. >> lehrer: then, we talk to white house chief of staff, rahm emanuel. >> woodruff: tom bearden reports from the gulf of mexico, where scientists are turning to tiny microbes to help clean up oiled marshland. >> lehrer: margaret warner examines the pentagon's new rules for dealing with the news media. >> woodruff: and jeffrey brown has a conversation with jean- michel cousteau about his famous father-- ocean explorer jacques cousteau. >> when people ask what do you expect to find? he would always say if i knew, i wouldn't go. so it was the sense of discovery which is, obviously, related it to adventure. >> lehrer: that's all ahead on tonight's "newshour." major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> this is the engine that connects abundant grain from the american heartland to haran's best selling whole wheat, while keeping 60 billion pounds of carbon out of the atmosphere every year. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> and by the bill and melinda gates foundation. dedicated to the idea that all people deserve the chance to live a healthy productive life. and with the o

had a kind of adonal you needed to have somebody like that as a point person i don't think rahm emanuel's person david plouffe during the campaign was but he's gone on to say screw you has lost they've lost that war stephen was an implementor david's a terrific implementor and for a long time david axelrod was the storyteller understands the political campaigns are narratives i think the challenge isn't that he doesn't have the people but the problem is they don't know how to govern they're going to be going around saying they're not tell me that they don't figure it out soon enough then want to do are they out there want to done you know maybe not in sort of a clever phrase a great way to get around that they actually passed health care reform and they passed the stimulus bill that they have been so successful when it comes to legislative not as not that's not a story right what is passing health care for financial regulatory reform the tax extenders package has passed us today are there elements it's reason he talked of what he's doing is throwing up policies and hoping that all of us a

deacon. >> cents a congressman brought up rahm emanuel, he co-sponsored a bill with rahm emanuel, the president's right-hand man, but to lift capital gains tax on songwriters. another addition to a corrupt tax code. we need to not just modify the tax code. we need to repeal it and go back to a fair tax system. >> we are running a little bit late, so i am going to cut this one down from 90 seconds to one minute. it should be an interesting question for all of you. le'ron to take a moment, and starting with the congressman, said the record straight. you had to pick one thing that bothers you the most about what you have been hearing tonight, take this opportunity to give us, in your view, what is untrue about it and set the record straight. >> i cannot believe my good fortune, but the challenge is only one minute. >> so you'll get your 90 seconds. >> john, you wrote the book, and you relate what happened in south carolina in 2000. he wrote harsh words, but they were about yourself. he said, given the choice between losing and lying, i chose lying. john, i am sorry to say that it appears

also want the government to work to propose solutions to real problems, but not in the words of rahm emanuel, that a crisis is a terrible thing to waste, to use the crisis to not just fix the problem, but to exert a role of federal government that the american people did not think they were voting for in 2008, along with the spending and the debt, which is the biggest two issues confronting the american people. i think it is our responsibility to come up with a positive message. i think you'll hear more about that, particularly in the house, but i think there will be some common themes in the senate as well. >> and you won't give ause sense of what those will be? >> we did propose, you remember the summit at the white house on health care, i will just use as an example. the president seemed surprised that republicans actually had competing pieces of legislation and ideas that we thought would have bent the cost curve down and make health care more affordable. all he was really talking about was his plan. the public option, taking half a trillion dollars from medicare to raise taxes -- , to r

rahm emanuel was in harry reid's office as it was being debated if they had to come down and have it incomplete with gavel to gavel coverage even the network anchors would have been forced to report the story. we could have defeated the bill. that's the biggest difference. john mccain has led in losing fights. we don't need a last line of defense. we need a first line of advocacy for arizona and to take up conserve tiff causes. >> -- conservative causes. >> groucho mark said, you can lead the fight. providing the men and women with the equipment and training that they need to win. to stand up against obama care. to stand up against my own president when spending got out of control when he wouldn't increase the troops in iraq. standing up and fighting on the floor of the united states senate and accomplishing the record that i'm very, very proud of. thanks. >> thank you. >> mr. deacon? >> he co-sponsored a bill with rahm emanuel, the president's right hand man to increase capital gains tax on song writers. so works with people that we don't like. and the f.f.a. is another edition to c

to just keep listening to conventional wisdom in washington is going to listen to his advisors rahm emanuel tim geithner larry summers and he's not going to give us real change is going to give us pocket change and having a mission accomplished banner now if it does not look good going into it so far the only upside is a twenty twelve is a long time away and maybe get some sense in him before then but i would hold your breath well yeah you're right two thousand and twelve is still a ways away things can change but what happens if he gets let's say a primary challenger. yeah i love that dream i love it and don't get me wrong i dream about it all the time and i think maybe howard dean we had on the show yesterday was like maybe maybe maybe but i think realistically you're not going to get anybody other than a dentist who said it's the challenge of it's not going to be a real challenge i think even the democratic voters are too scared to go in that direction the only way they can get a real primary challenge is not afghanistan not because of any of those issues it's of the economy crashes agai

attorneys also plan to call white house chief of staff rahm emanuel. >>> millions of americans stillr unemployment benefits if a bill passes the senate later today. the bill has been bogged down over republican concerns about how to pay for the additional benefits. they want to do it without adding to the national debt. president obama has accused the gop of playing politics. >> over the past few weeks, a majority of senators have tried, not once, not twice, but three times, to extend emergency relief on a temporary basis. each time, a partisan minority in the senate has used parliamentary maneuvers to block a vote, denying millions of people who are out of work much-needed relief. >> even though the economy is said to be slowly recovering, the unemployment rate is still high at 9.5%. >>> a senate committee is expected to approve the nomination of elena kagan as the next supreme court justice today. the vote had been put off so that kagan could answer questions about her involvement in the new health care law. kagan was solicitor general when president obama was working to get that l

rahm emanuel was able to do a good job of recruiting more conservative democrats to run, but the recruiting process is over. that will be tough. >> a lot of democrats who are conservative -- >> let's not ignore special elections. republicans were winning them in 1994. in may it was a house special, the democratic candidate pat morphed into bill clinton's. surely. -- got morphed into bill clinton's vision. if -- there were a lot of other intellectuals -- and tangibles democrats have taken advantage of. if republicans don't win the house, it will be on mechanics. >> political malpractice. >> new york 23, that they pick candidates who were members of the new york assembly. probably the most rotten legislative body, --\ >> you are looking at presidential approval in the mid 40's, all the classic ingredients for an uprising election. what is the strongest argument democrats can make to try to take some of the edge off of this? >> it is the economy, stupid. if our stimulus package is continuing to build jobs, i am disappointing. but the numbers are going up now. if in this jobless recovery people

raw politics on campaign trail politics, rahm emanuel strategy in 2006, keep 80% of it on attack, 20%d one in the environment. i'll give it to examples -- but you keep it 20%. general ideas. cutting spending. this is a real-life example. governor chris christie of new jersey, when he ran against a very unpopular governor, he kept the focus on the governor and on the incumbent and pummelled for not putting forward a detailed plan on where he would make cuts. now he has gone in and he is making serious cuts. he's a hero in the state and nationally. i am not sure he would have gotten elected if he put the cuts out there on the campaign trail. >> how are the cuts flying with the public? >> great now. >> if he said he'd do something, it would be great. but before he didit, he didn't do it. >> chris: another subject. the first family is enjoying a lovely vacation on the coastline of maine, it's cooler up there. you can see them on the beach having a wonderful time. what makes it interesting is what president obama and mrs. obama urged other americans to do on their vacation. >> there are wa

. >> rahm emanuel was an investment banker.e should understand. >> charlie: all right, thank you very much. great to see you. great to see you. thank for coming in on friday afternoon. have a great weekend. >> thank you. >> charlie: back in a moment. stay with us. >> charlie: also in business news today there was this interesting development. steve jobs flew back from hawaii to silicon valley to speak to the issue of complaints about the iphone 4's reception. jobs opened the press conference with this admission. >> we're not perfect. we know that. you know that. and phones aren't perfect either. but we want to make all of our users happy. if you don't know that about apple, you don't know apple. we love making our users happy. that's what drives us to make these products in the first place. smart phones have weak spots. almost every smart phone we've tested exhibits the identical behavior if grabbed in a reasonable way as the videos you have all seen on the web of the iphone 4. around a half of 1% of iphone owners have called a

but i think his advisers once again and david axel rod and rahm emanuel are running strategy to answer the caller's questions at the white house, i think that's fair to say and they're not wanting to deal with this because looking at his poll numbers free fall and i think that's a problem for them. host: you talk a little about it but the second type like we heard in 2008? guest: i don't know if one is there, quite frankly. i agree that this was an opportunity. this wasn't something that was just bad that happened politically this was an opportunity to take a bad situation and to elevate the discussion, to elevate our nation and to give us focus and get beyond it. but in the absence of that it continues to drag along and drag along. here we are day eight or nine still talking about it. so what happened with wall street reform and the extense of unemployment benefits got kicked under the rug because people did not see this as an opportunity to take a dialogue to be to take leadership. and to from a statesman's position elevate the discussion in such a way that we felt better about it no

financial reform big >> reporter: thxact and president call on air force one from chi of staff rahm emanuel, and the white house top environmental adviser, carol browner. emanuel said, i have two things for you. browner told him that the well was at least temporarily capped. and emanuel said that the reform had passed the senate. the president said, mark this down as a good day. >> but, you know, jake, the president faces this as a paradox. this is not a big pillar of his legislative agenda. following stimulus. following health care. yet, his poll numbers continue to slide. how does the white house plan to address that? >> reporter: well, they're going to try to cast this election as a choice between obama policies and bush policies. this wall street reform bill will be an example of that. this is a major change to the financial system. the biggest one since right they side o d what republicans want to do. >> and do they realize without getting much republican support for any of the president's legislation now, as th into the midterm elections. legislatively, they're pretty me or es.reporte

rahm emanuel house candidate were winning it on the problem was charles taylor, his republican opponent and the house leadership was fumbling. and here is where we do disagree. i do think this is a rejection of this administration's program on ideology. i do not see this as being anything like as high as with bush in the 2005 time period. his approval rating is low but not disastrous. you do have the point that chaka made earlier, which is to look for the house districts are, the battle ground. they have 89 districts that are either leaning to one party or the other. 14 of those -- only 14 of 89 districts have more than 14 percent black population, which is a little above the national average. 62 are in districts with a low black population. that means most of the districts, it is more like 40 percent positive. not hugely disastrous, but by the political scientist role, not great. >> the larger trend is we're moving towards a more diverse society. in the 1990's one-quarter of congressional districts were at least 30 percent of the population was non-white. today is half of the congressi

rahm emanuel serves on the board of the -- bless you you, dear. fraudulent lending practices were going on and says he didn't know about them, i guess. doesn't seem to interfere with what he's doing at the white house. even though he came to this congress with $25,000 worth of freddie mac donations and the white house is giving $200 billion to freddie mac. and meanwhile, mr. emanuel is living rent free in the home of -- basement of one of our other members of this congress. he is no longer the house ethics committee. and so, i guess it's up to the administration to look into those issues. now, leaving out the senate money trial of former illinois governor blago -- however you say his name -- and allegations of mr. conyers and conviction of mr. jefferson, sex payroll of former congressman tim mahoney and there are other cases but no reason to go into those things. but all these things need to be brought up, because we aren't the most open, ethical congress in the history of the congress of the united states. it was promised and that promise has not

the congressman crossed the aisle when he voted with rahm emanuel. i think the people are tired of paying $2.90 billion in additional taxes to pay for a light rail system. >> mr. hayworth? what's it is interesting to hear john mccain talk about numbers. he mentioned that economics was not his strong suit and apparently mathematics is not his strong suit, either. if you put out a piece of mail accusing me of putting $7 billion in earmuffs -- in earmarks. you cast a vote for $150 billion in earmarks, more than twice the number that you attacked me on. what's your time is up. the next question is for mr. deakin. let's go back to the border. how do you propose to secure our border and how will we know when the border is secure? >> both of my opponents have failed arizona. they have had decades to get our borders secured and get our immigration policy under control. i do support building the fence because fences work. they are not the end solution to the immigration, -- problem, but they are tool. we have to finish the border fence. we have to include tec

but i think his advisers once again and david axel rod and rahm emanuel are running strategy to answer the caller's questions at the white house, i think that's fair to say and they're not wanting to deal with this because looking at his poll numbers free fall and i think that's a problem for them. host: you talk a little about it but the second type like we heard in 2008? guest: i don't know if one is there, quite frankly. i agree that this was an opportunity. this wasn't something that was just bad that happened politically this was an opportunity to take a bad situation and to elevate the discussion, to elevate our nation and to give us focus and get beyond it. but in the absence of that it continues to drag along and drag along. here we are day eight or nine still talking about it. so what happened with wall street reform and the extense of unemployment benefits got kicked under the rug because people did not see this as an opportunity to take a dialogue to be to take leadership. and to from a statesman's position elevate the discussion in such a way that we felt better about it no

americans that has a health insurance policy that the white house, president obama, robert gibbs, rahm emanuel, you name your spokesman for the quhouse, not one of them, including the president, can point to one single policy and say, rest easy, it's yours. i guaranteed you'd get get to keep your policy and no one can -- you'd get to keep your policy and no one can take it away and no one can dramatically change the benefit package that you have, that's not true. it never was true. they knew it couldn't be true but they never could have cooked up obamacare in the first place, but they said. it they sold the american people a bill of goods and now i'm hearing a bill of goods delivered from this podium over here. but the bottom line is, if it's unemployment benefit extensions that you seek, it can be delivered by the democrat majority and they should take the blame if it's not there now, not lay it off on the republicans. republicans don't have the votes. harry reid can do a reconciliation package and deliver unemployment benefits just as surely as he sent us obamacare in a reconciliation pack a

he has people, from a manual, messina, the secretary of continue -- run them down the ill -- rahm emanuel, messina, the secretariat of interior. >> [unintelligible] >> you cannot make that statement. it is not a black-and-white issue. that is why it has been hard to through the needle. with some of the work that john has done, we have all of the course state senators agree with what we're doing. >> [unintelligible] >> what was your camp? [laughter] >> one quick question. [unintelligible] >> i do not know. we will take a look at that. >> on c-span 2 night, the and ceo of massey energy talks about the -- on c-span tonight, the ceo of massey energy talks about the company. >> as the senate prepares to debate the energy bill, find out about previous bills with c-span is video library. look up a bill with our new bill search feature and what congressional hearings and previous debates on the house and senate floor. it is all on line and free. it is washington norway. -- washington your way >> are content is available -- washington norway. -- keith pipewashington your wa. >> content is availabl

it goes back to rahm emanuel, chief of staff to the president, his statement, let no crisis go without taking full advantage of it. we have a crisis that is largely perpetrated by the federal government in the gulf, certainly b.p. was cull pable for doing things wrong but their poor decision making seems to be eclipsed by the total failure of the federal government to deal with something that is so fundamental, that's called a hole in the bottom of the ocean and if you are going to be on top and show the people, you would put a fusion cell together instead of governor jindal asking the federal government for permission to dredge up a sand bar and waiting for more than a month to get an answer. i mean, the federal response to this thing and a lot of the problems on the oil rig were because of federal regulations as well. so we have this idea of the containment dome. there is another containment dome not working. we are spending money and spending it in an unusual rate, that will destroy our country if it continues that way. mr. bishop: i appreciate the gentleman expressing. the frustrat

but think his advisers once again and david axel rod and rahm emanuel are running strategy to answer the caller's questions at the white house, i think that's fair to say and they're not wanting to deal with this because looking at his poll numbers free fall and i think that's a problem for them. host: you talk a little about it but the second type like we heard in 2008? guest: i don't know if one is there, quite frankly. i agree that this was an opportunity. this wasn't something that was just bad that happened politically this was an opportunity to take a bad situation and to elevate the discussion, to elevate our nation and to give us focus and get beyond it. but in the absence of that it continues to drag along and drag along. here we are day eight or nine still talking about it. so what happened with wall street reform and the extense of unemployment benefits got kicked under the rug because people did not see thiss an opportunity to take a dialogue to be to take leadership. and to from a statesman's position elevate the discussio in such a way that we felt better about it not w

a short time ago a sunday, rahm emanuel said, "everybody knows it is a firm date. what will be determined that date for going into that date are the scale and scope of the reduction but there will be no doubt that it is going happen. july 2011 does not change. everyone agrees on that date." dave black rod -- axelrod, "that continues to be the plan and we will pursue that schedule." another, "this is not an open ended one. that timetable is about getting in and out. there would be no nationwide counterinsurgency strategy. pentagon must present a targeted plan for protecting populations centers and beginning a real, not token, withdraw within 18 months of the escalation." that is why people are confused, general, and your and the position where you have to say it is based on conditions. last january, we're in one province and that a tribal leader who entertained us with stories about how he beat the rush and. he asked me if we americans were staying or leaving like we did last time. and an article from the "new york times," the taliban had effectively use their deadl