and a former staffer for senator ben nelson you said earlier that centre nelson told you that he hadk for the provision in the bill. a few moments ago, you said he took credit for the provision. which state and do you believe to be correct? >> both. as i recall, and i'm fairly confident that he said he didn't ask for that to be in there. he preferred a similar provision to for all states. he only got it for nebraska. he did not ask for nebraska to be singled out. he was responsible for an address to getting a but he did not ask that nebraska's only get it. do you always say again? >> no, you said earlier that he did not ask for nebraska but he is taking credit for it. >> that's correct. the associated press in california issued a report showing that governor schwarzenegger himself engaged in the exact same activity at the state level that he is complaining about the federal level. are you aware of that? would you file a similar suit against the governor of california if he was doing the same thing? >> oh, a pesky questions. [laughter] our focus is on the state of south carolina and t

the only reason has been suggested by senator nelson or anyone else that is no contradiction that the reason nebraska got the special deal was because harry reid and senate democrats need his vote for the cloture and passage of the bill. that is an arbitrary capricious reasoned as unrelated to the rest of the bill which reads the states differently. it treats the other states unfairly and unjustly and that is recognized in the constitution. >> is it also any illegal bribe? >> it depends on the law. arnold schwarzenegger says if it were done in sacramento would be to reduce the liquid to the sins of carolina? >> south carolina and would be -- it would probably not be i say probably the law is unclear but it could be if it took place in south carolina. it is undecided whether it would be or is not. our laws fairly specific on a person who is bribe receiving something of value and i can't predict how the courts would react if this had taken place in south carolina and there were allegations and these allegations were made the only reason he did was to get something from nebraska. now, if

and senator graham suggested to senator nelson that he call me. and he called me and asked what he could do to assure us that there were not going to be constitutional problems and i told him that what would satisfy this group, which has now grown to 15, is to take that provision out of the bill and don't let it become law. he explained that either that would happen, or that the same provision would be provided for every state. now, of course, if the same provision is provided for every state, then that does not pose a constitutional problem that the attorney generals would be concerned in, in protecting their states, but would raise other questions of fiscal responsibility and budgetary questions and all of those kinds of questions that are rampant right now in the current budget crisis. and the economic crisis, so that's where we left it. and i was very interested, he said, i knew, i knew, just like ronal reagan, trust but verify, with he was assuring me that there would be something done and that's how we left it and i have not heard from him s

yes, sir. >> with senator necks and -- nelson, did you agree to stay in contact?here some more communication between you? >> we made no agreement to discuss it later. but certainly it would be possible. i would love to hear from them as to what promises are being made behind those closed doors. i would like to know. and if there is a conversation and he stated his position and i stated month on behalf of the state. -- mine on behalf of the state. >> we are nearing the one-hour mark that we allocate for newsmakers. if there are no further questions, i want to thank the attorney general for joining us today at the press club. i want a bank each of you for taking time out of your day to come over and visit with us. we are now adjourned. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] >> you are watching public affairs programming on c-span. up next, bank executives discuss events leading up to the global financial failure in 2008. they took questions from members of a bipartisan commission created by co

nelson: mr. president, i ask consent to lift the quorum call. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. nelson: mr. president, i ask to speak as if in morning business, up to 15 minutes. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. nelson: i don't think that there was any person who lives on planet earth that saw the clip on cnn this morning of dying children in haiti that did not have emotion overwhelm them. as my wife grace and i, having been to haiti many, many times, saw the fact that children are dying in haiti because they can't get medevacked and/or cannot get medical supplies in, it's an inexcusable and intolerable situation. if you hear emotion in my voice, mr. president, you will understand that the nelson office has been working on this crisis for over the past week, since the earthquake hit, because we've been talking to our doctors, and we've got so many of our florida physicians that are down there doing heroic work. a lot of the work is being done by the university of miami medical school. a lot of it is being done with their

i talked to him he feels that he coached nelson and jordan. and nelson and he feels that moore is a better leader than most of the guys. >> al: that's very high praise. bowles. he is and a bit of frustration. >> glenn: so much that you got. >> al: eighth double-double for bowles. he has 10 and 10. the look on jim larranaga's face will say it all as things have been dominating. >> they have a double digit lead and with the basket right now and a chance to slice into it. >> glenn: you think about and a lot of people and he is like and old dominion that type of nj guy. >> al: the double-double 12 points. >> glenn: and dropped the ball to bowles. bringing the weak side defense away. >> al: and whittling the lead. george mason by 8. battling that. and despite the contact pearson will convert. >> glenn: pearson passed up the jump shot and in. >> al: and hitting 2 3 pointers. back from bowles. off the left hand portion of the window. that's great work for bowles. four assists now. he is a great offensive. >> glenn: well parker saw limb lead him. you

he was hitting them hard over this deal they cut with senator nelson.u could see a vain pop in his neck. very upset that nebraska is going to get exempted from medicaid mandate costs and the other have to pay for it. california, this budget problem is going to be what the bank bailout was in '09 for president obama, the state bailouts could be in 2010 for him. this could be the big thing that nobody's going to like, everybody's going to say is unpopular about it maybe the government will have no choice. >> he talked about health care akin to beating up on california at a time when it wants billions in reyment from the federal government. >> here you've got a republican governor who is nonpartisan, he was defending the president on a lot of things, the terror war, but basically saying that the democratic senators and representatives from california should not have voted for this. now ben nelson, backing off, saying that they should do a fix where every state gets their full medicaid bill paid for. that's another $27 billion. they have a problem here and

>> nelson: it is my understanding that they were.ould often see these little clumps of senators talking, or maybe it was one-on- one, talking with barak on the floor of the senate. ah, yes. >> cooper: later, in the general election, john mccain's chief campaign strategist, steve schmidt, told us about a recurring problem the campaign had with sarah palin. >> schmidt: there were numerous instances that she said things that were... that were not accurate that, ultimately, the campaign had to deal with. and that opened the door to criticism that she was being untruthful and inaccurate. and i think that that is something that continues to this day. >> cooper: and you think that's fair criticism? >> schmidt: i think it's fair criticism. >> cooper: after an ethics investigation of palin, when the alaska legislature issued a report, schmidt says she mischaracterized that report. >> schmidt: she went out and said that, you know, "this report completely exonerates me." and in fact, it... it didn't. you know, it's the equivalent of saying down

which comes from another giant of our humanity, the same level of gondhi, this july and is called nelson mandela. mandela was in prison for 27 years. he was to serve 40 eternity and when he comes out instead to call all the blacks to vengeance against what the whites had done he says to everyone and now all of us whites, blacks, colored, indians, we are going to create a rainbow nation. it was the look of south africa at such a crucial moment of its history to be conducted by one of the greatest heroes of humanity, this nelson mandela and believe me i have constructed every inch during those 27 years of prison i went to the island where he was in the cage for 27 years. i laid on the concrete of the cage to look at the ceiling just to try to figure out what can a man think during 10,000 lights knowing that he is there for eternity and yet keeping the faith that one day south africa will become free, independent and for consolidated. i spent some of the most touching moments of my whole career as a researcher, as a writer on those footsteps of this great country. even one day, this is a si

john cornyn outlining his concerns it appears that letter may have caught the attention of senator nelsonow lobbying to have all states receive the same sweetheart deal he was able to acquire for nebraska. joining me the man behind that letter the texas air quality greg abbott. this letter -- texas attorney general, greg abbott. thank you for being us. >> thank you my pleasure . >> sean: you say this serves no legitimate national interest. explain that for people watching? >> in order for a law to be effective passed by congress it has to have a legitimate national interest. congress doesn't have unfettered authority to enact any law whatsoever that benefits a particular locality such as a single state like nebraska. congress has the authority to pass laws that benefit all americans. what they did with regard to the nebraska compromise was to pass a bill that benefits only the taxpayers in nebraska. it gets worse, because all states are going to be required, by this new legislation to expand their medicaid system by billions of dollars in texas alone, we'll have to increase our spending b

the a disaster for california or get in there and fight for the same sweetheart deal that senator nelson got for the corn husker state, because he -- [ applause ] . because that senator got for the state the corn and we got the husk. >> senator nelson says now he wants every state to get that exception. are they overly optimistic. is the bill in real danger? >> if the republicans should pull an upset in massachusetts, it's dead. that's unlikely. i don't know. i think it's more likely they'll get it. i think whatever the problems of this bill, only in political terms, not doing it would be worse than clinton 1993-1994. they've taken difficult votes. i think it's likely they'll get it. the key question is how they'll frame it. >> the tax issue the president will have to solve. >> exactly. i was going say, quoting somebody in the white house, a tragedy of greek pro portions if ted kennedy's successor is responsible for the delt of health care. they think as soon as it passes, they'll be able to argue it's terrible. the tax issue, the cadillac tax, the more likely of the two two come out of

. ♪ ba da ba ba ba ♪ acoustic guitar ♪ acoustic guitar, rhythmic clapping [nelson mandela] we each have, rhythmic clapping male narrator: one in five are on their way to getting it. it kills more americans each year than breast cancer and aids combined. one in thirteen have it. one in four of those don't know it yet. find out how you can share, act, learn, give, and help stop diabetes. i trust unisom. i fall asleep fast and have a full night of restful sleep. morning class. unisom. good night. good morning. >>> now that we've heard from the princess herself, now let me introduce you to one of the an may tors. bruce smith is our "slice of life."animators. bruce smith is our "slice of life." meet bruce smith, the animator responsible for bringing the villain in "the princess and the frog" to life. >> my job as a supervisori isup animator in "the princess and the frog" is i draw dr. facilier. when you first meet him, he may not be as evil as you think, but as the film progresses, he unfolds like an artichoke and you really start to sort of see who this character is and what he's made of. a

that's why we're committed to work with senator balk, senator nelson -- baucus, senator nelson, menendez and republican colleagues to make sure that we pass legislation next week so the departmen department of head human services will continue to have the funding they need to help american citizens who are repatriated from haiti. mr. president, i ask unanimous consent that on tuesday, january 26, when the senate resume consideration of h.j. res. 45 the time until 11:30 a.m. equally divided and controlled between the leaders or their designees and the time be divide between the baucus amendment and the conrad-gregg amendment. that at 11:30 a.m. the senate vote on the baucus amendment to be followed by a vote on the conrad-gregg amendment with two minutes between the votes. further, as if in executive session, i ask consent that on monday, january 25 at 5:30 p.m. the senate proceed to executive session to consider executive calendar number 608, the nomination of josanna peterson to be judge for the eastern district of washington with the time until 6:00 p.m. equally divided and controlled.

. >> talking about senator ben nelson. thank you for joining us.lso great to have you on cashin' in. >> deep freeze about to make our viewers some cold hard cash. and the green crowd, red, hot mad. plus something we all use everyday may make your memory better forever and make one group of stocks takeoff forever. that's everything for chicago. and fedex ground will get ithere fast. wait. fedex has ground shipping? oh, that's right. you just woke up from a 23-year coma. yeah, it was a long one. did i miss anything? uh, the cold war ended. [ man ] pluto's no longer a planet. culture club broke up. the berlin wall came down. wait. the club bre up? i never saw them live. that was too soon. what have i done? [ male announcer ] we understand. you need it there fast. fedex ground. >> i'm freezing my keister off here in the midwest, if you're looking at commodities and think that energy price is going up because it's so cold. check out uhn. it's a fund that tracks the price of heating oil, much smaller and less track, less liquid market than crude oil. >>

. >> you're talking about senator nelson. >> senator nelson. that's like buying a vote. i'm not giving my vote unless i get some extra kind of benefits here. i mean if you do that in sacramento, you know, you'll be sued. it is illegal to do that, to buy votes. >> what's hard here, leslester, he's talking about expanding the medicaid roles in california. it costs the state a lot of money. the deal they got in nebraska is the federal government will pick up the tab for that expansion. here in california the governor is saying i've got a $20 billion shortfall and i've got to do this? he said the president should rethink how he's doing it. >> david, thanks very much. >>> now let's head over to nora o'donnell at the news desk for a check of the other headlines. >> good morning, everyone. we begin with bank bonuses on wall street now expected to be bigger and more controversial than ever. "the new york times" reports goldman sachs is expected to pay employees an average of almost $600,000, saying last year was one of its most profitable. employees at jpmorgan chase will see an

very broad sense, he wants to help progressive democrats not necessarily centrist democrats like ben nelson and joe lieberman win reelection and so that was part of what he was saying when he said, hey, look, guys, you have big robust majorities, let's get this done. we didn't come here for fun and games, we came here to build this progressive governing agenda and to change the tra skrebgtory of where this country is going. it's just that a lot of folks are uncomfortable with that. >> woodruff: cynthia talker. coming back to this notion john harris put out of the public versus the washington audience. do you see that same divide, two audiences he had to reach? >> i don't think the tune i don't know speech was the place for him to lay out the legislative and political strategy for the job that he is trying to accomplish. the legislation that he wants to get passed. i think his job was to shore up waiverring democrats. i'm not going to run for the hills and you shouldn't, either. in the coming days he'll be out on the trail as he was today getting voter support and he's going to be doing a lo

rick nelson is a former navy helicopter pilot with over 20 years of intelligence experience.ick, you say underestimating the importance of leadership in an agency like the tsa is a huge mistake. >> oh, absolutely it is. in times like this, you've got to have necessarily have strong leadership in place. as the president has said in his remarks, there's some systemic failures that occurred on christmas day, and for those systems to be changed, it's going to require strong leadership at the department level. and it's going to require the president to have his individuals and his leaders in place to do that. >> what really is going on at the tsa? when you look at recent events, you have the christmas day attempted bomb we are explosives sewn into the underwear. we have the newark airport security breach where the tsa worker leaves his post for about 90 seconds and this guy slips by. what's going on? >> again, i think it's an issue where you strong leadership is needed. certainly the acting administrator is doing a good job but, again, the acting name is something you have to get

the vice president was joined by janet napolitano and florida senator bill nelson. this is about 25 minutes. >> we are here because we wanted to see firsthand the operation tempo here and how things were moving. let me start off by saying that all of us earlier in the day visited little haiti, and we met with a very impressive group of haitian american leaders, elected officials, mayors, state representatives, and others, as well as leaders in the business community, medical community, nurses, doctors, and then we went to notre dame to meet with the archbishop, pastor, and a number of other leaders. at the outset, i would like to point out that we have been absolutely astounded by the result and capacity of the community. one case in point, the pastor of the church, trying to give comfort to the community, told me he had just lost family himself. he had found out that morning. one of the priests at the church was there. he looked devastated, and he had just heard minutes before of the loss of a close family member, i think it was his brother. everyone in the communi

senator nelson took a lot of heat for this.n a strongly republican state. he's gone around the state and done all kinds of ads to explain his position, and finally he said to senator reed, let's take this off the table. he said let's give it to all states or take it out entirely. host: wlats going on in massachusetts -- with what's going on in massachusetts, how long until he could be sworn into the senate? guest: this is a matter of contention. you haveçó democratic-leaning officials in massachusetts saying it may take two weeks to officially process the win. thers÷ tradition in the senate it is not disputed, you get that person in there as quickly as possible. i can bet republicans would be crying foul if democrats tried to string this out and leave paul kirk the interim senator in there. i would suspect they would not get away with that. it would look like they were going against the will of the voters in massachusetts. so i suspect if mr. brown wins that election, he will be seated pretty quickly. host: as a matter of sched

she was joined by janet napolitano and bill nelson. -- he was joined by john and paula, and bill nelson. >> earlier today, all of us met with a very impressive group in little haiti of asian-american leaders are elected officials, state representatives, and others, as well as members of the business community, medical community, nurses, doctors. then we went to haiti to meet with the archbishop and pastor and a number of other priests and parishioners engaged in getting things moving. at the outset, i would like to point it to you that i have been, we have been absolutely out its -- stunned by the respons. the pastor of the church, a meeting us at the recreation center and trying to give comfort to the community. he just lost family himself, and he found out this morning. one of the priests who was there, he looked devastated. he had just literally heard minutes before a loss of a close family member, i think it was his brother. literally everyone, including patrick gaspar. he has lost family. it is one thing to rest monticellite so significant proportions. -- responds to a crisis of si

. >> tom: jameer nelson? >> steve: no. the lefty. carol. >> tom: yeah.rroll. >> steve: he misses it and lucas makes a shot from the corner. if he stays home and doesn't dive maybe he is on him. who knows. that is how the game goes. >> tom: jameer nelson had the open jumpshot as seconds wounds off. that was a heck -- wound off. that was a heck of a ballgame. that team by the way was voted by sports illustrated as the team of the decade. >> steve: you get a small catholic school that goes to number one in the country. those two guys are great players. both delonte west and jameer nelson, a lot of big schools passed on those two. that was good recruiting. >> yep. juan fernandez missing his 6th shot of the night but lavoy allen is there to clean it up. >> steve: there was nobody there putting a body on lavoy allen that time. >> tom: cross griel trying to answer -- crosgile trying to answer. o'brien left side of the lane. here's irwin. they are dribbling right into traffic. >> steve: they are making a lot of bad plays right now. from not boxing out on one end

senator nelson got an additional $100 million in medicaid money. and he became -- he then became the 60th vote that was necessary to clear the senate. you got gatorade. gator aide, there's another senator down -- gatorade, there's another senator down in florida. he got an exemption. i wish i could keep my health care. well, there are a lot of seniors in florida and about 800,000 of them are in medicare advantage which is eliminated under both bills. well, in order to get senator bill nelson's vote down in florida he got to keep all of his medicare advantage people in medicare advantage. but in our states, if this were to become law, they're out. want to go down to montana. the senate -- the head of the finance committee over in the senate, senator max baucus is from montana. he secured medicare coverage for anybody that's been exposed to asbestos. i think that's ok with me. but you got to read the fine print in all of this business. and it only applies to people who were exposed to asbestos who worked in the mine in libby, montana. so, again, ohio

. >> the top counterterrorism experts like rick nelson say the white house shouldn't have been surprised from the threats from yemen and the c.i.a. shouldn't have waited until now to add agents focussed on it. >> the threat of al-qaeda in yemen is not new. we can recall the uss cole attack in 2000 where 17 sailors lost their lives and numerous others were injured. then again, the al-qaeda in yes yemen, attacked the u.s. embassy a few years ago. threat of al-qaeda in yemen is not something new. >> former democratic congressman and former 9/11 commission chairman lee hamilton agrees. >> it seems to me that we've known for some time that al-qaeda is recruiting and training, improving their skills in yemen. >> hamilton criticized the administration for failing to intensify its hunt for terror ties in yemen after the fort hood massacre, and major hasan's collection to cleric lawmak al-awlaki implicated in the abdulmutallab plot. >> one, two, three, four five bits of information that are hidden among mountains of data. and you have to be able to select those out, analyze them quickly and act o

nelson, good morning.aller: my question is, why are the united states and the western world, bickering in congress as well as the digging about things that are personal, trying to bring down the present government. the chinese are spending billions of dollars building roads and infrastructure all over africa. that is the only way al qaeda can be kept out of africa. not through weapons. there are a lot of frustrated people in africa, unemployed, exploded -- exploited for the gold and valuables and whenever natural resources. it paid very little. so you will find a great deal of frustrated people on that continent. some of them frustrated in south africa with the rise -- the united states and the western world should compete with china for the natural resources and spend more time dealing with uplifting government and communities in these areas. this doesn't mean you have to put in a lot of money. most people talk about africa being poor. africa is not poor. africans are not poor. africa has most of the weal

nelson is having trouble, even among his own constituents. this is the idea that brown ran on, that this is the people's seat. democrats campaigned on this idea in 2004, 2006. it is not really changing, and that is the frustration. we cannot pretend that this is just bush's fault. meet them where they are, define yourself on it, and run a campaign. guest: i think the question is whether or not we want to go back and recalibrate on this. also, can scott brown played a role in it? host: thank you to both of our guest this morning. we will take a short break and then we will speak with bill adair. we will talk about president obama's first year in office, marked today. >> president obama signed a directive today aimed at cracking down on tax cheat to get federal contracts. then after meeting with advisers, he delivers remarks on a national mentor month. an update on relief efforts in haiti from robert gates speaking from india. he says he is sending additional ships to help with the recovery effort. meanwhile, another strong earthquake has hit h

i hope somehow ben nelson and some of the people in the senate, when this goes back to the senate, i hope it does, will find their conscience again and reject this while there is still time. >> congressman, i'll let you get the final word. you got 20 seconds. >> absolutely. the great things we have is that seniors, or even family members, young men and women no longer have to do co-pays when they go in for health insurance. so they come for preventative care, preventive screenings. >> we are going to lose the satellite. we just lost it, unfortunately. we had a limited window there. we were having technical difficulties. i want to give thanks to both congressmen for joining us on a fair and balanced debate here. thank you. >> president obama directly blaming the christmas bomb scare on al-qaeda for the first time today. now he's promising to step up the effort against members of the terrorist network based out of yemen, the most effective way for the u.s. to take out this group of killers, next. >>> time for top of the news. the search is on for a missing baby from arizona after his m

believe the 60 people will stay in place, tlo though there's increasing pressure on people like ben nelson. he was one of the last people to come to the table for the democrats. he's felt the need to put up an ad defending his decision. he's getting pressure in nebraska. he cut a last minute deal. there's a little pork barrel in the senate bill for nebraska. they don't have to play the increased medicaid costs. a lot of nebraskans are saying, we don't want that. it mikes us look greedy. >> what rush limbaugh was say g i ing was great, except for the 47 million people that don't have health care. the political costs of this hill are obvious. the approval rating of the president. there have been a lot of costs to get to this point. it's further than any president as ever gotten. to be at this point and not get to the finish line would be unimaginable. there's no margin for error. the 60 people voting for the bill will almost certainly be the 60 voting for it next time around. in the house, people could be moving in and out of voting. >> it's not a universal bill. when the began, 87% of the a

thinking of nelson rockefeller, there is a republican party of the rockefeller wing of the republican which were moderates compared to contemporary republican so colin powell is somebody republicans love to look at it and pulled and say this is such a great figure he was secretary of state and chairman of joints chief of staff and a role model but had a tough time to get his own party's nomination. >> after barack obama elected president there was a sense that all things were possible and felt there was great euphoria and said a lot about the country and how it had changed and evolved. one year into the presidency would you see has happened in the country and has the country changed? >> is a mixed response that the euphoria after november 4th has certainly reseeded in light of the enormous political challenges that obama has fixed but also the notion that was erroneous that that nation have become post racial and a devil. then nation that obama's election proved that active racism and it did not matter any more. thinking of the pressures the president is facing now like unemployment r

yes. >> i'm not sure if you can answer this, but since you did work for senator nelson at some point, is he one of the persuadables on this issue? and if he is, how -- what would you recommend and you know, in communicating with senator nelson, how you would kind of like him to vote on this issue? >> first of all, i would think a lot about agriculture and i would look a lot at how things -- his statement during the whole health care debate and just, you know, try to figure out what was, you know, where he really was, what was kind of strategic posturing, posturing is too strong a word, but you know, what ended up happening and what he said along the way, and just i think that's probably a good road map for how he tends to handle issues like this, which are incredibly difficult for him politically in his state, but also incredibly important to his party. yes? >> you mentioned being on and of off the hill, having inside and outside strategies. as par of the outside strategies, it seems one of the most effective is grassroots movements and drumming up that grassroots support, and i think

nelson smith will join us and talk about this when we come back. >> this weekend on the communicators, former senator and now head of the national association of broadcasters, gordon smith, on the fcc plan to expand the broadcast specktrum and what it might mean for broadcasters, today on c-span. >> each year the washington center brings thousands of students to d. droment experience the workings of our government first harned. this weekend they'll discuss politics, government and their futures. q & a sunday night on c-span. >> this weekend on c-span 2's bookthan most people may have thought. we look at the impact of the modern automobile from annual costs. find the spire schedule at book tv doifering and get the latest updates on twitter. >> washington journal continues. >> nelson smith joins us. he is the head for charter schools. host: can you give us an example of how many charter schools in if -- in 40 states in d.c. >> and how many students are enrolled in those how that we have public chartered schools and they seem to be growing, how has that affected the education policy? >>

getting the protection they got early on from malcolm armstead, then the bull in the china shop, reeves nelsonruins to the win against oregon state. >> darrin: those bruins were fighting hard. >> marques: on the road, you defend your home court. you got a good chance of making some noise in the pac 10 during the regular season. there's always the tournament where you can really make some noise and get an automatic bid to the tournament. all teams against usc of course. >> darrin: wise thought about it. he'll let it go and knock it down. >> marques: he's done so good a job at extending the range on his jump shot. his side, his ability to handle the ball, penetrate. that's the big equalizer to step down and knock out a three-point shot. >> darrin: 11 points for nic wise in this game. rebound by parrom. quick pass to mo mo jones. and arizona takes the lead! >> marques: it's the new york city boys, bronx to harlem on the two-on-one. parrom to mo mo jones. parrom has the ability to lead the break as you mentioned, darin. >> darrin: christopher through the lane and finally gets to layup the ball. >>

nelson says he will fight for california and other states to get the court, to."hat is in "the new york times," as is this story. "president obama has apparently embraced the cadillac attacks, an excise tax on high-priced health insurance -- cadillac tax, an excise tax on high- priced help insurance plans. as envisioned in the senate bill, the excise tax of 40% would be imposed on the value of individual health plans over 85 $1 annually, and family coverage over -- $8,500 annually, and family coverage over $23,000. what is less commonly known is that those maximums include not just premiums paid by employers and employees for medical insurance, but also provisions for dental coverage and reimbursements and a flexible spending accounts and the health reimbursement arrangements and employer contributions to help the savings accounts. the employee is not technically on the hook for the tax, which would be levied on the employer or health plan administrator. but experts agree that that tax will be passed along one way or another to the employee, perhaps through higher

and it's from the writer/director ryan fleck who gave us "a half nelson" with ryan gosling. >> and number little step." >> best documentary of the year. >> really? >> last year oscar-winning documentary was "man on wire." i think this is every bit as good. it's about the revival of the broadway musical "a chorus line." and the production and casting and then the auditioning for that. you will sort of bleed with these kids who try to get these roles. and it is heartwarming, it's moving, it is tragic in its own way. it's a great, great, great documentary. in a year of good documentaries, "food, inc.." but this was the best. >> so hang out. that was six, five and four. >> we have three more. >> we haven't talked about your favorite movie of 2009 yet. maybe it's one of best's top three movies. vevevevevevevevevee >>> we're looking at film critic ben mankiewicz's top films of 2009. we're down to the last three. number three, sir, what do we have? >> number three the best iraq war movie of the year certainly. my only fear from the awards point of view is that it came out so early in the year th

will keep their fractious 60 people in place, though there's increasing pressure on people like ben nelson. he was one of the last people to come to the table for the democrats. he's felt the need to put up an ad defending his decision. he's getting pressure in nebraska. he cut a last minute deal. there's a little pork barrel in the senate bill for nebraska. they don't have to play the increased medicaid costs. a lot of nebraskans are saying, we don't want that. it makes us look like we're greedy. i think else in listen stay in place and they'll keep their 60 votes. >> what rush limbaugh was say ing was great, except for the 47 million people that don't have health insurance. >> and are not as wealthy as he is. >> this has been a difficult hill to take. the political costs of this hill are obvious. the approval rating of the president. there have been a lot of costs to get to this point. it's further than any president as ever gotten. no universal coverage bill has ever passed either chamber. to be at this point and not get to the finish line would be unimaginable. in the senate, there's n

moderate gain of a kind of republicanism that is now a while start and i'm thinking of people like nelson rockefeller. there is a republican party of rockefeller, the rockefeller wing of the republican party which were moderates compared to republicans so i think colin powell is somebody who republicans love to look at and uphold and say this is such a great figure he was secretary of state, chairman of joint chiefs of staff. he is a role model but i think that he would have had a tough time getting his own party's nomination. >> host: after barack obama was elected president, there was a sense of that all things were possible. a lot of people felt there was great euphoria. they said a lot about the country and what it had come and how it had changed and evolved. one year into his presidency what do you see has happened in the country and has the country changed? >> guest: it is a mixed response in the sense that the euphoria after november 4th has certainly receded in light of enormous political challenges that obama has faced. but i also think there was a notion which was erroneous the

nelson: thank you. and, finally, and, therefore, under no circumstances would a cloture vote be necessary or required prior to a vote on adoption of a reconciliation conference report? the presiding officer: the senator is correct. mr. nelson: thank you, madam president. i yield the floor. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from delaware. mr. kaufman: i ask consent to speak as if in morning business for five minutes much. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. kaufman: i rise today to recognize another great federal employee. over the past year we witnessed the most significant economic downturn since the great depression. in the 1930's millions of americans lost everything. and there was no social safety net to catch those in greatest need. today we are fortunate that the federal government coordinates right isals program preventing millions of americans from slipping into a kind of poverty experienced in those days. perhaps -- and i think probably the most important

and, boy, did the fury come down on -- shaun nelson is his name, republicans and democrats. they wanted him prosecuted. they accused him of violating the brown act, the open meetings law. he took all sorts of heat for simply trying to alert the public to just the nature of the negotiations. meanwhile, the unions had already voted on the contract. the union members knew the details of the contract. and that's okay. so one side, the union side, gets to know all the details. the public doesn't get to know anything at all. and that was finally stopped, thanks to the efforts of some people here tonight that i see, but it's really hard -- the game is really rigged. often what will happen is these pension deals -- they'll get mentioned on the council agenda on a friday for a vote on tuesday and the sides -- the unions on the side that's in favor of these deals, the pieces are already in place to pass them. and there's not time for opposition because they keep it as quiet as possible and they drop it at the last legal moment and all of a sudden it's friday. you find out if anybody e

. >> woodruff: rick nelson is a senior fellow at the center for strategic and international studies in washington. >> there were information sharing restrictions in some regards to what levels of information could be shared with other entities that didn't have the perceived need to know. it made communicating very, very difficult. >> woodruff: but after 9/11, a new department of homeland security was created, combining 22 agencies. then, the 9/11 commission pinpointed a lack of intelligence sharing, leading to a further sweeping reorganization. the centerpiece came in 2004, when president bush signed the intelligence reform and terrorism prevention act into law. it created the director of national intelligence, a post now held by dennis blair, to channel all intelligence-related information to the president. the director would get his information from a new national counter-terrorism center, or n.c.t.c., acting as a central repository for all-source intelligence on international terrorism. 16 separate agencies and departments now feed information to the n.c.t.c., including the c.i.a.,

nelson mandela for 3%. he really does have a core of strong support in the united states? >> that's right. and we often see presidents coming out at the top of this list. but only two presidents have ever scored higher than barack obama did this year. that was john kennedy in 1961, the year he took office. and george w. bush in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in 2001. so it's really quite a strong showing. >> and then you have the women's side, and you have hillary clinton, who for 17 years, unprecedented, has been either number one or number two as the most admired. but just barely beating sarah palin. someone about as politically different from her as you could possibly imagine. >> you know, it's so interesting. sarah palin came out of nowhere onto this list. she's never been named before to the most admired list. it's an open-ended question so the people we survey can say whoever they wish. you know, it's essentially a tie. hillary clinton at 16%, sarah palin at 15%. given the margin of error that is a tie. most of the people who named hillary clinton were democrats,

the stupak and nelson amendments go well beyond that.that all of our reproductive health needs to be covered. that was discussed even by a pro-life democrat, he agreed. he did not want to make this an abortion bill, he wanted it to remain a health care bill. keep the status quo with no federal dollars going for abortion in moving on. talking about how it would expand and not take away the rights that women have now. host: blanc, ohio. good morning. caller: my concern is the amount of taxes that will be put on me. i run a very small business. i have a couple of employees. what they are going to force me to do is going to put me out of business. one of the democrats said that the republican health care was to die quickly. i would rather die quickly and free than under the yoke of oppression. host: what do you and your employees do for health care right now? caller: we do not have any and i will not get any. there is plenty of health care available out there. this thing is turning the nation into a bunch of bums and beggars. where is our am

first, the fact, excuse me senator nelson, and this is not insignificant that we are in fact, moving in a direction of less people losing jobs and hopefullyple beo have a net plus in terms of creating jobs. that is not insignificant. it is also not insignificant, mr. chairman insignificant, mr. chairman, the economy is improving. we have put in place, a different policies in the last eight years. at least part of that when we look at the recovery act, i was very pleased that the effort by championed on class for concurs had such an immediate impact in a small amount of time and some economists have credited that with a boost of the short-term boost of gdp. it is not insignificant. it is important that different policies are beginning to swing this in a different direction and that is important. now we again are focused at are focused on middle-class tax cuts and on and innovation, a jobs, and i think that is very significant. i wanted to ask mr. elmendorf and also join my colleagues and thinking you for the incredible job that your staff have done project early on health care which w

my name is arthur nelson. i am with the office of law enforcement and safety.ars. i would like for you to answer with a little background. next month is black history month. your recent comments about harry reid and that situation, i applaud you for that. what specifically have you done to further promote diversity in this climate, andxd what you pln tr do over the next year to further that process? >> it is a very important and appropriate question. the president and i very much share the view that we need to have a government that is reflective of the face of america. within this department, if you look at the diversity of the 100 or so people i have hired in the political leadership team, you will find that diversity there. if you look at what the departments are doing, we are including diversity as a performance factor to make sure we move to having a permit that is reflective of the face of america. let me say two other things about the importance of that. if we keep up with the demographic changes we see in america, that means we are reaching out and inc