what is rahm emanuel skill? >> very hard working and effective but 1.6 million dollars in 2.5 years for our have to imagine that some of the skill was to know who to call in the clinton right house to get done what he wanted to get done. he makes one point* 6 million by bilking his contact then uses that money to run for congress now he is in the obama lighthouse but also the revolving door is actually now a lobbyist who is the acts obama administration officials already less than one year in. somebody has gone and come up left and become a lobbyist. this is damaging because anyone that strengthens our it gives more power to those to become a lobbyist in effect take political power away. also gives perverse incentives to people in the government that particularly hurts republicans because they can say we will kill the government program. that way when it gets past somebody has to help me. that is very problematic. some of obama's actions have helped her you cannot become, if you were at a level you cannot, you s

somebody remarked earlier about rahm emanuel. that is detailed in this book. but when you read this book, it makes you wonder how we can ever straighten and out the mess in washington. host: best book of 2009. paul on the independent line. caller: it is called "tree spiker." also a reason book of palmtop removal and west virginia. host: one way to find out is to go to our website and you can take look at that and searched by name. this is texas on the democratic line. your favor nonfiction book of the year. caller: it is a book that i wrote. is called "to find 9/11 intervention crocus is about 9/11. it is a true story. -- it is about 9/11. it all happens. it is a true story. is there is a god. god has gone involved income 9/11. host: 2009 marks the end of sarah palin's governorship. here is a looko of some of what she had to say in a bookstore in cincinnati. >> thank you so much for being here. we're going to have a blast. thank you for your courage to be here. you're going wrorogue with me. it's good to be here on this book tour. you can read my words on filt

a second conclusion because they don't like that answer and i wouldn't like it either if i was rahm emanuelaxelrod. this is going to be the foreign policy that the president will be judged by the american people in november, 2012 and foreign policy that the congress of the united states is judged less than a year upon. other issues may outweigh it, the economy, but this will be the foreign policy issue that the people will look at. it will need to be explained to the american people again and again why they are sending their sons and daughters to the other side of the planet to fight a war which has been going on now longer than any war in american history. and it's going to have to be explained how we intend to win that war and how we hope to be able to get out of it. that will mean political energy, political capital and the most precious thing in any white house, the time that the president will be devoting to this issue. wars consume presidencies and this war stands on the verge of consuming this presidency. last thing i would say, my final note, the good news in all of this, i genuinel

somebody remarked earlier about rahm emanuel. that is detailed in this book. but when you read this book, it makes you wonder how we can ever straighten and out the mess in washington. host: best book of 2009. paul on the independent line. caller: it is called "tree spiker." also a reason book of palmtop removal and west virginia. host: one way to find out is to go to our website and you can take look at that and searched by name. this is texas on the democratic line. your favor nonfiction book of the year. caller: it is a book that i wrote. is called "to find 9/11 intervention crocus is about 9/11. it is a true story. -- it is about 9/11. it all happens. it is a true story. is there is a god. god has gone involved income 9/11. host: 2009 marks the end of sarah palin's governorship. here is a looko of some of what she had to say in a bookstore in cincinnati. >> thank you so much for being here. we're going to have a blast. thank you for your courage to be here. you're going wrorogue with me. it's good to be here on this book tour. you can read my words on filt

earlier somebody remarked about rahm emanuel. that is detailed in this book but when you read this book it makes you wonder how we can ever, ever straighten out the mess in washington. >> host: paul is next up. the best book of 2009. paul on the independent line will do you think? >> caller: i don't know if you guys have covered it but it is called tree spiker. >> host: treat spiker? >> caller: yep comegys one of the founders of the society and also a recent group fighting mountaintop removal when west virginia? >> host: right. i'm not sure but one way to find out is to go to the website, booktv.org. you can take a look at that and search by his name and see what you find. is smyrna texas, arnold on the democrats' line. you're favorite nonfiction book of the year. go ahead, arnold. >> caller: yes, it's a book that i wrote. it is called -- it's called the fine 9/11 intervention. >> host: what is about? >> caller: its about divine intervention, it's about speed. it is a true story. it's going to be hard for some people to believe i

like today if, say, you know, karl rove and george bush were skinny dipping in the potomac or rahm emanuelrack obama how on you cable news cycle would play this. they would go for this horseback ride or skinny dip in the potomac. they say roosevelt consumed -- burned up 2,000 calories before noon and eight cups of coffee with sugar as well. but, you know, that's what the conservation idea came from. it came on one of these hikes in rock creek park that he brought the idea to roosevelt. and it's a very simple idea. they didn't call it environmentalism or save the earth. they simply said this, we are a nation of 92 million people. what will it be like when we're a nation of 300 million people. by the way, of course we are a nation of more than 300 million. will there be anything left for our great grandchildren? it was simply the idea let's not consume it all in our generation. we owe something to future generations. that was the simple idea around conservation. so they set up this public land and they set it up for the little guy, now remember they are not taking private land and putting it

it reminds me of what rahm emanuel, the president's chief of staff said, when they jammed through the stimulus bill earlier this year. they said, a crisis is a terrible thing to waste. well, it's one thing if we were acting in response to a crisis in a responsible manner, but what this is going to do is to make it even worse, as the senator from wyoming pointed o out. well, i think people listening, the 56% and growing number of americans who are concerned about this deal, they're wondering, are -- are the politicians in washington more interested in jamming this through or getting it right? senator snowe, olympia snowe from maine, on the finance committee, the one republican to vote for the finance committee bill, said she won't vote for cloture on this bill at 1:00 this morning because this is simply an arbitrary deadline. oh, and guess what? most of the provisions don't kick in for four years. so why are we doing this literally in the dead of night on a phony timetable? well, we know that according to experts like the dean of the harvard medical school, who said in discussions with

-- rahm emanuel is worth and how much he's involved in running our country and taking all this money?le complaining. i've been watching c-span a lot lately, the senate especially, and once in a while people really -- especial until that pharmaceutical debate -- campaign about how rahm emanuel is really the puppeteer back there. what do you think, mr. freed? guest: i don't know what he's worth. i know he spent some time as an investment banker, so he probably made, you know, a nice amount of money, probably several million dollars, which he has then been using or living on since he's been in public life, but i don't know what his real worth is. host: washington, alex, democratic caller. good morning. caller: good morning, c-span. i've lately become a complete c-span junkie since i'm unemployed at the moment i've got plenty of time to watch you. host: glad you have to, sorry you're unemployed. guest: yes, i agree. caller: well, unfortunately while i was on hold, you answered a lot of my questions. i guess i'm wondering what you would suggest in the wade of campaign finance reform to dea

rahm emanuel is right, once the health care legislation is passed and mr.bama spends as a huge victory the american people will forget their objections and the democrats would get credit for passing historic reform. if so, it will be some achievement because it means building on a health-care package supported by fewer than 38% of americans. if the marriage to matter by contrast passing the bill could prove more costly than failed. mr. obama has been unequivocal in his public statements and it is tell if this legislation it will reduce the deficit, help small businesses, maintains that is " on abortion, offer choices. all the promises look different when the details emerge and learn what change really means. it the president's promise of the not hold up all of these statements will be chopped into campaign ads that cut right to his credibility. as far as allies in the senate, the 60-40 party-line vote to close debate means that every democrat can be held up as the deciding vote. oregaon, joyce on the independent line. caller: i can't believe the american ba

rahm emanuel is just a cell phone away. we have had tremendous support with secretary salazar. we have had secretaries the bilious. they have always been tremendous. -- secretary sibelius. one more question. [unintelligible] >> you are going to have to talk louder. >> [unintelligible] >> we are still where we were yesterday. republicans love to telalk about this legislation being a surprise to them. some statistics here speak volumes. remember, we had a vote on a saturday evening, because we wanted to make sure that bill on the floor had ample opportunity for people to look at it, even though it had already been available to all of you and anyone else who wanted to look at on the internet for almost 10 days. on this legislation, just the finance committee process there, we have not had legislation that has been so transparent in recent history. the senate finance committee had public meetings on health care reform, 53 of them. the finance committee had just the markup itself, which was very public, eight days. it has been 22 years since we have had a marked up ever that has tak

also, rahm emanuel, larry summers and timothy geithner expected to be there. here's a preview of that meeting. journal" continues. host: we're joined by eamon javers. facing what else pressured to increase lending. in a meeting financiers will tell obama they're ready to step up to promote recovery in additional steps. what is the president going to tell them? guest: that they need to be lending to lend to credit- worthy businesses. these are the job creation engines of the u.s. economy. they can i give credit to expand and grow because the banks are so frightened by the global economic meltdown last year that they are unwilling to loosen standards. the banker is going into the meeting arcana caught in between. on the one hand, the white house is telling them to lend more, and on the other their bar regulators tell them to lend less. be careful you are not lending to those who cannot afford to pay back loans. that is what got us into all this trouble in the subprime mortgage meltdown. host: you said that white house political people like david axelrod are tell

-- rahm emanuel is worth and how much he's involved in running our country and taking all this money?hear people complaining. i've been watching c-span a lot lately, the senate especially, and once in a while people really -- especial until that pharmaceutical debate -- campaign about how rahm emanuel is really the puppeteer back there. what do you think, mr. freed? guest: i don't know what he's worth. i know he spent some time as an investment banker, so he probably made, you know, a nice amount of money, probably several million dollars, which he has then been using or living on since he's been in public life, but i don't know what his real worth is. host: washington, alex, democratic caller. good morning. caller: good morning, c-span. i've lately become a complete c-span junkie since i'm unemployed at the moment i've got plenty of time to watch you. host: glad you have to, sorry you're unemployed. guest: yes, i agree. caller: well, unfortunately while i was on hold, you answered a lot of my questions. i guess i'm wondering what you would suggest in the wade of campaign finance refo

on the ellipse, a lighting of the national menorah, white house chief of staff rahm emanuel.l wrap up for the phones this segment. we turn our attention to homegrown terrorism. matthew levitt, former fbi counterintelligence analyst. now with the washington institute for near east policy. recent cases of homegrown terrorism. first, a news update from c-span radio. >> as the president meets with financial executives this morning, citigroup says it is repaying $20 billion of the money it received last year from the government. citigroup originally received a total of $45 billion. the government owns the balance, which it plans to sell. president obama is the focus of an internet statement today from al qaeda's that the leader al- zawahiri. accused the president of cheating the arab world by peace talks. he urges a muslims and palestinians to wage holy war and praised muslim militants fighting in pakistan. three days of meetings with north korean officials wrapped up and stephen was war, special envoy to north korea, says he is encouraged. in moscow to of a russian officials he r

i think barack obama and rahm emanuel and others behind the scenes are politically astute and barack very politically smart. but what he had captured to his ability to articulate his ideals before, what made him win in the election now at this point maybe do more harm than good. i think it will be very difficult perhaps for him to capture such a constituency again that only leads to lowered expectations in the sense that people did have perhaps unreal expectations. but some of it was reasonable. and to see what the limits of that particular person in the executive office is quite discouraging. now, president obama did mention martin luther king talking about violence. and in many ways, martin luther king was aware of economic violence and abuse and exploitation. and in line with that, barack spoke about revealing many of the important energy and health care meetings through c-span cameras and although he is limited and it seems like he is not able to do that, could he not at least explain to us in some ways why he is not or chooses not to do that and perhaps that he not able to do th

if i was rahm emanuel, i would not like it, either.issue is going to be the foreign policy issue upon which this president is judged by the american people in november, 2012, and it will be the foreign policy issue that the congress of the united states is judged upon less than a year from now. other issues may outweigh it -- the economy -- but this will be the foreign policy issue that people look at. it is going to need to be explained to the american people again and again why they are sending their sons and daughters to the other side of the planet to fight a war which has been going on now longer than any war in american history. it is going to have to be explained how we intend to win that war and how we hope to get out of it. that will mean political energy, political capital and the most precious thing at any white house -- the time the president will have to devote to this issue. wars have consumed presidencies. and this war stands on the verge of consuming this presidency. last thing i would say. my final note. the good news

this issue will be the foreign policy -- if i was rahm emanuel or david axelrod.t will be the foreign policy issue that the congress of the u.s. is judged upon less than a year from now. other issues may outweigh exit, the economy, but this will be it foreign policy issue that people look at. it will need to explain to the american people again and again why they are sending their sons and daughters to the other side of the planet to fight a war which has been going on now longer than any war in american history. it will have to be explained how we intend to win that war and how we hope to be able to get out of it. that will mean political energy, political capital, and the most precious thing in any white house, the time of the president will have to be devoted to this issue. wars consume presidencies, and this war stance on the verge of consuming his presidency. a final note, the good news in all this, i generally -- i genuine believe we will know in july it or august of 2011 whether this strategy works. what usa that? by then -- why do i say that? by then will

rahm emanuel, reversing his position on drug reimportation. a lot of it has to do with the deals that have been made. i refer to the august 6, 2009, "new york times" article, "pressed by industry lobbyists, white house officials on wednesday assured drug makers that the administration stood by a behind-the-scenes deal to block any congressional effort to extract cost savings from them beyond an agreed-upon $80 billion." and then it goes on to say, "we were assured. we need somebody to come in first. if you come in first, you'll have a rock-solid deal. billy saw design, who now leads the trade group, said wednesday, who is he's ever going to go into a deal with the white house again if they don't keep their word? they're just going to duke did out instead." it is a potential and secretive game that the obama administration has played it is a tries to line up support from the descrai groups, even as their lobbyists push to influence the health measure for their benefit." mere is the important point of this article. i would ask unanimous consent

and here's a quote from the white house chief of staff, rahm emanuel.hat he said about the last omnibus bill. remember? this is the one we weren't going to do anymore. "second, this is last year's business" -- he was talking about the one we passed in mar march -- and their, most importantly, we're going -- "and third, most importantly, we're going to have to bring some other changes going forward, to reduce and bring more, reduce the number and bring the transparency, and that's the policy that he annunciated in his campaign." bob schieffer, "what it sounds to me what he's about to do here is say" -- "well, don't like it but i'm going to go ahead and sign it" -- he's talking about the last omnibus bill -- "but i'm going to warn you, you don't ever do it again" -- because that's what's happening here. emanue-- is that what's happenig here? emanuel, "yes." and we have a lot issues when we fund the government, something we should have done last year but did not because of the difficulty we had with working with president bush. i wonder if we're going to b

i've worked a few campaigns in minnesota and then i helped with a campaign to replace rahm emanuel in the fifth district and i'm here because i hope to be managing campaigns at some point. >> i'm from loudon county, virginia. i'm a first year grad student and i worked for mcdonald for governor and huckabee and john mccain for president last year and i'm a republican. >> i'm stephanie slade. i am also a first year grad student from tampa, florida. no campaign experience. i would consider myself an open-minded r. i'm here out of interest in political communications. >> my name is amy. i'm a first year master student. no campaign experience. i consider myself a leaning democrat. and i took cmi just because of its reputation. >> my name is dan. i'm from san francisco. i'm a first-year master student. i'm a democrat. and, yeah, i'm here for cmi's reputation. it seemed like fun. >> okay. >> my name is adam levy. i'm a senior at american university. as far as -- i originally hail from princeton, new jersey but i live in virginia and i took every clasp a.u. takes on campaignses and elections

a second conclusion because they don't like that answer and i wouldn't like it either if i was rahm emanuelaxelrod. this is going to be the foreign policy that the president will be judged by the american people in november, 2012 and foreign policy that the congress of the united states is judged less than a year upon. other issues may outweigh it, the economy, but this will be the foreign policy issue that the people will look at. it will need to be explained to the american people again and again why they are sending their sons and daughters to the other side of the planet to fight a war which has been going on now longer than any war in american history. and it's going to have to be explained how we intend to win that war and how we hope to be able to get out of it. that will mean political energy, political capital and the most precious thing in any white house, the time that the president will be devoting to this issue. wars consume presidencies and this war stands on the verge of consuming this presidency. last thing i would say, my final note, the good news in all of this, i genuinel

"the new york times" reports -- quote -- on july 7, meaning this year, rahm emanuel, president obama's chief of staff assured at least five pharmaceutical companies during a white house meeting that there would be no provision in the final health care package to allow the reimportation of cheaper drugs." end quote. i thought that we were going to hold drug companies accountable. i thought health care reform is supposed to drive down the cost of health care, including the costs of prescription drugs for all americans. the dorgan amendment is a commonsense bipartisan approach to achieve both of these goals. drug importation achieves these goals without imposing arbitrary fees and without flexing the muscle of the federal government. i have always considered this a free trade issue. now, i know most people see it as a health issue, and it is a health issue, but i come from it from the point of view that only a couple items americans can't buy in this country from anyplace in the world that they want to buy them. one class is pharmaceutical drugs. the other class is cuban -- the presiding

emanuel is the brother of white house chief of staff rahm emanuel. he's a bioethist.e's very talented and very smart. maybe he should be the rationing czar. he's published some very disturbing ideas on how to ration care which can be summed up by this brave, new world, humpback whale graph behind me. dr. emanuel's complete lives system basically works off the premise that the older you are -- listen to this -- the older you are, the more you've lived and, therefore, the less you deserve health care. let me repeat that. the older you are, the more you've lived, and, therefore, the less you deserve health care. well, you know something? the average age of my colleagues in this body is 62 years old. just something for you to think about in terms of what you're contributing to the country and maybe you're eligible for health care, you should get a health care or maybe not. because if you look here where this chart goes, you've got a lot of -- a lot of input here. you've got a lot of investment in health care in our entire health care system. and like the humpback whale, w

i've worked a few campaigns in minnesota and then i helped with a campaign to replace rahm emanuel in'm here because i hope to be managing campaigns at some point. >> i'm from loudon county, virginia. i'm a first year grad student and i worked for mcdonald for governor and huckabee and john mccain for president last year and i'm a republican. >> i'm stephanie slade. i am also a first year grad student from tampa, florida. no campaign experience. i would consider myself an open-minded r. i'm here out of interest in political communications. >> my name is amy. i'm a first year master student. no campaign experience. i consider myself a leaning democrat. and i took cmi just because of its reputation. >> my name is dan. i'm from san francisco. i'm a first-year master student. i'm a democrat. and, yeah, i'm here for cmi's reputation. it seemed like fun. >> okay. >> my name is adam levy. i'm a senior at american university. as far as -- i originally hail from princeton, new jersey but i live in virginia and i took every clasp a.u. takes on campaignses and elections and the most recent one w