mr. gephart, you ran for president twice, what is that experience like and how is it different? >> it's a fabulous experience. it's a fabulous country and the people are fabulous. that's all i can tell you. when you go out and try to get people to help you and people do without asking for anything, they don't want anything, they just want good government, then -- they let you stay in your house. they go to door for you. they give you money, they give you food. it's an incredible experience because of the greatness of this country and the greatness of the people. so both times i really enjoyed it. we put people through a very tough task to be president and i think it's a good task. you've got to go to iowa or new hampshire or south carolina or a variety of states and meet people one-on-one in small groups like this. and you've got to make your argument and let them know who you are, let them into why you want to do this and what your goals are and what motivates you to do this. it's a fabulous system. it really wasn't that much different. i ran in 19 8 and then in 2004. it was th

mr. gephart, you ran for president twice. what was that like? how was it different in the two times that you ran? >> well, it was a terrific experience. it is a fabulous country and the people are fabulous. that's all i can tell you. when you go out and try to get people to help you and people do without asking for anything. they don't want anything, they just want good government, they let you stay in their house, they go door-to-door for you. they give you money, they give you food. it is an incredible experience because of the greatness of this country and the greatness of the both times i really enjoyed it. we put people to a tough test. it's a good test. we have to go through new hampshire, south carolina, a variety of states, and meet people one-on-one and in small groups like this. you have to make your argument, and let them know who you are, let them into why you want to do this and what your goals are, and what motivates you to do this. it is a fabulous system. it really wasn't that much different. i ran in 1988 and then in 2004. it wa

mr. gephart, you ran for president twice, what is that experience like and how is it different? >> it's a fabulous experience. it's a fabulous country and the people are fabulous. that's all i can tell you. when you go out and try to get people to help you and people do without asking for anything, they don't want anything, they just want good government, then -- they let you stay in your house. they go to door for you. they give you money, they give you food. it's an incredible experience because of the greatness of this country and the greatness of the people. so both times i really enjoyed it. we put people through a very tough task to be president and i think it's a good task. you've got to go to iowa or new hampshire or south carolina or a variety of states and meet people one-on-one in small groups like this. and you've got to make your argument and let them know who you are, let them into why you want to do this and what your goals are and what motivates you to do this. it's a fabulous system. it really wasn't that much different. i ran in 19 8 and then in 2004. it was th

mr. gephart have prior engagementsments, so we will continue to ask questions after that, but please thank speaker hastert and speaker gephart for being here today. [applause] a shift, which you talked about -- >the republicans controlled both houses of congress. there was an outcry from seniors. seniors always vote. it was important they did not like the rising cost of prescription drugs. that aas a push to add a fit because seniors use a lot of drugs. it wasn't paid for. you had to have this expansion of the government. remember, we are going into 2004, president george w. bush up for reelection, he would face john kerry. and what happened in this is that the conservatives did not like the expansion of medicare drug benefit and democrats did not like the bill itself. so by and large, you had this struggle to get 218 votes. it was called the longest vote because those usually the house or 15 minutes. this went three hours where george w. bush had to be woken up in the middle of the night to make calls to speaker hastert's colleagues on the house floor who were not voting. i've always wond

mr. hastert gephart have prior engagements [applause]we will continue to >> i want to go back to one time during the house, i was a health care reporter in 2003, and the politics at the time were that a republican -- that republicans control both parts of congress, and there was an outcry from seniors. and seniors always vote. and that is very important. they did not like the rising cost of prescription drugs. seniors use a lot of drugs, and it was not paid for, so you have to have an expansion of the government. remember, we are going into 2004, president george w. bush was up for reelection, and he was running against john kerry, and what happened was that the conservatives did not like the expansion of the drug benefits, and the democrats did not like the bill itself, and so by a large, you had the struggle to get 218 votes. it was called the longest phot otes usually go 15 minutes, and this went for over three hours, and george w. bush had to be woke up in the middle calls forht to make people who were not voting. how do you wake up the president? who goes in? do you shake him? >> it