even as somebody as cautious as mcclellan, lost under these circumstances.at moment, jackson won the battle of winchester, push the small federal force out of the valley, lincoln's decision, it was offensive in nature, not based on fear, but it was the wrong decision. he took his eye off of the ball. he diverted is 40,000 men away from the movement against richmond, into the valley with the intention of mcdowell closing in behind jackson in the east while a small federal force of about 60,000 men under fremont approach across the alleghenys from the west to close the door on jackson before he was able to fall back up the shenandoah valley. that again was a tremendous strategic error, because if mcclellan -- that was minimal, pretty likely the outcome that mcclellan, extra 40,000 men would have succeeded in taking richmond. if that had been the case, jackson's command of the valley would have been totally irrelevant. there would have been no consequence. in a sense, jackson's success was a consequence of a strategic error. be that as it may, jackson did accom

the centrality of the district of columbia and then there in the middle on his horse is general mcclellanpresident lincoln's worst general the man from whom he asked to borrow the army since the general appeared to have no use for it. and probably was a defeatist. he certainly ran against lincoln later as a proslavery democratic. he may have had secret sympathies with the other side. it makes me laugh because on his horse he's still pointing south, the wrong direction. the confederates would have been that way. he's riding away from them. a little reminder about history. a typical writing day for me depends on how atypical the previous day was in that i tend to work late at night and if it's been successful, i may not have gone to bed till 3:00. so the next writing day will probably not start till, say, noon or so but if you absolutely had to average a day, it would be like this. get up, try and inhale some coffee. forcing myself to eat oatmeal for anticholesterol purposes, blah, blah. before lunchtime i wouldn't get much done except answering emails. and fending off whatever had accumula

mark mcclellan, a heth care policy adviser to presents clinton anbush, says that kind of pragmatisis badly needed now. >> ithere is a model from what senator kennedy has ne, i think it's that we canind a bipartisan way to solve the problems and aress them. >> reporter: kennedy legacy extes far beyond health care. nick allard, a cse kennedy adviser, says some 300ajor pieces olegislation carry the senar's name. >> i recall,or example, providing relief frothe bankrucy laws for smalfamily faers. always keeping his eyeut for the litt guy. >> reporter: knedy's friends are ill hoping for one more victy. a bipartisan health care rorm coveng all americans and signed into law byhe man kennedy endoed for president. >> i think the curre health care debate isn the president's hands rit now, but i wouldn't be surpsed if the was some divine intervenon from the senator. he's probably arting to lobby already from up ere. >> jeff: the final ka-ching in for ch for clunkers. the transportati department released the fin numbers today, shong the popular prograrang up almost 700,000 vehicle sales. thtotal

mark mcclellan, a heal care policy adviser to presidts clinton and sh, says that kind of pragmatism badly needed now. >> if ere is a model from what senator kennedy has do, i think it's that we can fd a bipartisan way to solve thes problems and addss them. >> reporter: kennedy'segacy extendfar beyond health care. nick allard, a clo kennedy adviser, says some 300 mor pieces of gislation carry the senas name. >> i recall, f example, providing relief from e bankrupt laws for small mily farms. always keeping his eye o for the littleuy. >> reporter: kendy's friends e still hoping for one more ctory. a bipartisan health ca reform coveri all americans and signed into law by t man kennedy endors for president. >> i think the currentealth care debate is ithe president's hands righnow, but i wouldn't be surprid if therwas some divine interventi from the senator. he's probably stting to lobby already from up the. jeff: the final ka-ching is in for casfor clunkers. the transportationepartment released the finalumbers today, showi the popular program ng up almost 700,000 vehicle sales. the tal value o

mcclellan suggests? entree to investigation or any chance of it going from here in any direction officially? >> well, you know, keith, that's why they don't call these tell some books. i mean when you get into an allegation like this, you're in for a penny a pound. you need to make good the allegations, very serious allegation. it's not a new allegation. what ridge is suggesting here, critics have said for a very long time that the bush administration always seemed eager to keep fear alive. that national security had become their only selling point. they basically lost on all the other political fronts. but what it did then was create this really dangerous situation where danger was a commodity. it was something that was being used not just politically but in courts, to roll back civil liberties, for arrests. it became an entire industry. in fact, i testified to congress about how we still have this infrastructure from the bush administration with which is occupied by people who are told, given a huge am

mark mcclellan, a health care policy adviser to presidents clinton and bush, says that kind of pragmatism is badly needed now. >> if there is a model from what senator kennedy has done, i think it's that we can find a bipartisan way to solve these problems and address them. >> reporter: kennedy's legacy extends far beyond health care. nick allard, a close kennedy adviser, says some 300 major pieces of legislation carry the senator's name. >> i recall, for example, providing relief from the bankruptcy laws for small family farmers. always keeping his eye out for the little guy. >> reporter: kennedy's friends are still hoping for one more victory. a bipartisan health care reform covering all americans and signed into law by the man kennedy endorsed for president. >> i think the current health care debate is in the president's hands right now, but i wouldn't be surprised if there was some divine intervention from the senator. he's probably starting to lobby already from up there. >> jeff: the final ka-ching is in for cash for clunkers. the transportation department released the final numbers

number two, this is not a mark mcclellan, this is not someone who wrote a book that attacks the bush administration. if you look at the rest of the book, it's fairly benign when it comes to the bush administration. thirdly, this isn't mark mcclellan who after saying all of these bad things continued to remain as an employee of the bush administration. tom ridge left 30 days after this incident supposedly took place. so we have every reason to believe him. i'm sure he's telling the truth. the only reason that they didn't force him to raise the threat level, and by the way as tom said, not only was he against raising the threat level, but there was no one in the department of homeland security, not one person, who agreed that the threat level should be raised because of this. the only reason they didn't raise it was because they thought it might backfire. >> did you ever get this sense as chief executive of pennsylvania when you were getting the word on these alerts, these code yellows, code oranges as they proceeded up the line, did you ever get the sense there was politics behind the

i think that had a general mcclellan ordered an all-out offensive at any point during the day and elli element in the army attacking simultaneously they probably but believe it was brilliant in understanding the psychology of his opponents and he consistently kept mcclellan off balance. jackson was not late getting into the battle by design but was it busies rendering union troops at harpers ferry and came up as rapidly as he could once those troops had surrendered a decisive role in the battle of antietam. in termsf iraq general franks had a brilliant 23 day campaign in 19, 2003 followed by an enormous political mistake in creang an american administration in june of 2003. i write about it at length that real changes would come in january and feel deeply and said so in december 2004, 2003i said publicly that we had gone off a cliff made a big mistake and we needed to get back to where general petraeus is now trying to get us. i moderately optimistic that petraeus who are one key is having a positive impact on the campaign. >> host: in our second hour we're going to focus on gingrich's

he makes scott mcclellan look like robert oppenheimer. bill: please explain. >> he was the guy that build the bomb. bill: bill :it was dum i thouge for him to attack fox. >> he will do what ever get him the biscuit. the weird thing is that barack obama is reminded me of john lee friendly. you can hear all of the aclu people with bats. this guy will trash you if he construes you to be a rudbe. when the most popular gaius signaling you out, he calls you a square. he plays hardball. -- when the most popular guy singles you out. bill: he is very accomplished in front of groups. are you surprised this has gone wrong? >> he is not that accomplished. when you can stand up and fun as a room and say -- talking about it to advance your cause, you can talk about ups and fedex, they work fine, but the post office has a problem. obama can get in a flight suit and is a mission accomplished, no one would give him anything about this. bill: he sailed through the first six months of his administration. he has hit a wall. all of the polls show that. he can

we have scott mcclellan's book on the other side of the ledger perhaps we have doug five's book although he throws a number of barbs at the state department. we have dick cheney's book coming out. donald rumsfeld's book coming out. i have no doubt if they provoke colin powell enough, his book will follow theirs. we have president bush pushing a book. people like myself, historian, internationalists, people who teach this chubt matter have already pronounced the bush administration one of the most incompetent in american history. i think history's verdict may each be worse than that. it may be the most incompetent and here we have these people in my party wrestling over whether or not there was enough shame to go around in that administration. with all the challenges that this country confronts right now, this is -- this is really disturbing. >> it seems to me like the very last seen your administration official to write the book will have all the blame piled up so high on them that the they'll have to do something quite dramatic about it. all these books are self-exculpatory if a way, an

there in t middle this general mcclellan, the man for whom he asked to borrow the army was a general had no use for he was a defeatist near and ran as a proslavery democrats. it makes me laugh anyway because on his horse he is still pointing south, the wrong direction but confederates would happen that way. he is writing away from them. a little reminder about history. a typical riveting day depends on how a typical the previous day was. i tend to work late at night and if it is successful i may not have gone to bed until 3:00 a.m.. the next day may not start until noon but if i had to average a day it would be get up, and hail some coffee, of course, myself to eat zero mail for cholestol purposes per hourefore lunch i do not get much time besides answering e-mails and fending off whenever accumulat. let ping wh that then having lunch i generly do reading by myself the essential part of being a good writer is to be a good reader. thone thing and never tire of saying this keep testing yourlf against writers that are better than do that is what, if -- quifies onerom running the risk of

>> does it make you feel better that tom ridge said -- >> i think it's terrific just like scott mcclellan that he has a book later. after the fact. for him, actually. >> joe, any -- >> i don't want to talk and then be yelled at. >> you can talk, go ahead. i wouldn't interrupt. >> she's going to yell. >> there was speculation about this at the time, just remember. >> i remember actually speculating myself and getting laughed at, not by you. >> it depends on the dress you were wearing that day. >> this is a good one today. come on. no. >> this is a great dress. i was talking about that day. it was like a shower curtain it was just miami. so, this is disgusting, this is absolutely disgusting. now rummy and bush and everybody else is going to come out and say -- that ridge was trying to sell a book, that he's just trying to sell a book. that's what they always say. yeah, this is horrifying if tom ridge. now, wait a minute, when did tom ridge quit? because i wonder around this table would raise the security threat if we thought it was only being done for security reasons or it was time to quit

drafted a statement which he had each of the members of his cabinet signed pledging their support for mcclellanho was running against him. for the transition. and i told president bush that and he said not only do i know that, but my daughter felt the same way. he said his daughters wrote him a letter, which he kept obviously, and he said that, said you're going to lose, you are so unpopular, we're dropping out of school and will campaign for a. he said it was the best thing that ever happened to him it into the relationship. he had lincoln portrait move to the oval office and he could see it every day. >> does president obama keep lincoln supporter in the oval office? >> i haven't been in a position to ask them but i don't know. but he probably sleeps with it. [laughter] >> some people talk about barack obama transcending race, and in fact not necessarily being an african-american in the sense that we often use that word. i think i magazine asked you this and you said wait a minute. >> that is a load of rubbish. if the man tries to get a taxi going uptown in new york before he was elected, he

you may recall former white house press secretary scott mcclellan wrote a scathing memoir, "what happenedinside the bush white house and washington's culture of deception." he said they relied on propaganda to sell the iraq war. and the commander of coalition forces there also wrote a book, "wisner battle, a soldier's story." ricardo sanchez describes chaos on the battlefield, and once again, blames the bush administration. and former attorney general john ashcroft looks back, not in anger, but in awe, in "never again, securing america and restoring justice," ashcroft writes about his role in wake of 9/11 and his defense of the patriot act. >>> and still to come, former vice president cheney's memoirs scheduled for publication in spring of 2011. that should be interesting. he's expected to give detailed accounts on differences with his boss, specifically in their second term. and former defense secretary donald rumsfeld also has a book deal. his book will cover his entire political career. >>> former swimsuit model murdered and mutilated and jammed in a suitcase. the manhunt intensifies f

scott mcclellan, the former press secretary who wrote his own tell-all book was quoted as basically sayingstration officials. >> well, look, i do think, you know, it's hard for anybody to know what the truth is at this point. it does not seem based on the people i knew in the white house this would be something that they would do. fran townsend was clearly in the room and her recollection is totally different. so i think, you know, these are serious charges. tom ridge is a friend, a great homeland security, james wright, homeland security secretary, great governor, and a great republican. i think we all wake up today with a loft questions on our mind. >> james, this was reported on back in 2004, the "new york times" covered it, talked about the deliberations, should they raise it? no, they shouldn't. nobody interjected politics in it back then until now. >> he does, and i think so there's also a question of some phone calls that were outside of that meeting. but these are the kinds of things that we don't know. but we do know that this is about as serious as it can get. and i think the pub

i ask unanimous consent that thomas mcclellan, christopher sha-roeder and christopher mitchell those four nominees be considered en banc. those four nominees be signified by aye. i would note we have one, two, three, four, six, seven, eight nine, ten -- fifteen senators in the room. >> mr. chairman, i think there's some concerns about some of the nominees, but i think our members are committed to letting it go forward. so thank you. >> i appreciate that. please stand in recess. forward. >> i appreciate that. >> please stand in recess. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] ñññ >> and the senate judiciary committee from last week approving the nomination of judge sonia sotomayor for the supreme court. senate leadership hopes to start debate on her nomination today. in the full senate. they're expected to gavel in momentarily to start with -- resume worth on the $125 billion agriculture spending bill for fiscal year 2010. votes and amendments scheduled for 10:30 eastern and they'll break for lunches for 12:30 or so. back at 2:15. now local cove

it's amazing to me that people like paul o'neill who comes out of government, scott mcclellan, ridge, similar stories about the bush administration. >> we have to leave it there. we'll all read the book and get more insight. i hope you'll join us in "the situation room." >> i'm sure. >>> a mexican drug cartel kidnapping in the middle of an american city foiled by the dea. why authorities may have reached the victims just in time. >>> plus, first it was cash for clunkers. now clunker appliances may be next. i think i'll go with the preferred package. good choice. only meineke lets you choose the brake service that's right for you. and save 50% on pads and shoes. meineke. there's no way to hide it. sir, have you been drinking tonight? if you ride drunk, you will get caught... and you will get arrested. >>> hurricane bill is losing a little speed but the category 2 storm is very dangerous and threatening bermuda. it's already chased vacationing bill and hillary clinton off the island. let's go to zdm-tv news. how is it looking, gary? >> reporter: well, the winds are picking up somewhat d

we have bar mcclellan, senior director of tax, health policy, tec america, jeff clark, acting directore government affairs program, we lobby in all 50 states on behalf of our industry, and said long couldn't neck, we will have more from him later. with me in the room, jennifer kerber, vice president of federal land, and security policy, to my immediate left, trey hodgkins, vice president for national security and federal procurement policy. on my right, joshua larnel, senior vice president of commercial policy and heads our government efforts, and last but subtly not least, liesyl franz, vice president of cyber security policy. let me see if i can do a quick tour of the waterfront for you. from a technology industry perspective, congress the parts for its august break after a very positive start. the recovery act made sure innovation was central to the president and congressional plans in terms of confronting our nation's biggest problems. washington also has taken up with renewed vigor the entire push on cybersecurity, several bills in play and plans to appoint an unprecedented high l