[applause] we are honored to be joined by our first latina supreme court justice, sonya sotomayor.se] i want to recognize the house minority leader nancy pelosi. [applause] our great friend and champion, as well as welcome ken salazar for their awards tonight and outstanding work. i also want to give a special shout-out to my friend, ray. the program director here. not many people can give the president of united states stitches in his lip and get away with it. ray is in unique company. i sent him a photograph of the moment, as he was throwing his elbow at me, and he said, he is the only person ever did that to and the secret service did not arrest, and i hear that he is tough off the basketball court, too. i want to thank all of the members of the hispanic caucus, and i apologize for them, because they spent last week listening to me talked, so you probably thought you could escape by coming to this dinner, but i am here because we are a critical time for our country. the fight we are having right now, the fight to put more americans back to work, to make our country stronger and

. >> another dimension, it has been called to mind in this question that justice sotomayor was cross-examined in a rather aggressive way concerning her statement that a woman, i think she went on to say hispanic woman -- >> wise latina. >> you are running way ahead of me. could understand a lot of things much better than people, certainly such as i, and perhaps even you. so we are talking both about, so to speak on ethnic and cultural background and gender. they are affecting the way people understand what justice is. >> well, she -- i thought she answered the question pretty well. she got confirmed. the fact is that at the same time, the justice alito understands some of those cultural issues. it is interesting. the supreme court of the united states today has no protestants on the supreme court. isn't that interesting? we basically have catholics and jews. >> i have been very worried about that, i will tell you. [laughter] >> i mentioned it because i thought it was keeping you up at night. the fact is that i have no doubts that they each will do what they said in their nomination, which is

going to take this cause up and i didn't lie and i would absolutely agree with that where is sonia sotomayor where is only kagan on this i mean these are the champions of the left and if it was really an unconstitutional issue that they should be out championing being this poor choice davis but the other side of the coin here is that yes i do think that the standards of what prosecutors need aside in proof to be able to put somebody to death and the death penalty should probably be heightened and clarified zeid think people should also understand that it actually costs more to put a person to death and to keep them in prison than the rest of their life without parole most people have forgotten california right now is in the process of trying to get a referendum because they simply can't afford the death penalty they've got to build a brand new prison because millions and millions of dollars the reality is that it's it's not cost effective to whenever there's going to be a state putting people to death you're always going to have a choice you can count on it you know i'm very proud of the gre

caucus and certainly they are pushing him on immigration and despite the fact that he has appointed sotomayor to the supreme court, he has an office for excellence in hispanic education right in the white house. they are still pushing him and certainly didn't tell them to stop complaining. he would never say that to the gay and lesbian community who really pushed him on don't ask, don't tell. or even in a speech to apec he would never say to the jewish community stop complaining about israel. >> bill: joining us now from los angeles dr. mark sawyer who teaches political science. doctor, does ms. waters have a point. >> absolutely not she doesn't have a point. the president is talking to his friends. he used to be a member of the cbc. is he telling them to get off their butts and work for this jobs bill because that's what the community needs. >> bill: the no whining, stop the whining, stop the complaining, it offended congressman woman waters because she says it's a selective request to a targeted audience where he doesn't make the same requests of the minorities in the country. you don't thi

. >> guest: and that's my wife also and supreme court justice sonia sotomayor. >> host: and finally, this is >> host: finally, this is from kevin spacey. when is your next book and what will the subject matter be about? >> guest: my agent and are discussing that at this point. one idea, i'm not committing to this because i haven't decided to this would be a book that in essence would be aimed at people like my daughter or at least young women. and sort of what they can expect and what this new world will bring us. i am not committing to that but that is one idea but i haven't decided that yet. >> host: ellis cose has been our guest. long time newsweek editor. here's a quick look at eight of his nonfiction books. the press was his first one basically about the year 1963 and changes in the newspaper industry. that came out in 1989. nation of strangers in 1992. best selling rage of a privileged class in 1983 and man's world in 1995. colorblind in 1997. the envy of the world in 2002. bonet to pick in 2004 which we did talk about. and an end of a anger is his most recent book. it came out

a capital trial to pout no witnesses and to not make a closing argument and in wood case justice sotomayor said it was reasonable for the trial court said it was not ineffective assistance of counsel. and an attorney who was on the bar for 5 months was responsible for the sentencing of the capital trial sentencing and failed to put on evidence so the landscape doesn't look great for these claims but the fact that the supreme court has taken so many and that they raise this issue from different perspectives, i think, seems particularly important. one set of cases that's two of them lafleur versus cooper and missouri versus frye raise the issue in the context of pleas. what happens when counsel does one of two things. either fails to convey to the defendant that the prosecutor made a plea offer? or so provides incorrect advice to the defendant as in lafleur versus cooper where the defendant was prepared to admit that he had shot a woman four times and was prepared to confess and to try and get a plea but his attorney told him that the prosecutor could not possibly prevail on a charge of assa

two years ago, justice sotomayor said it was reasonable that it was not effective assistance of counsel and a case where an attorney who had only been admitted to the bar five months was handed the responsibility of the sentencing phase of a capital trial and failed to do any investigation or put on mitigating evidence that would help the defendant. so the landscape does not look great for these claims, but the fact the supreme court has taken so many and that they raise this issue from different perspectives i think is important. one set of cases, there is another, raised the issue in the context of pleas. what happens when council does one of two things, either fails to convey to the defendant that the prosecutor made a plea offer, or provides incorrect advice to the defendant, where the defendant was prepared to admit that he had shot a woman four times and was prepared to confess and try and get a plea, but his attorney told him the prosecutor could not possibly prevail on a charge of assault with intent to commit murder because all of the shots, the four shots he had fired and had

then in the subsequent, president obama nominated the first latino justice, judge sotomayor and republicanser. then you had the arizona bill. i think ground has been lost in terms of the gop outreach to the latino community since the bush years. >> let's talk about the gop/tea party debate earlier this week. but i want to talk about michele bachmann. her comments at that debate when she went after rick perry on the hpv vaccine, she said that she met a woman after the debate who came up to her and said these are her words, her daughter took the vaccine and she suffered from mental retardation thereafter. that is a quote from her. but last night on sean hty radio show she seemed to backtrack a bit. listen and i want to get your response. >> i am not a doctor, i'm not a scientist. i'm not a physician. all i was doing was reporting what this woman told me last night at the debate. >> so let me start with you, john. does it sound like she's walking that back a bit? >> oh, she's walking it back. she's not a doctor and she doesn't even play one on tv. but here's the problem. her whole political ca

. >> guest: and that's my wife also and supreme court justice sonia sotomayor. >> host: and finally,ur next book, and what with the subject matter be about? >> guest: my agent and i are in the process of its discussing that at this point. when i do, and i'm not committed to this because i haven't decided yet, would be a book that would be an essence sort of be aimed at people like my daughter, or at least young women, and sort of what they can expect and what this new world will bring. but i'm not committing to that but that's what i do at least. but i haven't decided yet. >> host: ellis cose has been our guest for the last three hours, author, essayist, columnist, longtime "newsweek" editor. here's a quick look at eight of his nonfiction books are "the press" was his first one. that came out in 1989. nation of strangers came out in 1992 the best selling "the rage of a privileged class." "man's world," 1995. "color-blind" in 1997. "the envy of the world" 2002. "bone to pick" in 2000 for which we didn't get a chance to talk much about. and "the end of anger" is his most recent book. t

i really almost lost it when we talked about the sonia sotomayor confirmation anti managed to work himselfnto such a span about hispanics and hispanic immigration that he was arguing sarah palin's educational credentials were better than sonia sotomayor's and he persisted in this ridiculous viewpoint and that is as close as i ever came to exploding, having my head explode on the air. >> host: why did you call it a great disappointment to like pat buchanan? >> guest: i wanted to hate the guy personally and i couldn't. but that doesn't stop me from finding objectionable a lot of his political views and his social views. he believes that white christian america is under assault in some way not so much by black folks. that is not the problem. but the mexicans and latinos and some sort of different cultural ito's. that is crazy and racist and objectionable. so i fight him on that. i listened to him carefully on this when he is evaluating the content and effectiveness of a presidential speech. that is something that he does straight down the middle so president obama gives a good speech that wil

two years ago in wood versus allen justice sotomayor led the court in suggesting that it was reasonable for the trial court to determine that there was not ineffective assistance of counsel in a case in which an attorney who had only been admitted to the bar five months was handed the responsibility of the sentencing phase of a capital trial and failed to do any investigation or put on mitigating evidence that might have helped the defendant. so the landscape doesn't look great for these claims but the fact that the supreme court has taken so many and that they raise this issue from different perspectives, i think, seems particularly important. one set of cases that two of them lafleur versus cooper and missouri versus frye raise the issue the kept of plea. what happens when counsel does one of two things. either fails to convey to the defendant that the prosecutor made a plea offer? or so provides incorrect advice to the defendant as lafleur versus cooper where the defendant was prepared to admit that he had shot a woman four times and was prepared to confess and to try and get a plea

two years ago, justice sotomayor said it was reasonable that it was not effective assistance of counsel and a case where an attorney who had only been admitted to the bar five months was handed the responsibility of the sentencing phase of a capital trial and failed to do any investigation or put on mitigating evidence that would help the defendant. so the landscape does not look great for these claims, but the fact the supreme court has taken so many and that they raise this issue from different perspectives i think is important. one set of cases, there is another, raised the issue in the context of pleas. what happens when council does one of two things, either fails to convey to the defendant that the prosecutor made a plea offer, or provides incorrect advice to the defendant, where the defendant was prepared to admit that he had shot a woman four times and was prepared to confess and try and get a plea, but his attorney told him the prosecutor could not possibly prevail on a charge of assault with intent to commit murder because all of the shots, the four shots he had fired and had

about hispanic immigration that he was arguing that sarah palin educational credentials were sonya sotomayor and have this ridiculous viewpoint that is the closest i ever came to actually exploding on the air. >> host: why was that a great disappointment. >> guest: i wanted to hate the guy personally. but i couldn't but that does not stop me to find objectionable his political views and his social views. he believes white christian america is under assault not so much by the black folks but the mexicans and the latinos and said different cultural ease those but and racism is totally objectionable and my fight him on that but i do listen to him very carefully when he is the ballet waiting the content and the effectiveness of a presidential speech because he is-- she's right presidential speeches and does that it down the middle and upper obama gave a good speech he will say it was a and here is why. >> host: how can district groups coalesce around is issues of race and class raised by the troy davis execution? >> guest: that is a good question. i found the troy davis execution very troubling.