the washington xin center for politics and journalism and got to cover the washington, people like ron brown and others got to go to attend the white house events and see what the defense of washington look like. and terry's goal was to have thus become political journalists who would not be so one of ideology or another but sort of look to cut through that to say here is what the democrats say and what republicans say and introduce you to keep folks at the same time. i did some political reporting but then i got -- i gravitated away from it because not a lot of it felt real because our political leaders a lot of times i didn't know whether i was talking -- it almost didn't matter what durham was one of the things they were talking about, when we start talking about black people the discussion was black people think this and it was one black people terry talked about with him representing white people and black people think this. this book was meant to turn the camera the other way and look at the crowd and say who are these folks and what do they think and what they came up with a lot of di

politics and a number of things i started off and that semester i could cover officials washington like ron brownand got to go to the by house and to see what official washington looks like. the goal was to become political or journalist who would not have one ideology or another to cut through that to say here is what the democrats say republicans say and introduce you to all of those polls at the same time. budget not a lot of it felt real because i did not know whether i was talking it almost did not matter because everybody was talking about the people and when did go out been to america is doing the iowa caucuses as opposed to knocking on the doors. that is the reporting jon and i have done over the years. that it is just where we come from. this book, two years ago or one year ago when barack obama was elected president there was a lot of themes of hope and change and other things but they would talk about when we talk about black people in the discussion was black people think this and it was one black people as terry talked about the white people. this was meant to turn the camera lens ot

. -- ron brown. john gave you an introduction, so i will quickly run through our panel.n my right, your stage left, we have the executive director of the school law. he was director of speech writing for president clinton until 1999. on the other side of him, mark is the director of the intelligence project at the southern poverty law center. at the southern poverty law center in new york. at the southern poverty law center, one of the premiere group tracking extremist groups. before that i spent almost 20 years as a journalist, a reformed journalist, who publications from "usa today," the dallas times herald, "the "miami herald" and covered the siege in waco, the oklahoma bombing and the trial of timothy mcveigh. next to him, congressman kendrick meek from florida. currently a candidate for the u.s. senate, member of the house ways and means committee. formerly on the homeland security committee and served before any of this as a captain in the florida highway patrol. so he had direct experience. mickey edwards, representative of oklahoma city in congress for 16 years,

ron christie, republican strategist. and willie brownfrancisco and former speaker of the california state assembly. you're both attorneys. let's start in that light. here's justice stevens and what he said about president obama in "the washington post." quote, obama's a very competent president to make choices for the supreme court. stooefbs said perhaps the best he said since gerald ford. i think that's irony there. let' go to ron on this. it seems to me we have not had a tradition of using the filibuster. court appointments were made where the confirmation is people, low 50s. no one said that the opinion shigs has a right to veto the appointment by denying it through filibuster. what is your thinking on that state of play right now in terms of picking a nominee and getting them confirmed? >> i think that is right, chris. i think there's only two judicial nominations in the history of the united states blocked by the filibuster and both done by the democrats. first was in 1968 that was president john's nominee for the chief justice of t