i want to thank senator patrick leahy.applause] as well as our senate majority leader, harry reid, for their outstanding work -- [applause] for their outstanding work to complete this process before the august recess. i want to thank senator schumer, senator phil gramm, who are both -- gilebrtand, who are just a sonia sotomayor's home senators. i want to thank everybody who was involved in motivating these efforts from the beginning. your efforts were critical to our success. i appreciate all you have done for a pat yourself on the back. [applause] two members of congress that i especially want to acknowledge -- senator bob menendez who worked so hard on the senate side -- [applause] and congress woman vasquez who is the chairman of our spanish caucus. [applause] and i think we all want to take a moment to recognize the woman who, in so many ways, actually made this day possible, justice sonia sotomayor's mother. [applause] mrs. sotomayor is here with her husband, omar, and justice sotomayor's brother juan. by the way, i d

coming up later, we will have a conversation with senator patrick leahy from vermont.will also have several other guests. first an update. >> more on former president bill clinton's trip to north korea. secretary of state hillary clinton says she is not counting on a breakthrough in relations with north korea. now that the two americans have been freed -- but she held out hope that north korea would be willing to return to six-party talks about ending their nuclear program. earlier today she said that former president bill clinton agree to the visit after the north koreans sent word through the detained journalists that his visit would be the best way to short their release. . . >> two nuclear powers have been the: and international waters. u.s. northern command would not comment on the matter a question will be taken at today's pentagon briefing. finally, lawmakers criticized the ceo's of automatic before travelling to washington by private jet to attend a hearing about possible bailout. "the politico" reports that the house approved $2 million for the air force to pu

. >> patrick leahy -- >> half the democrats. i think it will be nine. half of them will be retiring. >> charles grassley and orrin hatch, two respected republican senators, announced they were voting against her, after the announcement was made, the national rifle association, that if you do not vote the right way -- >> i wonder what it would have liked attended jefferson was trying to write the declaration of independence if there had been 24-hour news coverage. the likelihood of failure, the whole thing is collapsed. look, we have to take the long view of sonia sotomayor. how she will be viewed is not based on the hearings, but how she is going to look after she has been on the bench for awhile and incited chance to participate in some of the decisions. -- had a chance to participate in some of the decisions. >> do you agree with charles on john roberts? >> no, i don't agree, but i really don't care to debate this, because it is not an issue. >> you brought it up. >> no, you brought it up. >> i want to answer this question of what would happen if we h

patrick leahy has blocked the release of the state department report on human rights which is neededore $100 million in aid can be released. hillary clinton is due to hold talks with the somali president and kenya. the united states has been supporting somalia's transitional government which has been under pressure from opposition forces, especially the islamist insurgents group. we will have a business record in 25 minutes. michelle is here now. the u.k. interest rates have just been announced. >> not surprisingly the bank of england decided to leave rates unchanged. i guess the delta was not much room to move lower. the big question economists were wondering was would they continue to ease, or not? they have been launching a program to try to buy it back government bonds to put money into the system to stimulate more lending, stimulate the economy. everyone wondered because of recent positive economic it if it would continue. many economists who have been pulled are split evenly. we have seen the bank of england say will increase the program by around $85 billion. it is a surprise.

. >> patrick leahy did -- >> half the democrats >> i n't think half the republicans areoing to vote for sotomayor. charles grassley and orrin hatch, twoespected republica senators whoave never voted agnst a nominee, annoued they were going to vote against her, after the naonal rifle associationas announcing that if you do not te against her -- >> i wonder if in the time jefferson watrying write the declaration of indendence you had 24-hour news coverage. it would be talking about the likelihood of failure, the colpse, the whole thing is collapsed. look, we ha to take thlong view on sotomayor. how she will be revealed is not based on the heings, but after she has been othe bench for awhile and has had chance to particate in some of the decisions. >> do you agr with charl that john roberts is the most excellent jusce we have had in 50 years? >> no, i don' but i really do not care t debate this, since obviously is anon-issue. he is not the best we have had . you know what, i know it, a the americ people know it. >> i want answer his question -- what would happen if we d cable the time ojef

the president, first lady, and patrick leahy it were present for this event. is is 20 minutes. >> ladies and gentlemen, senator patrick lei and first lady, michelle obama. -- senator patrick leahy. [applause] [applause] [applause] >> all right, good morning everybody. and welcome to the white house. i am glad all of you could be with us today as we honor the newest member of our highest court who i am proud to address for the first time as the justice sonia sotomayor. [applause] we are also honored to be joined by justice sotomayor's new colleagues. we have justice ginsberg who is here as well as justice stevens. [applause] i just want to thank both for being here today and your extraordinary service on the court. i know you will be giving justice sotomayor some good tips. i also want to thank everyone who has worked so hard to bring us to this day. i want to especially thank our judiciary committee chairman, patrick leahy. [applause] as well as our senate majority leader, harry reid, for their outstanding work. [applause] for their outstanding work to complete

that is followed by president obama's remarks. >> now, patrick leahy. debate in the senate on the nomination of sonia sotomayor your to the supreme court and other issues. it is 30 minutes. leahy, a member of the senate judicial committee. i want to ask you about sonia sotomayor. there is a story talking about the white house meeting between president obama and senate democrats. they say there was so little suspense, the sun -- subject barely came up when they met. this is not even an issue, patrick leahy said, as he returned. guest: actually, it was done. i was sitting next to the president at lunch, and we talked about a little bit, but there is nothing to worry about. he made a good nomination, and she is going to be confirmed. it will be a bipartisan vote, it will be a significant vote. host: are you surprised by the number of republican to have said that they will not support her nomination? guest: yes, some have taken the attitude that no matter who the president nominated, they would have voted no. sometimes i'd joke, even if he had nominated mos

i'll especially want to thank our judiciary committee chairman, senator patrick leahy. [applause] as well as our senate majority leader harry reid, for their outstanding work to -- [applause] for their outstanding work to complete this process before the august recess. i want to thank senator schumer, senator dole brand, both of them home state senators for sotomayor on behalf of their extraordinary work. i want to thank all the members of congress who have taken the time to join us here at the event and want to acknowledge all of the advocates and groups who organized to mobilize in support of these efforts from the very beginning. your worked maybe absolutely -- your work was critical to our success, so pat ourselves on the back. congratulations. [applause] to members of congress want to acknowledge, senator bob menendez, who worked so hard on the senate side -- and commerce woman vasquez -- congresswoman vasquez, from our hispanic caucus. i think we all wanted take a moment to recognize the woman who in so many ways made this day possible, justice sotomayor. [applaus

today senator patrick leahy says congress is holding $100 million in aid to battle mexico's drug cartel. why? one democrat wants to see more evidence that the mexican government is cracking down on corrupt and abusive police and soldiers. the drug war next door has left thousands dead, kidnapped, and as we know, the enemy is well armed and it is very well funded. out of all the ruthless killers there is one group in particular that stands out michael ware reports. >> the dead always tell a story. here in mexico that story is the war raging on america's doorstep. being fought for the right to supply america's demand for illegal drugs, a war becoming more violent, more ruthless, mostly because of one group. to even begin to understand their violence, come with me. here in the southern mexican city of de la cruz. imagine, if you will, a band of special forces, green beret soldier goes rogue and offer their services and firepower to the drug cartels. well, that's precisely what's happened in mexico in 1990s, commandos from the mexican army deserted and set up their own cartel known as the l

that promisingly in the remarks of senators such as al franken and judiciary committee chairman patrick leahy but i think we need to be even more coordinated with that. and christie mentioned the led better ruling and one of the best things we have don't pass the lilly bed ledbetter fair pay act that responds to the ruling by overruling it and there is no better way to sandy message to the supreme court. they are overstepping their bounds, than doing precisely that and what i think we need is a more coordinated effort, to not -- there's a lot of corrective legislation that is bott bottlenecked right now and representative nadler is a perfect candidate who will view the roberts ruling as on end of -- an end of self and to respond to the activism of the roberts court and with that i'll let you ask another question. >> thank you, jerry nadler is a nine term congressman from new york's 8th congressional district. and he's a champion of civil rights, civil liberties and a host of progressive issues in the house. gong man nadler, sonia sotomayor is clearly a moderate but there were 338 votes agains

the chairs of the house and senate judiciary committees, congressmen john conyers and senators patrick leahy. they applauded mr. holder's appointment of a special prosecutor but said an independent truth commission is still necessary. >>> meantime, the obama administration's decision -- or continued renditions, little notice amid yesterday's other news has drawn heavy criticism from human rights groups. >>> let's turn now to an attorney who has conducted extensive investigations into the cia interrogation and detention program, also a contributor to "the daily beast," john sifton. thank you for your time tonight, sir. >> thank you. >> we'll get to mr. cheney in a moment. but about 36 pages out of 109 in this inspector general's report, totally redacted, 30 or more partially so, and we have this abc report, deaths of three detainees, near death of khalid shaikh mohammed, detainees who can't be found. translate that. does that mean we tortured people to death? >> essentially, yes. it's been known for some time that a number of cia detainees died in custody. they were not detainees in the high

then patrick leahy talks about the sotomayor debate. then john castellani on health care legislation. then james risch joins us for a discussion. >> this week, the full senate deabebates the nomination of justice sotomayor. then this fall, tour the supreme court. >> now, the commander of nato forces discusses the ongoing security operations in afghanistan. this briefing is 25 minutes. >> we have a good picture of you, let's hope that we can hear you ok. >> i can hear you just fine. >> thank you for joining us this afternoon. and thank you for being so flexible with the schedule. this is [unintelligible] from the netherlands. he is the commander of the task force in southern afghanistan. his soldiers are responsible for the security operations and the regional command. he took command in february of last year and is finishing his time in afghanistan. he is speaking to us from khandahar -- from khandahar. thank you for joining us. >> thank you, it is good to be here. we had a change of command yesterday. this was in the provinces and this

i want to especially thank our judiciary committee chairman, patrick leahy. [applause] as well as our senate majority leader, harry reid, for their outstanding work. [applause] for their outstanding work to complete this process before the august recess. i want to thank senator schumer, senator kila brand come up both of whom are just as -- senator gillebrand. i want to thank all the members of congress who have taken the time to join us at this white house event. i want to acknowledge all the groups who organized and mobilized in support of these efforts from the very beginning. your work was absolutely critical to our success and i appreciate all have the -- i appreciate all you have done. pat yourselves on the back. [applause] two members of congress i especially want to acknowledge our senator bob menendez who worked so hard on the senate side. [applause] and congresswoman nidia vasquez, who is the share of the congressional spanish caucus. [applause] and i think we all want to take a moment to recognize the woman who truly made this day possible, just as

>> ladies and gentlemen, senator patrick leahy and first lady, michelle obama. [applause] xxxxr >> ladies and gentlemen, the president of the united states, and justice sotomayor of the supreme court of the united states. [cheers and applause] >> all right. good morning, everybody. >> good morning. >> and welcome to the white house. [cheering] >> i am glad all of you could be with us today as we honor the newest member of our highest court, who i'm proud to address for the very first time as justice sonia sotomayor. [cheers and applause] >> we are also honored to be joined by justice sotomayor's new colleagues. we have justice ginsburg, who is here, as well as justice steve stevens. [applause] >> so i just want to thank both justice stevens and justice ginsburg, not only for being here today but for your extraordinary service on the court. and i know you'll be giving justice sotomayor some good ti tips. [laughter] >> i also want to thank everyone who's worked so hard to bring to us this day. i want to thank especially our judiciary committee chairman, senator p

jon: patrick leahy, chairman of the judiciary committee, is starting to vote on judge sotomayor.ill she become a justice today? the vote is expected this afternoon. jane: the dow is down about 14. jenna is watching the numbers for us. jon: what a little more cash in the cash for clunkers program? the senate might pour it in there. there are voting today to add $2 billion to what has turned out to be a popular program. the move could trigger a half million new car sales. wendell is at the white house with more for us. the white house says the program is out of money tomorrow. is there any chance the senate would not renew it? >> not much. senate majority leader harry reid plans to start debate after the debate on -- vote on sotomayor this afternoon. he thinks he has the votes to pass it, and it is the last order of business before the august recess. so opponents of the program are not going to want to spend a lot of time on what they know is a losing effort. supporters say that the program is the most effective program there is, doing all the right things, taking gas-guzzlers' off

i'll especially want to thank our judiciary committee chairman, senator patrick leahy. [applause] as well as our senate majority leader harry reid, for their outstanding work to -- [applause] for their outstanding work to complete this process before the august recess. i want to thank senator schumer, senator dole brand, both of them home state senators for sotomayor on behalf of their extraordinary work. i want to thank all the members of congress who have taken the time to join us here at the event and want to acknowledge all of thedvocates and groups who organized to mobilize in support of these efforts from the very beginning. your worked maybe absolutely -- your work was critical to our success, so pat ourselves on the back. congratulations. [applause] to members of congress want to acknowledge, senator bob menendez, who worked so hard on the senate side -- and commerce woman vasquez -- congresswoman vasquez, from our hispanic caucus. i think we all wanted take a moment to recognize the woman who in so many ways made this day possible, justice sotomayor. [applause]

the chairman of the judiciary committee, patrick leahy, and others, speaking at the capitol, live onc-span. >> here we have somebody who has a distinguished career as a trial court judge, prosecutor, appeals judge read more experience on the federal court that anybody nominated or confirmed in decades. this is this is the american dream. it is a dream that we all speak about when we campaign. what we have done now has made it real. ok, we have several members of the judiciary committee here, as well as the leaders. >> i just want to say, first of all, thank you to our chairmen, who drove the judiciary committee through these hearings. now finally, here we are true we have a new supreme court justice. i think it is truly a great day for the united states supreme court, a great day for law, a great day for justice, a great day for every young woman out there that says "yes, i can, i can do it if i work hard." that is the message of this particular justice. as has been said, she brings 29.5 years of legal experience to the supreme court. she has seen every aspect of the law, as a prosec

i want to thank, especially, our jud judiciary chairman senator patrick leahy.well as our senate majority leader, harry reid for their outstanding work, for their outstanding work to complete this process before the august recess. i want to thank senator schumer both who are justice sotomayor's home state senators. i want to thank all the members of congress who've taken the time to join us here at the white house event. and i want to acknowledge all the advocates and groups who organized and mobilized and supported these efforts from the very beginning. your work was absolutely critical to our success and i appreciate all that you've done. so, pat yourselves on the back. congratulations. two members of congress that i just especially want to acknowled acknowledge, senator bob menendez who worked so hard on the senate side. and congresswoman vazquez who is our congressional senate caucus. and i think we all want to take a moment to recognize the woman who in so many ways truly made this day possible, justice sotomayor's mother. mrs. sotomayor is here with her hu

i want to thank especially our judiciary committee chairman senator patrick leahy.d for their outstanding work to -- for their outstanding work to complete this process before the august recess. i want to thank senator schumer, senator gillibrand both of whom are sotomayor's home state senators for their extraordinary work on her behalf. i want to thank all of the members of congress who have taken the time to join us here at the white house event and i want to acknowledge all of the advocates and groups who organized and mobilized and supported these efforts from the very beginning. your work was absolutely critical to our success and i appreciate all that you've done. so pat yourselves on the back. congratulations. two members of congress that i just especially want to acknowledge. senator bob menendez who worked so hard on the senate side. and congresswoman vasquez who is our chair of hispanic caucus. and i think we all want to take a moment to recognize the woman who, in so many ways, made this day possible, justice sotomayor's mother, celina sotomayor. mrs. sot

and also a bit of a rebuttal from senator patrick leahy, the democratic chairman of the judiciary committee. >> on the supreme court judge sotomayor will take an objective, modest and restrained approach to interpreting and applying written law. i hope that she actively defends her impartiality against subjective influences such as personal sympathies and prejudices. >> she is a judge of unimpeachable character and integrity. these critics have also chosen to ignore her extensive record of judicial modesty and restraint, a record made over 17 years on the federal bench. instead, they focused on, and mischaracterized, her rulings in just a handful out of her more than 3,600 cases. >> reporter: so, we are expecting that the senate will vote to confirm sonia sotomayor here in a few hours, don. and we're expecting that she will be sworn in in a public ceremony by the week's end, don. >> another thing the senate will take up, the cash for clunkers. when is the senate expected to take action on that? >> reporter: a couple of big votes before the senate leaves for their august recess. we're expect

senator patrick leahy will take your questions about the sotomayor supreme court nomination, health care, the economy, and the obama administration. the president of the business roundtable will focus on health care. and we will be joined by an idaho republican senator to look at the senate agenda this last week before the august recess. "washington journal" is live on c-span every day at 7:00 a.m. eastern. >> sunday, frank rich reflects on his years as a political columnist for the of what new york times." >> i senate hearing on the obama administration's financial regulation plans. we will hear about a proposal to consolidate two agencies charged with regulating banks. chris dodd of connecticut chairs the banking committee. this hearing is about two hours and 10 minutes. >> i have informed our colleagues already that we are under some time constraints. we have a couple of votes around 10:30 before the senate. there is a meeting that begins afternoon that many of us will have to attend. so we're not going to make any opening statements. we agree to that this morning to get right to our

patrick leahy will take questions about the sotomayor nomination the president of the business roundtable will focus on health care. we will be joined by idaho republican senator james googled said the agenda before the august recess. it is live on c-span every day at 7:00 a.m. eastern. >> sunday, we reflect on 15 years of political columns for the "new york times, ," includig his column. >> now a pentagon briefing on afghanistan's security operations. we will hear from the u.s. general in charge of forces along the afghanistan/pakistan border. this is 30 minutes. >> can you hear me? >> i can hear you. >> today our -- we are doing to the tax -- a task force [unintelligible] this is our first opportunity to get an operational update from him who will soon commence in june of this year. i will turn it over to you for opening remarks. >> thank you. thank you for joining me this morning. this the first pentagon press conference. two months ago, the headquarters replace the hundred and first quarters. during a transition of authority, since then, in a joint task force 82 has worked hard to bui

senator patrick leahy will stop by to talk on the work in the senate.ater, doncaster lani doncasterjohn castellani talks about -- john castellani talks about health care from a business owner's perspective. >> we have a senate hearing on the needs of children before, during command after a disaster. witnesses include craig fugate. good morning. i >> i think the staff for helping prepare the meeting this and ng happy to chair. i thank the staff for helping prepare the meeting this morning. today's hearing is entitled focusing on children in disasters. the committee's objective today is to evaluate the very special needs of children during the preparedness response and recovery phases of disaster, and the extent to which our current planning and programs either meets or fails to meet these special needs. we're focusing on children and their needs for several reasons. first, children in most families are the focal point and parents who cannot find an available school or day care center or access health care for their children may be forced to relocate afte

things i talk about and things that senator patrick leahy talked about with regard to information technologygovernment does not innovate. we are concerned it will inhibit innovation. the second concern is really in the way it is structured. right now when the government through medicare reimburses doctors and hospitals, they do not reimburse them for the full costs, so the shift those costs to employers. the way it is structured -- it is another big it entry into the market that shifts costs and is a more expensive for us. host: let's hear from viewers. the first caller is from fort worth, texas, on the line for democrats. caller: good morning. i hope that you'll bear with me. i have had a little through the surgery. this gentleman has some point i would agree with and some i would not. my father [inaudible] -- my career was military. i love the special forces. what i see today is to be able to afford my people a decent insurance, my god, it is getting where you cannot afford it. let's get rid of this free trade. [inaudible] this is breaking is. all i hear from you is about this trade. but y

think, very promisingly through senators such as al franken and judiciary commission chairman patrick leahy but we have to be more careful with that. christie mentioned the lilly ledbetter ruling. we need to respond to that ruling by overruling it. there's no better way to spend -- send a message to the supreme court that they are overstepping their bounds than by doing precisely that. i think what we need is a more coordinated effort to -- there's a lot of corrective legislation that's bottlenecked in congress right now, and we need leaders, representative nad letter -- nadler being a perfect candidate, who will view the roberts court ruling as an end in and of itself and as a part of a coordinated effort to spont to the activism of the roberts courlt. >> jerry nadler is a nine-term congressmember from new york's ninth congressional district. congressman nadler, sonia sotomayor is clearly a moderate, but there were 38 votes against her. some acted like it was a last stand against liberal judicial activism. is this unique to the supreme court or will we see it in other kinds of nomnages to

. >> we are joined now by senator patrick leahy, a democrat from vermont.i want to start asking you about the nomination of sonia sotomayor in today's story talking about the white house meeting yesterday between president obama and democrats. there was so little suspense. health care and climate change. this is not even an issue. this one is done. >>guest: it came up. i was sitting next to the president. we chatted a little bit about it, but i told him he has other things to worry about. i'll take care of this. he made a good nomination, and she is going to be confirmed. it will be a bipartisan vote. it will be a significant vote. >>host: are you surprised by the number of republicans who say they will not support her nomination. >>guest: i am surprised. some seem to have taken the attitude that no matter who the president nominated they were going to vote no. i jokingly say if he had nominated moses they would have voted no. others have been irresponsible and thought it through. i guess it is about the way he or she wants, but her qualifications, she is,

the funding, some of the funding for the drug plan has been held up by senator patrick leahy of vermont, who is concerned about these human rights that mexico hasn't done enough to at least investigate. not necessarily saying it is true, but that mexico hasn't even shown what it is doing to investigate and. obama made real clear that he thinks, westlaw covers of his family, lost a lot of close associate to the druglords who have killed or killing indiscriminately. obama gave him a strong public support. >> how is the approach of the obama administration different from the bush administration? >> i think one of the things that is very important new wrinkle is that the obama administration has committed to doing southbound inspections. the drugs come into the united states, but the money goes back into mexico. the estimate is around 25 billion bulk cash going back to mexico. people cut off the cash and start to starve the cartel. we have done away with our assault weapon ban. mexican drug cartels are using mules to buy smaller numbers and then build them up. a arcadian, assault weapons of

senate judiciary committee chairman patrick leahy says he wants a nonpartin commission to investigatethe treatment of terrorist suspects during george w. bush's presidency. we will hear from former government officials and legal scholars. from march, this is two hours. >> thank you all for being here, and a very distinguished panel. and i couldn't help but think, the wake of the tragic tacks of september 11, we all came together as americans. party labels mean nothing, being americans ant everything. we need to do so again in these difficult economic times. regrettably, too many seem smerized by the sight of all the talk radio personalities and extreme special interest groups. and far from grasping bipartisan hand, president obama has exteed, many want to play out the conrvative playbook to obstruct and he laid. this is a timwhen conservatives, liberals, repqblicans and democrats should be setting aside party labels to come together first and fgremost as americans. we saw nothing to do more than damage america's place in the world than the revelation that our great nation struts along

think, very promisingly through senators such as al franken and judiciary commission chairman patrick leahyut we have to be more careful with that. christie mentioned the lilly ledbetter ruling. we need to respond to that ruling by overruling it. there's no better way to spend -- send a message to the supreme court that they are overstepping their bounds than by doing precisely that. i think what we need is a more coordinated effort to -- there's a lot of corrective legislation that's bottlenecked in congress right now, and we need leaders, representative nad letter -- nadler being a perfect candidate, who will view the roberts court ruling as an end in and of itself and as a part of a coordinated effort to spont to the activism of the roberts courlt. >> jerry nadler is a nine-term congressmember from new york's ninth congressional district. congressman nadler, sonia sotomayor is clearly a moderate, but there were 38 votes against her. some acted like it was a last stand against liberal judicial activism. is this unique to the supreme court or will we see it in other kinds of nomnages to lo