moynihan is going to have this beautiful station in new york named after him, moynihan station probablynothing coming in and out of him. he says, people coming in new york like rats, filthy station, penn station and should be coming in like princes, why don't we have pride in the country we are building? we wouldn't be building the golden gate bridge today, we wouldn't be building washington today or chicago, we don't build anything anymore, all we do is pay debts, what do we do? pass checks around? what happened to the democratic party, who used to be robert moses out in new york, build things, pat brown in california, built the highway system, university system. what is wrong with democrats building anything anymore are they completely chicken? >> it got labeled as pork barrel. i was out in man tana -- >> golden gate bridge is pork barrel? >> well, i -- >> the interstate highway system. lincoln built the continental railroad, that was pork barrel? of course, bridges to nowhere. of course there's junk. i'm sorry. >> yeah, of course. also the erie canal. pat moynihan had a lot of projec

with mainstream values. >> host: so everyone who ever attended pushes a little further, senator moynihan would have said whoever attended one of those schools, which i did, too, is always out of it for ever. i think that is a little harsh. >> guest: you did well. >> host: [inaudible] >> guest: but it took me 12 years to get my undergraduate degree. i dropped a couple times -- >> guest: i think what you're saying is certainly if you are part of an elite institution if you have gone to an elite school of you have the advantage is you don't even recognize to read it is possible for someone with that background to recognize the american people should be given more respect and should be given the government should derive its authority from the governed and there's an attitude among some, those recovering from this, there's an attitude from some that really -- i was at harvard recently and a woman said -- we don't understand why people don't want us to leave. we've been trained to lead. that is the attitude people are upset about. >> host: maybe the problem is arrogance, not had a great. >> gu

seminar some 30 years ago a guy got up and said he was a representative of the working class and moynihan said when you're living in the 02138 as it could i can assure you are in the political class, and i think that is the case and you lose touch very substantially with mainstream values. >> host: so everyone who ever attended, just to push further, senator moynihan would have said whoever attended one of those fancy schools, which i did, to act -- >> guest: you did very well. >> host: is always out of it forever. i think that is a little harsh. [inaudible] >> guest: it took me 12 years to get my undergraduate degree >> host: going back a little -- >> guest: what you're saying is certainly if you are part of the elite institution if you have gone to the school, you do have advantages you don't even recognize. it is possible for someone with that background to recognize that the american people should be given more respect and the government should derive its authority from the governed and there is an attitude among some those recovering from this there is an attitude among some that i w

a great thrill for me. >> host: what was the greatest thing about moynihan?> guest: his intellect. i don't know if you have seen is booked yet. it is extraordinary. the range and depth of subjects that he wrote and spoke about. the problem that we have in our politics is there are so few people who are able to do more than just now of talking points. one more comment. scott certainly should talk about his extraordinary background as well. i went to breakfast this morning with former governor carey of new york. in in the early 90's he was well aware of what was going on. a bit in terms. somebody mentioned northern ireland. we have the four horsemen then, alluding to himself and senator kennedy. there aren't politicians like that anymore. he's right. you can agree or disagree, but what we are lacking to a substantial degree are transcendent figures who are able to bridge cultural, political, and economic divides. >> host: larger every year. >> guest: i think that is true we are lacking a large scale figures in politics and in the world view, and it is to our de

you know, pat moynihan had what i call a tribal approach to politics.o blooelieved tha there was a culture in the senate. he understood that the guy or the person you're fighting against today was going to be your ally tomorrow. and he didn't take so seriously the discordant notes. there's a great clip of him on "meet the press" when tim russert asked him, is this going to be the fight to the death over taxes? he said, goodness gracious, you fight to the death over a woman or god, but not over taxes. he understood -- he understood that there was also a tribal culture to politicians and to politics. i think the thing he would have missed the most in the senate today was that people didn't work together across the aisle. and that people don't today and that they weren't friends and they don't appreciate that -- these alliances and these divisions shift over time. and that everybody is trying to accomplish a goal to make the country better. >> steven, it's willie geist. just to take that a step further off your "meet the press" story. step back further out

this is patrick moynihan. he said what mark said, standard operating procedure there. is a point of -- >> sean: when they grope, fondle, grab the crouch of your wife and kids, tell me you feel the same way? >> i'll wait for that to happen and i'll probably tell you i don't like it. >> sean: checkmate. it took the entire segment. >> give me liberty or give me a grope! that's what it has come to. >> sean: mark good to see you, lanny, thank you. plenty more hannity straight ahead. >> do the things that will get our country going again. >> sean: republicans on the rise. karl rove has a warning for the gop. >> your member was not corrupt. >> sean: congressman rangel found guilty of ethics violations. you won't believe how his fellow democrats plan to punish him. senator jay rockefeller blasts cable news and wants the fcc to take fox often air. so much for free speech. hannity continues, straight ahead. [ female announcer ] treat yourself to something special for lunch at red lobster. how about a coastal soup and grilled shrimp salad combination? or maybe skewers of wood-gri

[laughter] >> as moynihan said, "i read it, but not personally." >> let me say one thing about korea. i agree that we probably should not have gone into a meeting where there was not going to be a deal, but the deal that the bush administration negotiated, i don't think that is feasible and >> we had to view saddam hussein differently after 9/11. when you saw the threat, you could not let it fully materialize, and the threat he represented as a sworn enemy of the united states was to give weapons of mass destruction to an enemy that had just attacked us. a lot of people were concerned about it, and when we did not find weapons, i felt terrible about it and sick about it and still do. >>, president george w. bush with oprah winfrey, discussing his book "decision points." he says he still thinks the world is better off without saddam hussein even though we never got weapons of mass destruction in iraq. >> and they did not fight al qaeda, either. whatever you want to say about saddam hussein, horrible person, he was a counterbalance to iran and he did not attack us then. the extraordinar

but it is interesting when you " but moynihan, it was great. it seems like the democrat party wants to keep blacks and other minorities on the dole so they have a power or base. before anybody jump up and haulers racism, excuse me, people, it is prejudiced. hitler was a racist. the common everyday big it is prejudiced. host: wrap up your comment. we are almost out of time. caller: i saw on c-span about six months ago that a black family with a living mother and father that were married has a better chance of being together under slavery and during the civil war than today. host: mr. liebmann, does the democratic party have an incentive to keep people on the ball? guest: no, it is the line of least resistance. there is no question that blacks are the core of the democratic base. and it is going to dawn on many of them that they are being very badly served by the policy that moynihan be cried, the policy of relying on a on a -- unemployment, food stamps and welfare rather than work relief. it is the difference between the policy of the modern dem

we either need god or government to keep us all saying or joining me to discuss that is michael moynihan senior editor of reason magazine and reason dot com michael thanks for being here thank you for telling me how you yourself as a libertarian and you are going to back that jim de mint doesn't think you can be fiscally conservative without or you know what i mean he's basically denied that i exist which is kind of interesting because that i am fiscally conservative i think of myself as a classical liberal in a lot of ways and i am socially very liberal and i'm not a social conservative so he's trying to to say that people like us libertarians like us don't exist and there's a particular reason he's doing this too because he's terrified of the influence of libertarians now this kind of thinking is old thinking and he would like it to stay like that he would like the republican party not to move in any libertarian direction and this is his pushback against it saying that you know i'm fearful of the piece called senator tea party which is the interesting thing and he's worried as a lot of

> i'm just reminded that america and the united states senate really miss senator daniel patrick moynihan. >> mika? >> green is universal. >> what is yun yeauniversal? >> green. >> it's way too early. what time is it? >> "morning joe" time. >> stick around. >>> we should not anticipate that every time countries come together that we are doing some revolutionary thing. instead of hitting home runs, sometimes we're going to hit singles. but they're really important singles. >> well, there you go. the president trying to put the best spin on the g-20 summit despite leaving korea without a free trade pack in hand and without getting much support for his tough talk on china. now it's off to japan for another economic summit. savannah is traveling with the president and has our report. >>> also, is there a family feud in the mccain household? as senator mccain leads the charge against repealing don't ask, don't tell in the next sex weeks, his wife cindy lentz her voice to the video criticizing the policy. >>> ah, the politics of watching tv. nine of the top ten shows in america are more popular

. >> i remember patrick moynihan, the senator from new york, telling me in his very thick irish accent that he just got this document-- a 1,273 pages-- describing how health care reform should be done and basically says, "i'm not even going to read it." >> narrator: the clinton white house also angered powerful special interests. >> the ama opposed them. the insurance companies opposed them. the doctors, across the board, hospitals, you name it, they were on the other side, and the clinton administration understood that there was little hope that they would ever bring them around. >> but this was covered under our old plan. >> narrator: they buried the administration in an avalanche of negative tv commercials. >> the government may force us to pick from a few health care plans designed by government bureaucrats. >> having choices we don't like is no choice at all. >> they choose. >> we lose. >> the harry and louise ads cost and cost and cost us in the clinton years. >> it is clear that health insurance reform cannot be enacted this year. >> narrator: they were handed a devastating defe

daniel patrick moynihan's version of welfare reform. it was unsuccessful. >> suarez: the cast of characters obviously is changing on capitol hill. the congress is already changing. there will going to be three new senators who were elected in special elections coming in the next couple of weeks. some incumbents who won'tbe coming back to capitol hill except perhaps to clean out their offices. is there a sense in which the 112th congress is already beginning. >> the new members and remember we have over 0 republican freshmen in the house coming in. we have this wave of new republican senators and a few democrats along the way too. they are here this week. they came in on sunday. they're doing their orientations. they're going to be bumping into the departing members who are still here for several weeks doing votes. so it's an odd sensation to have these two groups. it's almost like you're moving out of your house but the people who are moving in are already there and moving their furniture before you've taken your belongings out. it's. >

host: you wrote a column in october about daniel patrick moynihan. why were you thinking about him? guest: they published a book of his letters and notes to himself. he was the senator from new york for many years, and before that he was an intellectual professor at harvard. although not a very professorial type. this book is wonderful, and it really captures him that makes you think who in the senate today could produce something likethis, a life's work this? who in the senate today is sort an interesting person with ideas? host: what is the answer? guest: well, i could not think of any in particular. host: do you think the american litical process to attract different types of people, or has society chged? guest: running for office must be so awful, and i think is going to tend to attract more and more people who are just sort of narrow the ambitious. host: while we are talking about great political figures, do you have a president during your lifetime to look to to say that this -- guest: the one that works best, i have to say, is clinton. i would not say his use of the presidenc

host: you wrote a column in october about daniel patrick moynihan. why were you thinking about him? guest: they published a book of his letters and notes to himself. he was the senator from new york for many years, and before that he was an intellectual professor at harvard. although not a very professorial type. this book is wonderful, and it really captures him that makes you think who in the senate today could produce something likethis, a life's work this? who in the senate today is sort of an interesting person with ideas? host: what is the answer? guest: well, i could not think of any in particular. host: do you think the american political process to attract different types of people, or has society changed? guest: running for office must be so awful, and i think is going to tend to attract more and more people who are just sort of narrow the ambitious. host: while we are talking about great political figures, do you have a president during your lifetime to look to to say that this -- guest: the one that works best, i have to say, is clinton. i would not say his use of the pr

problem years ago, it was not president bush who came forward with those ideas, but it was senator moynihan of new york. they worked quietly behind the scenes with republicans tried to, with structural changes to the system. democrats and republicans alike worked together. every cycle, they always use the scare word "privatize." a former senator from nebraska came up with that word. they wanted to try to make changes quietly and not let this get into the realm of politics. they say let's use the word " personalize" instead of "privatize." you are talking about a work time. would the senator was saying was let's allow "personalize" which is a softer word and controls your personal destiny. we like what charlie stenholm, a fine democrat from texas, tried to do to fix the system for future retirees and not let this get mired down in the political football playing it has become. host: tulsa, on "washington journal." you are next. tulsa, okla.? are you there? caller: i wanted to ask the fine gentleman -- host: you are on. go ahead. we can hear you. caller: i wanted to ask mr. martin what would t

on october 6, margaret hamburg, commissioner of the fda, and we have brian moynihan, president and ceo of bank of america. for our last question -- one of our audience members asked, once you fix the world under issue, can you fix the times? >> i was thinking maybe a week off or something. [laughter] you know, i keep saying our goals for the world food program -- our goal is to put the world food program out of business. it should be the goal of everyone running at an aid program not to perpetuate ourselves. i am not sure it will happen in the next 24 months or so or the next few years, but that is the goal in game 4 and i will give it my all as long as i can. [applause] >> thank you for being with us today. thank you for coming. i would like to thank the national press club staff for organizing today's event. for more information about joining the press club, please visit our website www.press.org. we are returned. thank you. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] >> coming up on c-span, british teenagers debate