driving the politics and gridlock in washington with two authors and veteran political journalists: robert draperand mark leibovich. >> you do wonder, when people are in office, when people are in power, who are they really working for? are they in it to serve the public good, or are they in it for self-service? >> woodruff: that's all ahead on tonight's "newshour." >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> suarez: president obama took aim at the soaring cost of college today with an ambitious plan to rate schools and link tuition prices to federal financial aid. >> a higher education is the single best investment you can make i

horrible tailspin since the great depression and the republicans wanted to keep it that way as robert draper document it is book do not ask what good we do inside the u.s. house of representatives on the guest list for that for our invitation only meeting where republican congressman eric cantor paul ryan and kevin mccarthy pete sessions and jeb hensarling pete hoekstra and dan longer and republican senators jon kyl now heritage foundation president jim de mint then a republican senator tom coburn john ensign and bob corker the whole thing was orchestrated by republican propaganda extraordinary frank luntz newt gingrich was also in attendance and on my radio show a few months ago he bragged that the purpose of the dinner meeting was to come up with a plan to sabotage the obama presidency you were quoted in the book as saying that . after this dinner you'll remember this is the day the seeds of two thousand and twelve were sown is that all accurate well in part or so were you guys insurgents against the obama presidency well the fact is not the opposition party ought to sit down and try to fi

driving the politics and gridlock in washington with two authors and veteran political journalists: robert draper and mark leibovich. >> you do wonder, when people are in office, when people are in power, who are they really working for? are they in it to serve the public good, or are they in it for self-service? >> woodruff: that's all ahead on tonight's "newshour." >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> suarez: president obama took aim at the soaring cost of college today with an ambitious plan to rate schools and link tuition prices to federal financial aid. >> a higher education is the single best investment you can make

disheartening and when we first learned there was just in the last year or so as i recall that robert draper published his book ask not what good we do inside the u.s. house of representatives. as i recall either and pretty sure that's the exact title in which he revealed and now there's another book that's come out this talked about it even more how january twentieth two thousand and nine the night of the inauguration of barack obama after he won the two thousand election his first election that night fourteen republicans members of congress including very high ranking people paul ryan eric cantor kevin mccarthy. jim de mint's jon kyl a whole bunch of really heavy duty republicans met in a private room in the caucus room restaurant washington d.c. and came up with what as i recall pete sessions later referred to as a taliban strategy to fight president obama and he said you know basically we're taking our ins for inspiration from the taliban is a you know they have taught us how to do this and what a piece actions was one of the guys at that at that meeting and we're seeing this we've seen

host: robert draper talking national peace iiece in geographic.author of books, including one that came out last year "do not ask what we do inside the house of representatives." he writes for "the new york times magazine" and "gq." our next calller on the independent line from georgia. caller: egyptian culture was definitely a part of libya. the only reason why they're called arabs is because of the religion of islam. when i hear people say the egyptians or arabs, that is political. they are not arabs. there african people mixed in with greeks and romans, but they are not arabs. that is all i have to say. host: gary rights in to ask whether libyans consider themselves arabs or africans? guest: they call themselves libyans. they do not identify and a ticket with the contents or the mediterranean region. the calller is absolutely right they do not call themselves arabs. further to the extent that libyan our arab at all it is because of the influence of the muslims who came in in the seventh century a.d. again, you can eyeball it when you are there

robert draper's book as our good what good we do and the medium that took place in the caucus room restaurant here in the private meeting january twentieth two thousand and nine as as we were all or people in this town were all going to the presidential balls as obama was being sworn in jeb hensarling pete hoekstra paul ryan and kevin mccarthy. the guys running the heritage foundation now jim de mint jon kyl i mean there were fourteen of these guys and newt gingrich newt gingrich are on my program came out and said yes we did that we are the opposition that was our dirty got together and pete sessions said we're using the taliban as our model we're going to be an insurgency kevin mccarthy said we're not going to allow this guy to have one success now one success this was purely put they didn't know what and what legislation was coming and they were preparing the ground but i think that i my guess is be that that meeting has taken place in different context with different groups of people i can't imagine that's the first time that after losing an election the first time the people who lost get

robert draper wrote a national geographic magazine cover story about moammar gadhafi 42 year rule oflibya and the future of the country as a democracy and has joined us on "washington journal" and you can see that conversation today beginning at 7:05 p.m. eastern. booktv in primetime continues tonight with author and columnist melanie phillips, the author of nine books including her latest guardian angel, a memoir for personal and professional life as a journalist in the uk. you can see the interview from our in depth series at 8 p.m. eastern here on c-span2. later today minnesota senator amy klobuchar speaks to north iowa democrats and clearly. she is the keynote speaker at a fundraiser, and according to the "des moines register" she is the first democratic hopeful to visit iowa for a possible 2016 presidential campaign. more about that now from jennifer jacobs of the "des moines register." >> we will be covering the amy klobuchar event in clear lake, iowa, was called the wingding. tell us about this event. she speaking but she is honoring hillary clinton. how is that going to work?