congress to say no to endless debt that is around the neck of our nation's economy and future generations. vote no on this increased debt limit. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from nevada reserves. the gentleman from massachusetts is recognized. mr. neal: thank you, madam speaker. with that i'd like to voice a -- to a voice of fiscal responsibility to the gentleman. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. >> i thank my friend, mr. neal, for yielding. i think

max cleland's book heart of a patriot. how i found the curse to survive vietnam walter reid and karl rove. >> caller: i've read about six books about that this year. bad in history is an incredible time. one incredible effect i found about lessons in history is such few people make the decision for us to go to war. it's incredible. three people sat around a desk and decided for us to go to war in 1962. that book is an incredible book for all americans to read. >> host: thanks for the tip. here is john on our line. >> caller: besides the bible which takes longer than a year to read, i liked arguing with these. it is better than common sense for me and i just really enjoyed reading it. and there's another book that was like to read and not free man in america. but that's a local politician who writes that. >> host: one national politician was a book about in this year, the last line by the editors of the boston globe. here's a look at peter canalis talking about the book earlier this year. >> the interest in senator kennedy

max baucus who never gave up. he started out early and just persisted and persisted and persisted and persisted. no matter what blog was thrown in the way. chris dodd who kept the flame of ted kennedy and the spirit of doing the right thing and doing the good thing and reaching for the highest values of this country alive. this is a happy day. mitch mcconnell said on the floor that we are going to go home -- i do not believe that. i believe that the negativity that ms. mcconnell and others have continually displayed on the floor and now when people learn what is actually in the bill and all the good it does, it will become more and more popular because it is good for america and good for the american people and the true symbol of what we can do if we all pull together. >> over at the white house, president obama reacted having the latest departure -- having delayed his departure for hawaii until the senate passed the health-care package. >> members of the senate joined their colleagues in the house of representati

there was a max baucus alternative, a sort of sense of the senate that does not really affect things either way. i think what we are looking for for harry reid is can he get to the endgame, begin the closure process by the end of the week. it will take the democrats about six days or so from the beginning of cloture to the final formal vote on the bill and if they want to get out of here by wednesday, december 23, the cloture process needs to begin on friday. it is still a little unclear but that is what it looks like. >> a twitter message. who is actually an independent. sandwich, mass., independent caller. caller: one thing everybody needs to know and i don't hear talk about, real clear politics, health care, average of six major polls, four, 39.7%, against, 54.2%. that rally yesterday was for real. people don't like this. that is just an average. the cnn opinion research poll, 61% against, 36% for. you can put all of your seminar callers on c-span calling and saying they support this, they don't reflect the american people. that is all i have to say. host: "the washington post" he

because the federal government has maxed out its credit cards. our out-of-control spending is not even driving -- is now even driving down the value of our money. as the government borrows more money to finance even more spending, the devalued dollar will drive up the cost of goods. oil is a good example. take a country like saudi arabia which is already raising the prices they charge for their oil to compensate for the lower value of our dollars. this means every american will end up paying more for a gallon of gas because of our failure to address growing deficits. if we're going to enact real health reform, we need to use honest accounting and not budget gimmicks and fake assumptions that we all know will not happen. we should pay for expenses like fixing doctors' medicare payments and we should not delay the start of spending four years after the start of the new taxes just to make the bill look good over ten years. the problem for the president and my democratic colleagues is that their bill is being sold on the strength of accounting tricks

the chairman of the finance committee max baucus. but mark is joining us from philadelphia on the democrats win. good morning. caller: how were you? host: fine, thank you. caller: i think it is working. it is not pretty obviously. there are certain things i am not happy about. being a liberal democrat here in philly, a blue city and state. i would like to have seen a public option. unfortunately that has been negated. i'm a retired federal employees and now they want to in effect model of the employee health benefits. the only problem is what i see, on my plan, a lot of that elderly federal employees and up in blue cross, the one planned, therefore the premiums are rising steeply and i thought the whole purpose of the whole exercise was to control health care premiums. i don't see how you can control premiums without a public option. host: some of the comments from the editorial appeared "orange county register." technically the senate could be in session as late as tomorrow evening, christmas eve, a vote that could happen 7:00. we,

part of this health insurance exchange, the exchange itself will only cover something like 15% to 20% maxle, and the public option would only include something like four million or five million people, and that we're talking about like 1.5% of the total folks in the country. and yet, the debate raged all summer as if that were the only issue about the health reform. and so here we find ourselves trying to pass a health reform bill with so much attention diverted elsewhere with people pushing and pulling and tugging, all the special interests, how in the world do you bring this together? how do you bring it together so that we can get the high threshold of 60 votes in the united states senate? on the one hand, there are the insurance companies. the insurance companies have a huge steak and now the -- huge stake and now the insurance companies are running tv ads all over the country trying to kill this bill because they realize there is going to be a limitation on their ability to do everything that they want to do and to charge what they want to do and to cancel at will and to have frivolo

this docr, the chief psychiatri at max super specialty hospal in dehl i sees00 patients a day. >> mostf these psychtrists are all overndia. so when you start going fr the urban to theural areas, accessibily is not there. thenll these voodoo things, faith healers, start cing in. >> beyond the issue of stigm thpoor often don't have access to doctors. then more we-healed enclarifs, psychiatric trtment isn't covered by insurance. then the's a civil matter of blaming not science, b the spirit worldor one's mental ate. >> it is thoughthat if you're not doing ll, that you're being in this currt life, it mabe the past life of your in, or something you've done in a -- you knowin your early yout you're paying -- you're geing a punishment for that. >> to address the shortage o psycatric care among the poor in dehli, there's street clinic in a bustling, thou deeply impoverished rt of the city. last year they got the authoty to inject psychotic medicis on the sidewalk io those without families or those not able enough tgive consent with themselves. this is one such person. he's sho signs of improve

the chairman of the finance committee max baucus.k is joining us from philadelphia on the democrats win. good morning. caller: how were you? host: fine, thank you. caller: i think it is working. it is not pretty obviously. it is not pretty obviously. there are things i am not happy about. being a liberal democrat here in philly, a blue city and state. i would like to have seen a public option. unfortunately that has been negated. i'm a retired federal employees and now they want to in effect model of the employee health benefits. the only problem is what i see, on my plan, a lot of that elderly federal employees and up in blue cross, the one planned, therefore the premiums are rising steeply and i thought the whole purpose of the whole exercise was to control health care premiums. i don't see how you can control premiums without a public option. host: some of the comments from the editorial appeared "orange county register." technically the senate could be in session as late as tomorrow evening, christmas eve, a vote that could happe

wilson. -- you have seen them articulated by leader reid and max baucus and dr. wilson. was to make it possible for young men and women who desire to become physicians in our country be able to do so by reducing the costs. the scholarships, grants, loans in this bill make it possible for us to increase the work force. some estimates are the some 16,000 primary care physicians will be needed with the expanded numbers of people who have been health care. the ability of young men and women who have the strong ambition to be a health-care provider needs to be more accessible and less costly. one of the major provisions coming out of the health committee was designed to do just that. on behalf of my comment -- colleagues on the health committee, particularly senator carcanet -- senator harkin and senator bingaman, this is a very important moment. we're grateful for your support of this effort. it will make a huge difference in our country. >> dr. wilson, thank you very much for being here and for your great endorsement of this bill. some of you may know i was enabled the a av

it's a super max present and never been fully occupied.now they're going to build an additional fence around it. it will be more secure than any prison in america. to suggest they will be freed, they will be freed into the most secure prison in america and they are not coming out, and till such time as a resolution of whatever their issues may be were they pass away. and i might also say that the current law and the united states prohibits the president of the united states from releasing these detainees in the united states. so those statements by the senator from georgia are just flat incorrect. he is entitled to his decision that we should close guantÁnamo. i believe we should. on my side of this argument would be the following people were called for the closure of guantÁnamo. president george w. bush, secretary of state and former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff colin powell, secretary of defense under president bush and under president obama, robert gates. former secretary of state and domestic policy adviser, condoleezza rice,

people understand the credit card is maxed out and there are limited options. you can borrow from the chinese or raise taxes. neither of which help the primary concern of americans, which is getting back to work. i gave a speech last week of proposals we can take that don't cost anything to try to help this economy. if we live in that direction, maybe november will turn at tivoli. -- if we move in that direction. people in this country have a real sense of pessimism because they are scared and they don't see leadership addressing their concerns. president obama was elected because he said we needed change. what people want now this certainty. >> as an outsider coming into america i am struck by the fundamental optimism of this country. what you are describing speaks to a grumpy mood next year. do you think that is right? will we see the optimistic upside of america on display as well? >> we saw a part of this administration that said, it has been 11 months, maybe we ought to talk about jobs and the kinds of issues people face around the kitchen table, which is

people, and people buying our debt, whether we can increase the limits of our credit card because we maxedit out. media reports indicate that the majority intends to slip this provision into a bill on funding our troops in afganistan. because, frankly, they're embarrassed to have a stand alone vote on raising the debt ceiling. especially because they know that there are many of us here on both sides of the aisle that will insist on some measure to affect some discipline on this spending binge as a condition to voting on the debt ceiling. but whatever the vehicle that the majority leader decides upon, they cannot hide the fact that we are borrowing money so fast that we'll have to raise the debt ceiling another 15%. conveniently this increase will get the government through the next mid-term elections, it's reported, according to some experts. not a coincidence. no one, particularly those in control of the congress, want to have another vote on lifting the debt ceiling or asking the american people to raise the credit card limit before the next election. because they know the american peopl

. >> host: another point is from the opposite of "the new york times" by max hastings, a former editor of the daily telegraph in london who says in his piece, most decision makers on both sides of the atlantic now privately we are in the business of managing failure and that is how it looks. that can be turned over to the afghanis. there are secure areas and afghin afghanistan we can build. i think what will happen is the training of the afghan forces will be down at the province level, the state level, not at the national level. i think the governors will have a much more robust play in how those forces are trained and will be under their control. so i think that it is not a recipe for failure. i think it is a carry for how we go forward for success. host: the other story and we were reading, on the front pages of " the new york >> host: we were reading front page of the ""new york times"" it's expanding inside pakistan. this happened two weeks ago. cia sharp shooters killing eight people. >> what do you know about this? >> again, i know nothing classified. i've had some experience in

let me underscore the point made by senator breed and max baucus and dr.ll support a suspect that if you could only have one organization or group people to support this bill, the choice we would probably make is the one you are hearing today. while it is important to have other organizations be supported, there is up more fundamental than the relationship between a patient and their doctor. that is at the most fundamental level. whether or not you have access to that doctor and the resources to compensate that dr. for their services. all the organizations and individual groups that have supported this bill, i read this one as the most important because it speaks to that relationship between patients and doctors. there are a number of provisions in this bill. some have been articulated. one provision that senator tom harkin and i've worked on and that senator kennedy cared deeply about was making it possible for young men and women who desire to become a physician be able to do so by reducing the term as costs. the scholarships, the grants, the loans in th

harry reid and max baucus. chris dodd and tom harkin all taking part alive car -- 1:15 p.m.n c-span. a discussion now on the obama administration's economic policy and health care from today's "washington journal." " continues. host: joining us from new york, steve forbes, the author of "how capitalism will save us" -- former ceo. you indicate in your introduction that he began writing the book in 2007 before the economic collapse. what prompted you to write a book on capitalism at that time? guest: well, there's a lot of misunderstanding about what true free markets are. how they work and what rules are needed. in that sense even though most have a favorable view, it is like the proverbial fish not knowing that it is swimming in water. we have the system but people really do not understand how works. i thought the book with a question and answer format would be useful. then the disaster came along in the along2007, so we have to focus it on the fact that the whole idea of free markets and capitalism has taken a real hit. -- the whole disaster came along in 2007. the major e

that is that if you look at the testimony again that anita moncrief gave about receiving this list of maxed out donors from the obama campaign and then using that at project vote and acorn to do basically further work for the campaign, you have potentially not only an evasion of federal campaign donation limits, you have potentially illegal coordination going on between the obama campaign and acorn. those are violations of the federal campaign law that the f.e.c. could engage in civil penalty against the campaign, and it's something that if it was done knowingly and intentionally would be a criminal violation of the federal election campaign act which would be normally investigated and prosecuted by the public integrity section at the department of justice. the leading campaign finance lawyer on the democratic side in this city is in fact bob bauer. >> thank you very much. and i would turn to ms. moncrief. this is courageous testimony on your part. and on the part of everyone. but you're the one that i'm worried about your support network. and i hopefully it's formed and it's getting strong

pepsi max. the first diet cola for men. ahh, this is good. >> jim: 11:42 to play in the first half. tennessee, 11-6, over number two, stanford. courtside, jim watson, lisa leslie and mary murphy. we continue to talk about them. what do you think so far? kelley cain, the sophomore, looking pretty good. >> lisa: really good. kelley cain, she's went to her right-hand hook twice, got it also on the baseline. every time she's scored, jayne appel made sure she got back on that block and scored on the other end. looks good. >> jim: mary, stanford's offense a little sluggish. they've kept an eye on appel. >> mary: stanford has seen a mix and match and they don't have a rhythm offensively, and that's really tennessee basketball defensively this year. keep you on your heels, don't let you get comfortable. >> jim: knocked away. j.j. hones. a one on three. she holds it up. helping barlow. she says that's our ball. >> lisa: putting the pressure defensively on tennessee which they usually do. j.j. hones does a nice job of going over top. >> mary: she just jammed up and there was no ball to sweep,

. >>> also senator max baucus, powerful chairman of the finance committee under fire tonight for recommendingirlfriend for a prominent political post. maybe unseemly, but is it unethical? we'll have politics on that, those stories, and more. tonight on "360." >> larry: edda mellas and curt knox are joining us from italy. among his clients, nicole brown simpson and the parents of natalee holloway. mark geragos, what's your read on this? >> i think amanda's parents have got a real beef here. i think every parent's worst nightmare to send your child overseas and have them get ensnared in something like this. and by all accounts the evidence was anything but overwhelming and certainly not convincing. this -- i don't know who said it whether it was them or one of the other relatives. somebody had a great statement that i heard which was they weren't trying amanda, they were trying some fictional character. and it sure sounds like that's exactly what happened. >> larry: edda, is that what you feel? >> oh, absolutely. it's amazing. everything that was said in court about amanda, we're all looking at

max baucus who never gave up. he started out early and persisted and persisted in persisted. no matter what was thrown in the way. and chris dodd, who kept the flame of ted kennedy in his spirit of doing the right thing and doing a good thing and reaching to the highest values of this country alive. this is a happy day. mitch mcconnell said on the floor that we are going to go home and your our constituents rail against this bill. i do not believe that. i believe the negativity that leader mcconnell and others have continually displayed on the floor has peaked. now, when people learn what is actually in the bill and all the good it does, it will become more popular, because it is good for america, could for the people, and a true -- good for the people, and a true symbol of what we can do if we all pull together. >> thank you, everybody. >> after is the senate passed its health care bill, the president spoke briefly with reporters at the white house. >> hello, guys. good morning, everybody. in a historic vote that took place this morning, members of the senate joined their co

he said, max, i can't deal with that. why are they going up 40%, i asked? they found a preexisting condition with respect to one of my employees. max, i can't afford a 40% increase. they said it would only be a 20% increase if i let him go. he's been with me for 15, 20 years, one of my best employees. i can't let him go. i don't know what to do. i talked to him later and he found another carrier, he kept his employee and he found another insurance carrier. he had to pay 20% more in premiums even though he was able to keep his kpwhraoefplt it's wrong. it's hard for small businesses to find health insurance for their employees *fplt most jobs in our country are created by small business men. that's where most of the jobs are, most of the creativity is. that's where in many sense where most of the greatest need is that entrepreneurism, american ingenuity where a small business man can do a good job with the service he's providing. last year, mr. president, 62% of small businesses did offer health insurance to their employees. compare that with other companies.

lost two games to boston where they max indeed that periods. that is a good time for the toronto mapleleafs. competitive coach and general manager and the best player back in the line up and fully healthy right now. >> the rookie, getting the shot tonight in toronto against the mapleleafs. that will do it. appreciate it. alan may. that will do it here for geico sportsnite. fred harris here. woe will get you ready for a couple of games tonight. wizards fan wills head out to verizon as the wizards take on the pacers, and of course, capitals fans, try to send you out to toronto for the toronto mapleleafs and washington capitals, coming up next on comcast sportsnet. plus, enjoy the games tonight. we will see you right back here at 10:00. girl: my name is emily, and in 7 years... i'll be an alcoholic. all: hi, emily. announcer: kids who drink before age 15

i would remind my friend, max baucus called a pre-emptive strike on wednesday with a group of democraticlobbyists warning them to advise their clients not to attend a meeting for senate republicans set for thursday. russell sullivan, baucus chief of staff, met with a block of 20 members of staff including several baucus aides who have made a nice transition, and they said you have to let your clients know if they have someone there, it will be viewed as a democratic act said a democratic lobbyist who attended the meeting. going will say i'm interesting in working with republicans to stop health care reform, the lobbyist added. and phrma, the new york sometimes, again, my favorite, we need tauzin -- tauzin, the $5 million per year representative of phrma -- if you -- who is ever going to get into a deal with the white house again if they don't keep their word? they are just going to duke it out instead. they cut a deal. so that's, again, an answer to the senator from montana. that's probably how he got the letter, the same way tauzin wrote his letter. minority leader. senator, do you have

trying to get the votes from max baucus, what did you originally believed about the health care system? >> i think, not that much. the data that i have the we have looked at on health care on very specific parts of the problem they are not quite right. what it one economist was say based on the data that health care is a market where there is a huge disconnect between the people who are paying and the choices made. when i go to the store and i want to buy it oranges are apples, they cost me $0.50 on the margin. if i want to buy a car, i pay for it. if we want to rationalize the health care system, the stronger we can make the connection between what people buy and what they pay will be the answer. and a #2 it competes with the insurance component of health care. if you pay on the margin you don't have insurance. i am not saying you should let the economist run the world but it will be one where they had insurance but more or less people paid on the margin and the least popular set up you can have it we would have more rational items. >> host: one storey read and write about -- right ab

i admit, my friend, the senator from montana, max baucus, worked hard to try and get a -- a bipartisan bill, but in the end, he only had three republicans in the gang of six and they left him. and all of a sudden he fieppedz his bill -- finds his bill being put between the house bill and the "help" committee bill. behind closed doors with very few people involved, all democrats, from the white house and probably two or three or four or five from the senate, but no more than that. and that's what we have -- that's what we've had up till now is that -- this huge, 2,074-page bill. that will eat us alive as a country. mr. president, throughout this debate, i've heard a lot of rhetoric from the other side of the aisle about how republicans are opposed to this $2.5 trillion tax-and-spend bill because, as the democrats incorrectly suggest, we want the status quo. oh, give me a break. we all know this is completely false. we on this side of the aisle have asked the democrats over and over again to step back and wright a new bill with us, but they are so consumed with their arrogance of power t

let's see if you for this one, max clevelan part of the patriot why found the courage to survive the imam walter reed and karl rove >> caller: i've read 60 books about begin on veterans' this year, bill. that period in history is an incredible time. one incredible fact i found about lessons in history is such a few people made the decision fo

i mean, people in america understand the credit card is maxed out and there are very limited options at this point. you can go borrow from the chinese or you can raise taxes, neither of which help the primary concern of americans right now, which is getting back to work. and i gave a speech last week at the heritage foundation rolling out some proposals that we could take now together that don't cost anything to try and help this economy along. if we hopefully move in that direction, maybe november, 20 10, will turn out differently. but i'm thinking very much that the outcome in 2010 will reflect what i heard at the thanksgiving dinner table last week, and that is people in this country have a real sense of pessimism right now because they're scared. they're scared and they don't see leadership in washington expressing their concerns. president obama was elected because he said we needed change. i think what people in this country want now is certainty, businesses and families alike. >> one of the things that, as an outsider coming into america, i'm always struck by is the fundamenta

if you want to find out,or exple, if a lobbyist for a large health-ce firm has gone in and spokeno max baucus or joe lieberman this senatorr that congssman, you're not going to be able to find that out because it's not federal required forhe client of the lobbyist to disclose that. >> ifill: do that lack of trsparency automatically suggest malfeasance any bad action? >> not at all. we wouldn't suggesanything ofhe sort. but wh lack of transparency does is gets people less inrmation to draw nclusions from. unrtunately, we can't see exactly what the interacons have been in the entire tee as far as we're ncerned if there's a ck of transparency orot as much transparency as is possie when these very important public pcesses are taking pla and public decisions are being made, th the puic has less information to go on. >> ifill: there's nothing illegal about anytng that we're seng that you've been able to chronicle? >> it's not an abraham off situation. and congress to its credit i 2007 tighted its rules to make sure there was more transpency and in a lot of people'spinion did a great job maki

his max plunk. they were all working on this problem. einstein was simply a third-class patent clerk working in the swiss patent office. but in his spare time, he realized that the speed of light is always constant, but as you try to catch up with the speed of light, time slows down for you. it was an amazing leap of the imagination, an act of creativity that was done by patent clerk and not by a professional scientist. it took them another five years before he got a job as an academic scientist because that's how long it took the rest of the scientific community to figure out this leap of the imagination. and so whether it's henry kissinger or hillary clinton or bill clinton or benjamin franklin ronald reagan, i have auld -- always tried to look at what made somebody stand out, what special characteristic that made them different from the people around them. i got inspired by the first real writer i ever knew, walter percy, and i hope his books are still here because i will tell you, i marvel at his philosophical agrees and his understa