mr. nixon's house, mr. civil rights, family friend, president of the branch of the naacp, thoroughly convinced this was the time for us to do whatever we are going to do about the race problems and the bus problems. mr. nixon was not a man who did a lot of planning. he was the man of action. i told him i was going to go and leave his house and go to joanne robinson's house because joanne was a planner and she had had a bad experience and she had the records of what had taken place and she was the one who had contacted city officials on claudette's case and she was ready to do something so i went to her house and for the next five hours, we sat in her living room and planned the montgomery bus boycott. decisions that we reached. if we were ever going to solve the problem of the buses in montgomery we must do it now. secondly, if we are going to solve it we want to do two things. we know they are going to convict us so it is going to be appealed. i told joann ultimately we will file a federal suit to solve it

mr. nixon's instructions. richardson's deputy, has been fired. he refused in the moment of constitutional drama to obey a presidential order to fire the special watergate prosecutor. and half an hour after the special watergate prosecutor had been fired, agents of the fbi acting at the direction of the white house sealed off the offices of the special prosecutor, the offices of the attorney general and the offices of the deputy attorney general. >> six fbi agents present, impeding our operations now. >> all this adds up to a totally unprecedented situation, a grave and profound crisis in which the president has said himself against his own attorney general and the department of justice. >> nixon ended up summoning his solicitor general, a right wing former yale law professor, robert bork, to the white house. he was sworn in as acting attorney general and carried out the president's order to fire cox. the saturday night massacre represented a traumatic suspenseful and unprecedented constitutional crisis. it also became a critical turning point in

for nixon, the damage had been done. if the present trend continues mr. edy, senator kennedy will be the next president of the united states. schoumacher: kennedy won with a margin so narrow that people still argue over what tipped the balance. but nixon had no doubt. he blamed the recession of 1960 for costing him the election. historians still argue over the significance of the recession of 1960 but economists at the time were convinced that the budget surplus cost the economy jobs and growth by keeping dollars in the hands of the government rather than consumers. had eisenhower been willing to end his presidency with a deficit he might have presented his successor with more growth and the prospect of even larger surpluses in the future. we asked economic analyst richard gill to explain why economists might be opposed to budget surpluses. i've already pointed out that the federal interest payments and the national debt itself were falling all through the 1950s as a percentage of our national income. thus there seemed no urgent reason to try for a budget

to get you a response i know good and bad but that's a question you needed to know from day one mr nixon for cleve forget about the natural resource to average just for releasing the oil just for releasing oil. to billions of dollars of foreign world if you can see. how much oil is released. those pictures down from twenty five billion to maybe one or two billion billion dollars here a billion dollars are you talking real moving. the company that makes correct said now come is a joint venture with exxon mobil puts received over twenty four million dollars in u.s. government contracts over the past decade. now co-chairs directors with b.p. and exxon mobil. according to its own web site now co has some pretty influential fans so from here to here this is the scope the distance about five hundred miles. west detroit problems central nervous system problems the headaches and dizziness and nausea and the skin problems the intense rashes there are hundreds of thousands of people who are dosed with high amounts of toxic material the or risk of having severe health effects often we're told don't

books including all the presidents men, the final days, and other riveting accounts of the nixon presidency. mr. bob woodward. [applause] the only female assistant watergate special prosecutor on the trial team that served as general counsel or f for the u.. army under president carter. [indiscernible] assistant andcial press secretary for archibald cox that wrote "not above the jim doyle. would like to introduce my co-moderator who the award-winning biography of the watergate special prosecutor, archibald and is one of the leaders on presidential power struggles. pittsburgh and the man that did the work to kennize tonight e's event, [indiscernible] come on up. >> thank you. contacted the national press club about collaborating on this event, they immediately recognized it its historical-- importance and said yes. as he said, i was privileged to write the biography of archibald cox, the principled watergate special prosecutor. one of the wonderful things was having the ability to interview the incredible lineup of people that worked with him throughout his career. and one of those people was so

books including all the presidents men, the final days, and other riveting accounts of the nixon presidency, mr. bob woodward. [applause] the only female assistant watergate special prosecutor on the trial team that served as general counsel for the u.s. army under president carter. as solicitor general or of illinois jill [indiscernible] , fifth, the special assistant and press secretary for archibald cox that wrote "not above the law," jim doyle. [applause] and finally, i would like to introduce my co-moderator who has written the award-winning biography of the watergate special prosecutor, archibald cox, and is one of the leaders on presidential power struggles. the dean of duquesne university school of law in pittsburgh and the man who did all the hard work to organize tonight's event , mr. ken gormley. [applause] come on up. >> thank you, gail. you, gil. when i first contacted the national press club about collaborating on this event, they immediately recognized it to extort goal -- its historical importance and said yes. as he said, i was privileged to write the biography of archibald cox

mr. fisher keep it? >> all of the nixon movies are on-line. some of the others aren't fully available. >> the list of all of the movies. >> i'm sorry. >> the list of a all of the movies are easily accessible. the rest require a lot of digging. there's a documentary on presidential movie watching. >> president nixon watched 153 movie s? >> b.b.ribozo? he loved him, he was a cuban friend. he said he's the only kind of person he would relax around. he's trying to impress everybody. nixon and kissinger where he makes the point that nixon tries to be somebody else when he's with that person. so kissinger, he tried to be the great foreign policy strategist or ehrlichman, he tried to be a political strategist. he's a different person with different folks. for him, he could just be himself and watch movies. >> on white house museum.organize, they have several pictures on there. most are white house pictures like we saw in the 1948 white house theater. the theater has changed a great deal. it's now, what, a very rich red? it was all white room. how oft

mr. fisher keep it? >> all the nixon movies are on line. you can look at every one that nixon did. some of the other ones aren't fully available but you see different his torns. >> you mean the movie itself? >> the list of all the movies, nixon's. the rest require a lot of digging. there's actually a documentary on presidential movie watching. >> i see in your book president nixon watched 153 movies. with riboso who was his cuban friend. was the only kind of person that nixon would relax around. he was always trying to impress everybody. he makes the point that nixon was always trying to be somebody else when he was with that person. so with kissinger he tried to be the great foreign policy strategist. with haledman he tried to be a political strategist. so always with different people, but with riboso he could be himself. >> they have several pictures among a lot of other things. most are white house pictures in the 1948 white house that theater. but the theater has changed a great deal and it's now the very rich red? or at least it was. how often do they use that room for things

one hundred twenty three thousand two hundred dollars goes back to the nixon corruption and then right after watergate right and mr mccutcheon who is a wealthy conservative alabama businessman has teamed up with the republican national committee because he wants to spend more than one hundred twenty three thousand two hundred dollars in donations directly to political parties to candidates and for over forty years since buckley vallejo the supreme court has upheld contribution limits because that's kind of the last wall between our democracy and a representative democracy and legalized bribery really that that's it and we're setting up a system where one donor if mr mccutcheon mr mccutcheon wins will be able to write a check for three point six million dollars that money will then be funneled to a bunch of state political parties laundered back to one political party account and spent on behalf of the candidate that solicited the contribution you know this is this should be a slam dunk case for american democracy and for the people but the fact that the supreme court took this case is really problematic so we know

nixon. apparently he offered ted kennedy a plan and mr. kennedy took the deal but he didn't for some reason and most of the major country seem to have some sort of health care plan. mexico has a health care plan and i think it's time we did something and i'd like to see the republicans really start to work with the president to make this thing work because it's going to be here. it's the law and i think we should really get together and see if we can help people have better health care. thanks. >> guest: i would agree with the last point that we should help people have better health care choices.

nixon. apparently he offered ted kennedy a plan and mr. kennedy took the deal but he didn't for some reason and most of the major country seem to have some sort of health care plan. mexico has a health care plan and i think it's time we did something and i'd like to see the republicans really start to work with the president to make this thing work because it's going to be here. it's the law and i think we should really get together and see if we can help people have better health care. thanks. >> guest: i would agree with the last point that we should help people have better health care choices. that's fair but republicans don't automatically assume the only way to people -- help people is with another government program and republicans circa don't agree with this particulaparticula r government program is a good thing. again it's hugely expensive. it's very bureaucratic. even trying to get people to sign up for it they have had three years to come up with a system to enroll people and it is not working. even the democrats admit that so i

mr. powers, out there in nebraska. nebraska has this reputation of being the ultimate republican state, i remember that going back to the '60s with nixon out there. what's changed in the last two or three weeks? >> well, thank you very much for having me. actually, the nebraska has elected numerous democrats to the united states senate, but as you know, last year, bob kerry lost, so we don't have any federal officers, office holders. and we're having a very difficult time, unfortunate, recruiting, especially for the second cd, where we had a great candidate, john ewing. he only lost by 4,100 votes. but the city council chair, president of the omaha city council, pete festerson, this outstanding leader here in omaha, let me know right around labor day that he had decided against running. and it was a tough, tough time for us. >> let's go to bill hughes in jersey. i know the city very well, i grew up there, as you know, bill, and i want to talk about, your dad held that seat very well, he was mayor there, everybody liked him, a great reputation. yet for all these years now, you've got lobondy representing the district. what makes you thi

i know for sure that nixon viewed himself as first and foremost as a foreign policy, national security president. that was what he really loved to do, and that wha would really mr to them most. and the idea that you would have the president of the united states like barack obama who has come in my view, a rather pragmatic and reasonable foreign policy instincts but for whom foreign policy is an afterthought, not a party can i think richard nixon would have great difficulty identifying with that. the second thing is, the thing which i think is incumbent if you talk about richard nixon and ronald reagan was that, obviously they were fairly big men in their own way. in a different way each. they never would say my party, my republican party, right or wrong. but what i think they would say, and reagan articulated it very well, i would not speak ill of a fellow republican. and that when you hear this kind of war inside the republican party, and when you come after a crisis like that, ct republican senators essentially letting the administration off the hook and focusing on tactical air's of the tea party, there is something that ronald reagan and richard nixon, in m

president nixon, i saw him when he was out at the airport at washington and he said to me your jerry lewis and i said no mris. jerry lewis is from california. i'm from georgia. and so we chatted for a while at the airport. >> we are going to leave the last few minutes of this program now one book tv. our regular weekend programming. you can watch any of our book tv programs online at c-span.org. we are leaving because in just a few moments of the senate will be gaveling in today. they are expected to vote within the hour on whether to limit the the date and move forward with the debt ceiling bill introduced by the senate majority leader harry reid earlier this week. this is a test vote and that measure would increase the debt limit until december 2014. currently, the u.s. is set to reach its debt limit five days from now on october 17th unless congress acts and if cloture is invoked a vote on the final passage of the bill would come sometime next week. live coverage now on c-span2. give our senators this day the special gifts of wisdom and understanding, patience and strength, motivating them to

nixon's observation that clean air, clean water, open space should be the birthright of every american. through our years of past carelessness, we incurred a debt to nature that is now being called. mr. bowman told the legislators that 43 years later the price tag is even higher, some problems remain and daunting challenges loom but that nepa's impact is unquestionable. it remains the nation's guiding environmental star. he observes that environmental needs and protecting the environment are not mutually excluesively and it's important to work together to achieve those objectives. sadly for me, the most critical element in a bill that i would like to support is damage to the nepa process. placing an artificial time limit of 150 days, restricting the internal activities of the agencies, giving them limited time to move the process along, interfering with the chain of command, cutting out the public from the process and forcing shorter time for litigation is unnecessary. it's ill-advised and it's not going to solve the problem. project delays are not the result of the nepa process. there are billions of dollars of projects that are already approved and ready to go. $60 billion by some

guest: he never invited me, and president nixon, i saw him after he was out at the airport, at washington, and he said to me, you're jerry lewis, and i said, no, mr. president, i'm john lewis. i said, jerry is from california. i'm from georgia. and so we chatted for a while at the airport. >> host: what wassure relationship with george w. bush? >> guest: wonderful. i got along with him. i talked with him, and with the other bush, the young bush, i remember said to one of my staff people, how too you feel working with an american hero? and the staff person was -- didn't know what to say. and i enjoy working with him or something like that, but i got to know both of them. screw bill clinton. >> guest: bill clinton was a friend. he is a friend. he is a friend. he wrote the -- wrote something about march one, and just wonderful. what he wrote, -- >> host: congressman john louis haas has been a resounding moral voice in the quest for equality in more than 50 years and i am so pleased he is shear his mentalries of the civil rights movement. in march he brings a whole new generation with him across the bridge from a past of clenched fists into a future