and bill saxby was picked as attorney general after the massacre. you may recall that after the massacre, and i don't have to explain the massacre here, after the massacre, only two republicans -- first of all, had to be a republican senator to get confirmed, and only two were thought suitable. saxby and cook of kentucky, and the reason is they were both center republican, not moderate republicans, but center republicans. they were far conservative as you could get. a conservative republican would not be confirmed, but these two senators. and saxby you will recall had said a couple months before when asked whether he thought nixon was aware of what went on in watergate said, reminds me of a fellow who played a piano in a house of ill repute and claimed he didn't know what went on upstairs, so saxby was the love in washington. he was picked. easily confirmed. and i had worked with saxby on the occupational safety and health bill. he initially wanted somebody else as deputy. weimer called me and said, would you be willing to come back as deputy? now a

eight of us with mark warner, saxby chambliss. we are working toward the bowles/simpson approach which unfortunately paul ryan's budget doesn't reflect. everything has to be on the table. if we're going to work this out, if we're going to compromise and give the american people an answer instead of a political speech or sound bite, we've got to get back to the same basic bowles/simpson principles that paul ryan and unfortunately the three house republicans refuse to vote for. it's still the bottom line solution to our problem. >> senator, let me ask you a political question in this campaign. polling, "usa today"/gallup. a show of strength for governor romney on the economy. folks saying 55% of the economy would get better if romney's elected. 46% believe that if the president's re-elected p you see the corresponding numbers for how it gets worse. how much of a negative right now is the current state of the economy for president obama? >> i think people see an increase in a private sector employment which is a positive thing. they