caller: mitch mcconnell is representing him? host: no, mitch mcconnell is supporting his opponent. trey grayson. caller: i would vote for the first when you name. i would not vote for anyone that mitch mcconnell would represent or try to help in any way. host: a little more from this article. the son says that he talks to his dad every week or two. he says he is the third of five children and has been interested in politics since he was a little kid. the interviewer asks him as a libertarian did his father grant him lots of liberty in his childhood? he says that it is different between the government and a family. he says that a family can be a complete dictatorship. good morning, on the republican line. caller: i have followed them closely in the past few years. have donated before. i donated to members of the republican party i wanted in office. i think the needs of your campaign reform and the way we vote people in the. it should not be based on that -- that is probably radical and not realistic sense congress must pass legislation. i'm upset like most to have called in at the w

senator mcconnell never forgot that. even though things get a little testy between them on the floor, beneath it all, there is a sense that they are brothers in this battle. there is a time when you draw the line and say, i am not going to cross that line, because if a if i do, the opportunity for its ability and -- for its ability -- for civility is in jeopardy. sometimes a the tide washes pretty close to that line, but it is the glue that keeps things going.

we heard it from mitch mcconnell just here. just keep talking a little bit longer, but meanwhile, senate democratic leader harry reid scheduled cloture vote tomorrow, monday, to try to end a filibuster and bring the financial regulation bill to the floor. your sense of who has the momentum at this point? >> i think there is momentum behind this bill. i don't think the republicans will pay a very stiff price if they keep it from coming to a vote or coming to the floor right now. in the long run, i think the chances of a bill are pretty good. i do think, as inevitably as the case when you engage in a new act of regulation, there will be all kinds of unintended consequences that will cause all kinds of problems. i think this about the politics of it. it seems that the democrats are mad about big government and they hate wall street, too. we're now going to line up as the scourge of wall street, scourges of wall street and that will renew people's faith in us. i think the intensity of the anger against wall street subsided a great

it stars president barack obama and senate minority leader mitch mcconnell. president obama went to new york thursday to claim the stage in the financial regulatory reform debate, but the day before he sat down with john harwood. >> some of the institutions and their lobbyists don't seem to think it would be so good for them. >> the core of the wall street reforms that we're proposing is to make sure number one, that we don't have to bail out firms that have acted recklessly, that we can unwind them in an orderly fashion that protects the economy as a whole and taxpayers aren't on the hook. gwen: but the president doesn't give the stage to himself. >> i need to be able to look my constituents in the eye and prove to them that this bill does not allow any bailouts. i need to prove to them that this bill doesn't treat some favored groups better than others. i need to prove to them that this strengthens the economy, that it doesn't make it worse. gwen: so let's peek behind the partisan curtain. are the white house and the senate as far apart as the rhetoric woul

you're with senator mcconnell connell. but what about that statement by the president? >> i think the president's political arm is now taking over this debate. it's unfortunate because i, like many others in my state and throughout the country want banks to be banks. i don't want them to be casinos and take risky bets on our money. i think that this is an issue that we can clearly come to common ground and just solve the problem. where there are problems we should fix them. but the regulation and the bill that is being proposed by the banking chairman dramatically affects businesses, for example, liberty mutual, mass mutual. these folks are caught in that regulation as well. it's going to cost potentially 25 to 35,000 jobs. >> schieffer: wait a minute, senator. how can can you say that? >> i can say it very clearly because the regulations that are trying to reel in with some of the risky hedging they're doing also affects companies like i described in massachusetts. it's very klee. speaking with secretary geithner the other day i noted that the president's comments. but

i can't speak for mcconnell and the republicans. they may focus on -- >> but did you agree that was an issue that they agreed with you on or you agreed with republicans on? >> i have done my own analysis. >> we are not going to get you to -- >> i understand your point. our democrat, trying to be a good democrat. this is one of the things people don't like about washington f they are right, why can't you say their right? mcconnell, maybe his language, rhetoric might be hyperbolic, but he was right on the point, in your point of view? >> his biggest request to change was to move in the wrong direction. if i read him correctly, he was saying don't collect the money from wall street in advance, but it's okay to -- >> that's separate issue. that's separate issue, specifically on the overtaxpayers -- >> i'm not sure that the change he was focused on the most would have exposed taxpayers to even more risk. right. and i -- the change that senator dodd and i have discussed will keep taxpayer money from being put at risk for the failing insti

mcconnell in blocking debate was democratic senator ben nelson from nebraska. where have we heard this before? also chuck grassley from iowa, despite the fact in committee he had been the single vote backing tough regulation. so did olympia snowe of maine who wrote to majority leader reid to ask they be added to the bill before her vote tonight against moving forward with it. and what was the new bipartisan measure? democrat blanche lincoln that would move the derivative market into public exchanges and force banks to choose between trading in popular derivatives and still having access to fdic insurance. but signal government, anti-bailout republicans want the government to keep shoring up wall street derivative trading and states rights republicans oppose returning to the states the power to regulate the banks. republican opposition, however, potentially moot. politico reporting they committed only to filibuster tonight, but now all bets are off. to see what's actually happening in the senate, lets turn to the representative of ohio, mr. brown, also a member

. >> what is the relationship between majority leader reid and minority leader mcconnell? >> you think that it would be tense. if you read the newspaper articles -- two years ago, senator reid did something that was rather significant. at the university of louisville, there is a mitch mcconnell center for the stubble -- for the study of public policy. they had an unveiling theire so senator reid interrupted his other duties, and attended the event. it was an enormously busy time and center, never forgot that -- and senator mcconnell never forgot that. beneath it all, there is a sense that we are brothers in a battle. there was a time where you draw the line and do not cross that line, because if you do, just a basic operational structure of the senate would seem pretty grave. some time the tide washes off flee close to that line -- awfully close to that line, but it is the glue that keeps things going. >> the number of women senators have increased dramatically. give us the history of that. >> women had no place in the senate other than supporting their husbands until 1922

admiral mcconnell, former director of national intelligence, general mike hayden who served of course in a variety of intelligence capacities, including his first deputy director of national intelligence and cia were. fran townsend, who in the white house helped shape president bush's legislative proposals to create a dni. john mclaughlin, former deputy or the cia, steve kimba, undersecretary of defense who handle defense intelligence matters for the secretary. walter pincus, as an article this morning if any of you have read it already this morning and the post on intelligence reform.

not just mitch mcconnell going to wall street for the money. that's where the money is. a lot of people have so much anger right now at wall street. the gallup poll finds that when

mcconnell to set the strategy on wall street. senator bunning is not only blocking extension, he and tom coburn are blaming democrats, because democrats refused their demand to use stimulus money to pay for it. let's turn now to msnbc political analyst jonathan alter. also, of course, national affairs columnist for "ne "newsweek." >> hi, keith. >> this premise that was in the new yorker piece, that justice stevens' departure means more than just the loss of one vote. explain that. >> first of all, justice stevens is the great intellect on the court in our generation. he makes scalia look like a pygmy, intellectually, despite all the fireworks scalia gives off. he was an appointee of republican gerald ford. he's always been a moderate who has tried to interpret the law, which is his job, in an intellectually honest way. and you do get the sense that this idea of trying to sort of build majorities across ideological lines on the court is becoming a thing of the past. there are some very talented justices still on the court, but the

see if you can spot mitch mcconnell's problem here. the first man you'll see in this next clip is mitch mcconnell. the second man is bob corker, another republican senator. watch. >> it will lead to endless taxpayer bailouts of wall street banks. >> this fund that has been set up is anything but a bailout. >> hard to maintain the talking point that wall street reform is a big bailout when your own party's point man on the issue keeps saying that's not true. senator corker today making it crystal clear, he told the newspaper "roll call" the things that we've been saying on our side of the aisle about bailouts and all that they missed the point. republicans in the senate trying to stop wall street reform face planted on their own talking point. bummer. in the house, republicans started off trying to make that talking point work. house minority leader john boehner blasting an e-mail warning wall street reform would "empower the federal government to provide wall street with permanent bailouts courtesy of american taxpayers." the huffingto

. >> the senate republican leader mitch mcconnell says the regulation the president and senator chris dodd are pushing will lead to more bank bailouts. >> it is a bill that actually guarantees future bailouts of wall street banks. >> to bail out or not to bail out, it is a new season about. >> christopher dodd says republicans are getting their talking points from bipartisan mammal. >> the single best way to kill the legislation is to link it to the big bank bailout. >> let's talk about this. the bill would establish a $50 billion fund, a fund financed by the banks, not the taxpayer. but what happens that bank failures betsy that some? >> i don't know. the important reform is that the banks are initially going to have to bear the brunt of this themselves. there is in a solvency of one institution or another. >> is the bank going to be allowed to fail? >> the whole point of the bill is to prevent bailouts by spotting these things with regulation and taking over an institution early to prevent the kind of thing we saw with lehman brothers which failed and then the entire credit market r

so did mitch mcconnell. the politics on this, i don't think either side was winning.this is what particularly happened. democrats thought they had a great issue. not now. it's not great issue for republicans but not for democrats either. >> bret: secretary geithner conceded that fannie and freddie, any changes there is not in the bill huh he claims will be taken up soon afterwards. >> that is $380 billion that pay be needed in a bail-out. >> bret: charles? >> what is so ironic about this, it doesn't really matter in the end what is in the bill. you can structure it anyway you want even if you have a fund of $50 billion. that won't make a difference. we saw in october 2008 that you needed hundreds of billions, trillions from the fed to bail out the system. so that is only a thimble. the point is everybody understands if the financial system is at risk, major institution is about to drag the rest down, the feds will intervene no matter what is in the bill or no matter what anybody says today. text of the bill is irrelevant. it happened in 2008 and no government will all

>> mitch mcconnell, senator mcconnell, went up to wall street about two weeks ago, huddled in the back rooms with the big wall street bankers. came back and aposed the bill. so it was pretty clear they wanted to put the brakes on this legislation. but harry reid -- >> you think there's a cassality between that meeting and the position that mitch mcconnell had? >> i think he wanted to kill the bill to begin with. >> you and some of the viewers may think this is obvious, but i would like to hear it spelled out. both parties take money from wall street. most democrats and politicians do have friends on wall street. they're very educated guys up there, like them or not, they're very smart people and some of them are pretty social. they've got a lot of money and they're very political. so you get a lot of money from wall street as cham of the party, the other guys get money too. why are the democrats the ones going against wall street and the republicans seeming to play defense when you're both in the till. explain that to me? >> the fact of the matter is that both parties get contributions

we have mike mcconnell. with the first undersecretary of defense for intelligence and john mclaughlin who was for a turbulent period of time the acting cei. all of these men were very active in leadership and reform efforts in the intelligence community prior to 9/11. they were fully engaged in the post-9/11 time improving our intelligence capabilities. they also were very much engaged in the discussions with the congress and the population in general about intelligence reform after 9/11. this is a panel that is not about the problems we've talked about. we are about solutions. we're going to look at at the future -- we're going to look at the future and you will go away nearest. i would like to leave time for questions from you folks. i will ask each panel member to hold their comments to about five minutes. let me turn first to the former director of national intelligence, mike mcconnell. >> since we are solutions, let me start by saying that nothing is too hard as long as you do not have to do the work. w

. >> senate republican leader mitch mcconnell says the new regulations the president and senator chris d.o.d. are pushing -- chris dodd are pushing will just lead to more bank bailouts. >> it's a bill that actually guarantees future bailouts of wall street banks. >> to bail out or not to bail out. >> chris dodd says republicans are getting their talking points from a memo by republican pollster frank luntz. >> the single best way to kill this legislation is to link it to the big banks bailout. >> well, let's talk about this. the bill would establish a $50 fund, a fund financed by the banks, not the taxpayer, right? but what happens if bank failures succeed that sum, colby? >> i don't know. >> could it be a bailout? >> the important provision here is that the banks are initially going to have to bear the brunt of this themselves. they're going to have to take the hit because they're going to send this particular pot of money that's going to be available, there's insolve venn si of one institution. >> is a bank going to be allowed to fail? >> the whole point of the bill is to prevent bai

>> what was clear, mitch mcconnell, the republican leader went up to wall street about two weeks ago, a week ago, huddled in the back room with wall street bankers, came back and opposed the bill. it was clear they wanted the brakes on this legislation. >> you think the meeting and what position mitch mcconnell -- >> i think he wanted to kill the bill. >> you and some of the viewers may think this is obvious but i'd like to hear it spelled out. both parties take money from wall street. you probably have money in wall street, most have friends on wall street. they are educated guys up there. like them or not, they are very smart people. they are very social. got a lot of money and political. a lot of money as chairman of the party, the others do, too. why are the democrats the ones that go against wall street and republicans seeming to play defense when you're both in the till. explain that to me. >> the the fact of the matter is both parties get money from different groups. >> around the country. you go where the money is. >> but the fact of the matter is, chris, this is obviously in

reid uses that to start attacking cornyn and mcconnell in the republican efforts to derail financial reform. the president mentions the mock connell-cornyn meeting in his -- mcconnell-cornyn meeting in the saturday address and now they're talking about refunding the fund-raiser -- >> megyn: want a minute, let me stop you there, you're neck deep in it but here not. the allegation is by the white house and reid is that the senators, these republican senators, john cornyn and mitch mcconnell are out there trying to make things better for the financial industry because the allegation is that they received boat loads of dough. >> absolutely, and they held this fund-raiser last week, the story that we reported. what is happening now is you have a tit for tat, reid is being called to the carpet based on our other story he was at a fund-raiser at guess where, the most nowhere -- notorious name on wall street, goldman sachs, where he raise the significant funds and heard their gripes about financial reform. megyn: everyone, the democrats and the republicans, are taking money from the so-calle

gwen: any help of bipartisan faded a bit today when senate republican leader mitch mcconnell presented the white house with a solid list of 41 republicans opposed to the bill in its current form. >> all signs we get from the white house is they're not interested in talking. they're not interested in making a deal with us. they want to jam through a totally partisan bill. gwen: yet just today the security and exchange commission brought civil fraud charges against financial giant goldman sachs, boosting the democrats' crackdown argument. it's a complicated fight that turned sharply political only recently when capitol hill negotiations broke down. what happened, david? >> you're absolutely right. the big news today was in the courts where the s.e.c. went and they filed this 21-page charges against goldman sachs that provided us a very convenient narrative. people had been looking for a narrative of what happened here and the people kind of believed goldman sachs was the villain and the s.e.c. today said yes, they were. they said goldman sachs had a client, a hedge fund, that wanted to s

we have mike mcconnell who is second dni. we have steve cambone who's the first secretary of defense and for a very turbulent period the acting dci. all of these gentlemen whom it's been my privilege to work in my career. were very active in the leadership and i think reform efforts in the intelligence community prior to 9/11. they were fully engaged in the post-9/11 period and improving our intelligence capabilities. and also were very much engaged in the discussions with the congress and with the -- with the population in general about intelligence reform after 9/11. so what i'd like to do is -- this is a panel that is not about all the problems we've talked about but we are solutions. and we're going to -- we're going to -- we're going to look -- [laughter] >> we're going to look at the future and you're going to go away nourished. ... >> that said, we can always be better and i'm going to give you a premise on why i think it can be better. my model for that is goldwater-nichols. it's been mentioned a couple times this win

mcconnell: mr. president, i want to take a few moments here to thank the distinguished senator from alabama who has been our lder the banking committee and an expert on this very, very complex subject of financial regulation for his steadfast effort in bringing us to where we are today. as senate republicans plus senator ben nelson of nebraska have demonstrated over the last few days is that we felt the bill that we started with was not insignificant and needed to be improved. and senator shelby was given the opportunity as a result of staying together to be empowered to improve the bill that had previously come out of the banking committee on a straight party-line vote. so i just wanted to take the opportunity to thank all of my republican colleagues plus senator nelson of nebraska in giving us the opportunity to improve the underlying bill. and i want to thank the senator from alabama for his efforts in that regard. i think we have a better starting place than we would have had earlier, and we loo

and this is essentially what mcconnell and kyl -- mcconnell and cornyn were doing, we stand between you and wall street reform. and the longer they hold it up the more they can get campaign cash. and then the third thing i think is possible is they think if they stall they can kind of rerun the health care arc, which is to say if you look at the early polling on health care, it also was high and the longer they dragged it out the less popular it got. there's a thinking i think among some sectors if they drag this out the same thing will happen. >> democrats do seem to have caught on to the idea, though, that if they allow it to be slowed down it will be stopped. >> yep. >> democrats seem to have figured that out this time. they also seem to have figured out that they should fact-check their opponents when their opponents start inform get away with saying things that aren't true about the legislation. my question, though, is whether or not democrats have learned any lesson from health care or whether they have a new lesson that they're trying to learn here about actually negotiating with

senator mcconnell has said all week long this is a bailout.s is yet another bailout, endless bailouts. and the democrats have been pushing back. and the president set on his saturday radio show, you know, the republican leader is being deceitful, so that's where we start the recent war of words. >> he ought to talk to his own treasury secretary, who agrees with me as well as the "washington post" and "the wall street journal" that there is a bailout fund in the bill that was reported out of the banking committee. >> but that bailout is funded by the banks themselves, is it not? it's not a taxpayer bailout. >> well, robert reich, bill clinton's secretary of labor, says it's a bailout fund. regardless of how the money is proud, it is a bailout fund that sort of guarantees in perpetuity that we'll be intervening once again to bail out these big firms. >> that's absolutely not true and some of his members say it was a bit over the top. i have spent a lot of time with the republicans over the last several weeks and i believe that we are very close

not just mitch mcconnell going to wall street for the money. that's where the money is. a lot of people have so much anger right now at wall street. the gallup poll finds that when people talk about regulating banks, there's a marginal, you know, a narrow support for that. when they talk about regulating wall street, it jumps to 14 points. it's a toxic phrase now. it's been demonized by some people, fair point. but isn't there a revolving door that feeds this? let's talk about some of the lobbyists on this. our former leaders trent lott and gephardt, democrats, republicans, all sorts of people formerly in the house and senate in major roles are now lobbying right now on financial services. what does that tell the american public and do you think there's something wrong with this system? >> there's something wrong with the campaign funding system. as you know, andrea, i've been a long time supporter of public financing of federal elections. we go to the presidential level, we ought to be doing it at the senatorial level and house level. this would eliminate a lot of these

let me turn to like mcconnell. >> nothing is too hard as long as you don't have to do the work. what we can pontificate based on prior experience. i have been a professional at the analytical level, and i have served in a variety of capacities. i am probably the biggest cheerleader for the united states intelligence community. it is a wonderful organization, and i can tell you from first to experience as a member and as a leader, is the best in the history of the world. that said, we can always be better. let me give you a promise on why it can always be better. as i mentioned a couple of times this morning, the department of defense was created after world war ii, as amended. we debated and thought about it for years. i was a product of that environment. if i had taken a tour outside the navy, i would be fatal select -- fail select. i was there for the debate over goldwater/nichols. every test defect -- every secretary testified under oath that if you pass this bill, it would ruin this department. it was passed by ronald reagan. every service chief and every service secretary s

much more exciting than mitch mcconnell or john boehner. the so-called elected leaders of the republican -- here's the new star power of the republican party. let's watch, today. >> on the outside i am here to testify she is 20 times more beautiful on the inside. please help me welcome governor sarah palin. >> you know, pat, i think i had a small role here in hosting this program one day when michele bachmann came on and said we ought to have a media investigation for anti-americanism. you were here. out of that a caterpillar became a butterfly. now we saw her today. she's dazzling on the stump. her speech today was so well given. i think that she's dynamite. i've seen you in the old days. i think she's really good on the stump. i saw her there, i think that she outdid palin today. is this the new star power of the right? not the mitch mcconnells and the boehners. >> star power, no question about it. boehner and mcdonnell can't compare to this. these are extremely attractive women. they have passion, chris, they have conviction. they have a

mcconnell is outspoken. but some bush nominated to the circuit. he harshly criticized the supreme court's decision of the bob jones. that was an 8-1 decision. it violated anti-discrimination laws. he was enormously critical of that. he was confirmed by a vote. do you believe just because like michael mcconnell who was supported by republican has been extraordinarily critical? do you believe that any criticism you might have made will make it more difficult? no, i think that there is a clear difference between what things people write and how one would approach the role of a judge. those to a very different. as scholars, we are paid to question the boundaries of the law and to be provocative in ways that is simply not the role of a judge. in ways that it is simply not the role of a judge to be. their role of the judges to faithfully follow the law as it is written and as it is couldn't -- given by the supreme court. and there is no room for a convention or creation of new theories. that is simply not the role of a new judge. >> thank you. i have a

mitch mcconnell, the leader of republicans, said today all of the republicans will vote against, so what we will see is a lot of rhetoric tomorrow. they say that democrats are trying to rush a bill to the floor before it is ready, and the test vote will fail, and then, democrats and republicans will have to come back to the table to get a compromise that will give least one republican vote in the senate. >> they were calling this as president obama's rushmore moment. do you see that as such a moment for him? >> i think it feeds into the scenario. mike and i co-wrote a story about the tale of two obamas. out in america, outside of washington, people do not see this. his approval rating continues to slip into the 40's. if he gets regulatory reform done, this will start to cement it into their minds that this presidency has been somewhat consequential. >> heating up incredibly over the past week. marco rubio got some pretty substantial endorsement. >> if the primary will help -- were held today, there is no question among anyone that marco rubio the conservative challenger, will win, and th

mitch mcconnell says we think we can get a deal. >> bret: senator said he was close. >> yes. at some point, shelby and dodd have a deal or the republicans put aements on the floor that they can get, that they can pass or certainly have the votes to block parts of the bill if they want to filibuster it. i think that the argument made it doesn't sol tv too big to fail problem is a legitimate argument. i haven't heard the republicans proposing a solution. one way it solves too big to fail, if you are too big to fail, you're too big. do something about that. i haven't heard a solution to that from the right. from the left there is. some people say the big banks should be broken up. >> bret: republicans say if you don't deal with the core of the bill it's tough to amend on the floor with 41 votes. you need the 19 democrats to sign on to the deal. >> no doubt a political game is played and the democrats think they have the upper hand. dodd did spend time and would like a deal with shelby or corker or whoever to do this. >> bret: we talked about the tone in the speech. another clip

the bail-out fund that collins talked about and mcconnell talked about will go away. the white house doesn't want it and the republicans don't want it. i think as soon as that is gone, then you will see what the remaining differences are. they're not that many. i don't think republicans are drawing a line in the sand here and seeing it important to stop the piece of legislation. they're not saying that. they want a fix and they want negotiations over it. >> bret: it was head iing down that road. >> it's done it different time. every so often there are negotiations and there will be. there are still talks. shelby is involved with them. in the end, there will be a bill and republican votes. >> bret: charles? >> i think what is so interesting about the bill that is now proposed is that it is congress once again voluntarily emasculating itself. the bail-out as proposed in the bill would allow the executive branch on its own, without appropriation from congress, any approval from congress to seize, essentially seize a firm it designates again unilaterally as systematically

they have mitch mcconnell is a great inside player. he's now been thrust out onto the stage as an outside player. it is not always his best role. >> no, it's not. obama called him out this weekend. mcconnell came right back, you heard on the floor speech, basically said we can do it now or we can do it later. he must comfortable he's going to hold his 41 votes. >> that's the big question. and my guess is they won't. my guess is the white house has a lot of polling data in focus groups that show while americans don't want a big role for washington, this is the one thing they want washington to do. >> i think this is the one place where they can go left and not be harmed. >> the argument is to prevent the taxpayer, protect the american people. what is that? >> the president comes. he doesn't call mike. he doesn't write mike. >> what? >> this is not the first time this happened. remember, this happened on the terrorist trials in new york as well. >> yeah, is there a little -- >> probably should keep the mayor more in the loop. >> yeah. th

kentucky senator mitch mcconnell spoke about the bill for a few minutes on the senate floor. republican leader. mr. mcconnell: madam president, a lot of smart people have thought about how to prevent a repeat of the kind of financial crisis that we saw in the fall of 2008. we've heard plenty of ideas. but if there's one thing americans agree on when it comes to financial reform, it's that it's absolutely certain they agree on this: never again -- never again should taxpayers be expected to bail out wall street from its own mistakes. we cannot allow endless taxpayer funded bailouts for big wall street banks. that's why we must not pass the financial reform bill that's about to hit the floor. the fact is this bill wouldn't solve the problems that led to the financial crisis. it would make them worse. the american people have been telling us for nearly two years, any solution must do one thing -- one thing, it must put an end to taxpayer funded bailouts for wall street banks. put an end to taxpayer funded bailouts for wall street banks. this bill not only allows for taxpayer fun

mike mcconnell, lovely man. tried very hard to implement the law.d say we still have a work in progress. it's 50% law, and 50% leadership. let me just conclude with this. after the christmas bombing, the failed christmas bombing attempt, i think we all understand that probably the best fix we could have is sustained leadership at the top. i'm not accusing anybody here, certainly none of my buddies who have worked in high positions, a failure of leadership. i am staying that sustained leadership at the top is what is going to be make an excellent work force which you and some of you have visited around the world get the job done. we now have the ability to leverage the straints of 16 agencies, our intelligence products are much better, i'm very excited to read the iran nie when it comes out. i'm sure it will be very, very good. i've talked to come people who are working on it. but i think we have ability to leverage and we are now capable, great example is the revised screening procedures that the department of homeland security came up with last wee

mcconnell: mr. president? the presiding officer: the republican leader is recognized. mr. mcconnell: mr. president, i'm going to give -- the senate is in a quorum call. mr. mcconnell: i ask consent that further proceedings o t quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. mcconnell: mr. president, yesterday morning i came to the floor to point out, regretfully, that the financial regulatory bill the democratic majority plans to introduce in the coming days is fatally flawed. it not only allows endless bailouts for wall street, it institutionalizes them. making them official government policy. this is truly astonishing. for nearly two years the american people have been telling us that any financial reform should have two goals. it should prevent the kind of crisis we experienced in the fall of 2008, and it should ensure that the biggest wall street banks pay for their own mistakes. the biggest wall street banks pay for their own mistakes. yet, the bill we'r

mcconnell: i ask that fourther proceedings be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. mcconnell: madam president, two things have been clear in the past week over the need to protect taxpayers from the mistakes of wall street. one, both parties are united in the need to take action. we agree on that. and, two, the bill our colleagues across the aisle are insisting on as the remedy is seriously flawed. the good news is the bill can be improved. and both sides have expressed a willingness to make the changes needed to ensure without any doubt -- without any doubt that this bill would not allow future bailouts of wall street banks. we need to make sure that future bailouts of wall street banks never occur again. i was encouraged to hear the president yesterday acknowledge that it is his hope that the bill which oh, merges from this debate -- emerges from this debate will not allow for bailouts. i share that hope. republicans believe the solution is for the bipartisan talks to resume between chairman dodd and ranking member she

dave mcconnell. rtca executive committee outgoing treasurer, linda kenyan of crn news. and of course you know mr. vice president. you can clap. [applause] our association is fortunate to have the house and senate radio tv gallery staff. they help us do our job every day. i want to expand a special thank you. these folks are the heart and soul of making the daily coverage of capitol hill possible. on the house side, olga ramirez, gayle davis, helen debarge, and anthony keller. on the senate side, a crhichris boyd and arlen salazar. >> ladies and gentlemen, awards coordinator jill jackson of cbs news [applause] ] >> good evening. we take a moment to celebrate our colleagues with two awards. the first recognizes outstanding coverage of public policy and politics on capitol hill. this year's judges for the award weremat matt lazlo and annie penn. here to present the award is bill plant of cbs news. [applause] -- is bill plante of cbs news. [applause] ladies and gentlemen, good evening. this award, which i am so proud to be able to present a number of years in a row, honors

judge -- michael mcconnell has been covered, appointed to the 10th circuit.the constitutional law professor from 1985 to 2001. he did not list a single speech or talk on constitutional law or legal policy. he was confirmed. judge jeffrey sutton, appointed by the president to the sixth circuit, submitted a questionnaire that simply stated i have given numerous speeches to local bar associations, ohio judges, through the ohio judicial college, the federalist society, and continuing legal education seminars regarding the ohio state supreme court and the ohio -- the united states supreme court and the ohio supreme court. he was confirmed. george brett cavanaugh, as has been stated, appointed by -- a judge brian cavanagh, as has been city, appointed by president bush to the d.c. circuit, said, i have given remarks on occasions, etc.. he was concerned. the judge katherine hay is appointed by president bush to the fifth circuit -- s. fifth circuit, submitted a questionnaire that said i have been to dozens, maybe hundreds of events where each candidate is asked to in

admiral mcconnell, former director of national intelligence, general mike hayden who served of course in a variety of intelligence capacities, including his first deputy director of national intelligence and cia were. fran townsend, who in the white house helped shape president bush's legislative proposals to create a dni. john mclaughlin, former deputy or the cia, steve kimba, undersecretary of defense who handle defense intelligence matters for the secretary. walter pincus, as an article this morning if any of you have read it already this morning and the post on intelligence reform. he's covered those issues for many years for the "washington post." and john gannon, former deputy or cia foreign intelligence. i don't see how you could put together a better group on intelligence reform. i want to thank and introduce our first speaker, david showed heard david has played a leading role in intelligence issues throughout his career in the cia and especially in the last six years where he has served as senior director for intelligence of the national security council where he helped shap

but now minority leader mitch mcconnell said he's got republicans to block the evident. he's got a letter from them. the letter reads in part this bill allows for endless taxpayer bailouts, it was written by frank luntz, a pr guy. let me go to chris dodd the chairman of the committee. i want to get to this right now. we've got a lot of republicans possibly joining us. has this become a dishonest discussion with the republicans being led not by experts on wall street, just by people, a like frank luntz, whose job it is to come up with dishonest language? >> i don't want to brand them all this way, chris. i've dealt with a number of people who i think honestly are looking do get a good bill. we may disagree with parts of it. but i believe their motivations are good. unfortunately the minority leader i don't think is paying much attention to them. and i put this memo in the senate record the other day and compared the language between the minority leader's speech and frank luntz's memo. the memo was written long before i wrote a bill. he was telling them how to defeat the b

a payback move since grayson was hand picked by mitch mcconnell, mcconnell ushered bunning into retirementtoday paul is out with a new ad touting that bunning endorsement. take a look. >> jim bunning's always fought for us. as our senator, bunning stood up against the bailouts, even when other republicans didn't. now jim bunk's endorsed rand paul. calling him the only true conservative in the race for u.s. senate. >> before nungs his retirement, bunning was the most vulnerable gop incumbent but had a renaissance of sorts after temporary balking the democrats's jobs bill. voters go to the polls in pennsylvania's 12th district to pick jack murtha's replacement. pennsylvania 12 is the only district in the country that voted for john kerry in 2004 and john mccain in '08. republican congressional campaign committee has been pouring money into the race so far. $480,000 and the d.c. cc has spent $298,000. both candidates are running on jack murtha's record. here's an ad from democrat mark kriz, murtha's long time stafferer running to replace him. >> born in westmoreland county, mark critz went on

but mcconnell says that it will only lead to the practices that make it worse. >>> let me ask you this, how tough should you be when it comes to tough love. a new study on spanking is out. is it a good way to discipline your kids? what the research found. >>> a the debate is out on this one. there's more evidence out that spanking your kids does more harm than good. those who were spanked more frequently at the age of 3 were more likely to be aggressive by the time they turned 5. they said the link between spanking and aggression were strong after taking into factors such as aggressive parents and maternal depression. i want to get to your views segment, this is where you get to be part of the show and we love this, go to my facebook page at christipaulhln to get in on the discussion here. brandy says i do think it causes aggressive behavior because they're being taught that violence is the answer. but i have also noticed that those particular kids also know better than than the ones who don't get spanked. jennifer wrote, i just don't spank my kids, i just sit down and talk it out. if

. >> mitch mcconnell, jd hayworth. >> this strength is in the center for everybody to see that we have been so vetted dumbed down version of politics and the extremes are so invested in telling everybody that there ways the only the only way that frankly they lie and distort. >> let's go to the audience again for question. the gentleman in the green coat over here perhaps. >> i'm andy from brooklyn. >> speak up if you would? >> could you speak up a little bit? >> this is why we live in a prozac nation, because of all the confusion. i consider myself what you call the bush did loose syndrome? >> are you recovered? >> i am slightly recovered. [laughter] i still don't like him but i think i fell into it. might question is, this is going to be maybe philosophical or whatever, but if people think that this country has shifted so far right, say compared to the last 40 years and i've not saying it is right. i kind of went into that at but the more you back in history to shifting back and forth. if you think it has shifted so far to the right, so the center right now is not a true center. it i