mr. horowitz. >> thank you, mr. chairman.st month i was arrested in a respectful nondisruptive demonstration on the have of what bob fu and i called the china six. and, of course, chen guangcheng was one of them. when the news first came out i sent e-mail to bob and said we're down to the china five. he then sent back an e-mail to me saying soon it will be the china zero. mr. chairman, we are back at the chinese six, worse than we were. part was failures mr. will indicated of the administration when the incoming president of china was here to send a clear signal that the rights of these baroque dissidence represent priority interests to american human rights and american foreign policy. so part of what we are witnessing -- the real question is how could this have happened? and i've often thought and said to you, mr. chairman, one of the great things we do for the pursuit of american interests would be to replace the state department with the afl-cio, because this is an issue bargaining here. anybody the teamsters union would

mr. horowitz, you made an excellent point about the willingness to negotiate and to be the last person standing, so to speak. your afl-cio analogy was a great one. i actually met with the pentecostal seven in 1982 when they were holed up in the russian-u.s. embassy to the soviet union in moscow and we did stand steadfastly by them and time was not the issue. i thought your point was extraordinarily well taken if you wanted to elaborate that. my hope is and i know the press have all left, but i think it's very important that the president of the united states, i would appreciate your views on this, speak out from the perch of the white house. obviously as the leader of the free world, it's amazing to me that when asked about guangcheng he said he had no comment. during the horrible days of aparthe apartheid, if any president, reagan bush were to be asked about tremendous individuals they would launch into a defense of those brave men and women and yet no comment from the president. your thoughts on that, if i could. the hurry up offense, time is on our side. we could have worked this pain stakin

mr. horowitz talks about the impact on the abolitionist movement and civil war. >> you can't wiggle. >> forin waterford. to celebrate both the journey which is really the result of the work of many in this room as well as to celebrate our dear friend and favorite author tony horowitz. yes, indeed. under the economic conditions, thank you. he is selling his house. >> you can tour it afterwards. >> we are here through the journey of hill ohallowed groun. engaging our partners as well as our hers in bringing to the f e forethe the history to monticello. we could not be more thrilled to have tony with us who has not only been a best-selling author of "con fed rafederates in the " his newest, "midnight rising" which is about john brown and events that changed the course of american history forever. he worked for many years for "the wall street journal" and "the new york times." he's a swre, very dear friend. one of the things i want to tell you about tony, he really and truly has a notion we like the say that we put people in the boots of those that went before us in order for them to know as da

mr. horowitz had served as the presidentially appointed senate-confirmed commissioner on the united states sentencing commission, yet even though the senate had confirmed him previously, his nomination was held up for eight months. when the senate finally did vote, they confirmed his nomination by a voice vote. similarly brian miller, the current ig at gsa who will be testifying here today, had to wait nine months before the senate finally confirmed his nomination by president bush in 2005. the ig vetting process is very extensive and challenging. it becomes even more difficult to identify qualified candidates who are willing to serve when they are blocked by anonymous holes and under delays in -- undue delays in the senate. finally, i would be remiss if i did not recognize the hard work of those who serve in ig offices. this includes not only the thousands of staff who dedicate their professional careers to these tasks, but also those who serve as acting igs while others await senate confirmation. in fact, just yesterday, our committee heard testimony from the very capable acting ig at th

mr. horowitz. >> thank you, mr. sherman.last month i was arrested in a respectful demonstration in what i call the china six, and of course was one of them and when the first news came out, send an e-mail to bald and said we are down to the china five and he then sent back an e-mail to me saying soon it will be china's zero, mr. chairman leo beck at the china six and part of is the failure that mr. wolf indicated that back at that hearing the administration when these incoming president of china was here to send a clear signal that the rights of these heroic dissidents represent priority interests of american human rights in american foreign policy. and so part of what we are witnessing are the fruits of the visit to the united states. the real question is how could this have happened. and i've often thought and said to you, mr. chairman, that one of the things we could do for the pursuit of american interests would be to pursue the state department with the afl-cio because this is an issue of bargaining. anybody that would

mr. horowitz, if i could begin with you? i think he made an excellent point about the willingness to negotiate and be the last person standing, so to speak. your afl-cio analogy, i think, was a great one. i met with the pentecostal 7 when they were holed up in the russian-u.s. embassy in moscow. we did stand steadfastly buy them and time was not the issue. i think your point was well taken, if you wanted to elaborate. i know the press has all laughed, but i think it's very important that the president of the united states speak out from the perch of the white house. it is amazing to me when asked about guangcheng chen that he said he had no comment. during the horrible days of apartheid when nelson mandela and others, if any president, reagan or bush, would have been asked about those individuals, yet no comment from the president. your thoughts on that, if you could? the concerns we all have about the korean offense. time is on our side. finally, let me just say another great political leader was in moscow, the founder of t

mr. horowitz, the visiting hours at least now seem to be permanently over. chen indicated to us that the embassy has been unable to get back in to his room, to visit with him, to ascertain his well being, and so that raises, the talk of a durable solution is that he would be safe in china. there's no safety safety for any dissident in china. it just doesn't exist, especially with a man -- >> but the point is that they were there. is a lot harder to get into a room after you've been kicked out of the room, but it's pretty darn hard for the chinese to forcibly eject an american official who firmly says, this man is my responsibility. we gave the honor and the full faith and credit of the united states to see that he would be and feel protected, and i'm not leaving this room. why didn't they say that, mr. chairman, is the relevant question. >> i appreciate that. hospital or police station, he seems to me to be a distinction would have a difference. because the hospital is crawling with police. ms. wang, did you want to answer that question? because again, i thi

mr. mor horowitz? did you only pick the quotes that was anti-romney?ited to the romney house, he never -- you know, i was 16, and i didn't have a car, implying that mitt romney had a car. well, another classmate says, wait a minute, he invited a lot of people to his house. not only that, he didn't have a car. so what it amounts to is what point duo owe these people are caught flat-out. the ombudsman concludes with saying, the accounts remain unchallenged. interesting, compelling and well documented. >> it's none of those things. i read the piece. >> of course not. hasn't mr. paxton any shame? >> isn't the point, not just that it is filled with some inaccuracies and falsehoods, but who among us truly wants to be judged by what we did in high school more than 45 years ago? i mean, what's next? >> true. >> are they going to do a front page expose' saying mitt romney was an incorrigible at age 7 and can't hold high office? it smacks of a bunch of political hacks, doesn't it? >> i think there's no question that it's a hit job. i'd like to attack it on journ