strom thurmond's father murdered a white man. i you look at the book in terms of fathers and songs, that is a subtext. thurgood marshall and his father, willy marshall, strom thurmond and his father, james eastland and his father, a lot of blood and tears and family that courses through the book, and so these were people who brought blood -- family blood into the hearing room, and also there was a subtext of interracial sex. the marshall hearings happened in the year of the famous loving case, loving -- they were a couple in the state of virginia. y'all have heard about this couple. by the way, there's a movie being filmed about that right now. anyway, the lovings were arrested in the state of virginia, in 1967, just weeks before thurgood marshall's hearing started, for sleeping in the same bedroom. the state of virginia said, we'll drop the charges if you just leave. leave the state. so they did, and they came to washington d.c. to live. and strom thurmond has asked marshall about the loving case. the same strom thurmond who was

when strom thurmond ran for president we voted for him. we are proud of him. the rest of the country followed our lead we wouldn't have had all these problems over these years. >> which seems like a mild statement, except he forgot as aor thurmond ran segregationist candidate in 1948 against president truman, who helped integrate the armed services, was unpopular in the south for that reason. as a result there was a huge within theressure party for him to step down as the leader. resign as he did majority leader of the senate as a result of this one statement. that just about everything and politician says it's going to be recorded and everything they say is going to be analyzed and just everything they say is going to be held against them at some time or another, even at an occasion such as a 100th birthday party. then a happy birthday. -- >> happy birthday. >> i should also mention when the first senate office building opened it was known as the senate office building. by itseven known acronym, the sop. opened up,uilding that building became the old slb and

when strom thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. we are proud of him. [applause] and if the rest of the country followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over these years. don ritchie: which seems a relatively mild statement except senator lott have forgotten them that had forgotten -- except senator lott had forgotten senator thurmond ran as a segregationist candidate in 1948 against president truman, who helped integrate the armed services, was unpopular in the south for that reason. as a result, there was a huge amount of pressure within the party for him to step down as the leader of his party. eventually, he did resign as majority leader of the senate as a result of this one statement. made in this one room. it is a reminder that just about politician says is probably going to be recorded and just about everything they say is going to be analyzed and just everything they say is going to be held against them at some time or another, even at an occasion such as a 100th birthday party. >> happy birthday. [applause] i should also menti

strom thurmond of south carolina, and bob dole, who were both in the senate at the time.ey put inthey stuck in a little-noticed provision that specifically said chapter 9 did not apply to puerto rico. no reason was given. no federal policy or interest in the change was spelled out in the amendment process. by a few simple phrases in an amendment that few people noticed, congress laid the basis for the unique situation puerto rico now faces: it is not only broke, there is no established legal recourse for it to get a court to decide how the many debtors will get paid or how much. so, absent any kind of such protection, there is going to be years of litigation by different bondholders, and the government is going to have to spend millions of dollars in legal fees trying to figure it all out. and there's nothere's no roadmap for how that will happen. much of this came to light when puerto rico tried in 2013 to create its own bankruptcy law, recognizing that it had this problem. a group of hedge funds and mutual fund managers, specifically bluemountain capital, franklin templ

[laughter] he got into it with strom thurmond one day. ted really nailed him and afterwards, i said what the hell ? remember what our mothers taught us -- you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. he said your mother tell you that? it.aid i will think about five days later, and a letter delivered to my office, a 40 or star flag, very rare because there were five states that came into the union within months. so the 44th was kind of a heat up thing and here is this thing delivered to my office that said i did talk to strom thurmond and this is for you. on the bottom, he wrote years to my friend al simpson, the great friend and senator, even if he still seems to be playing with 44 stars in his flag. [laughter] [applause] judy: i want to see this flag. add one: i want to thing at the compromise. he would defend the compromise. he expected that from the other side of the deal doer. and that respect incremental progress was ok and he was willing to defend it. hindfended no child left until the hilt, long after others had flaked off on

nobody remembers that in washington now that strom thurmond is not around. back over the last few years, the last half-century, what i see is we have been in an extended period of static partisan alignments going back to the middle 1990's. it has persisted about as long as any such period in american history. voter attitudes, voter choices seem to be linked primarily more on cultural attitudes rather than economic status. the demographic factor most highly correlated with voting behavior is religion or degree of religiosity. that has resulted in a certain amount of polarization. we have had increasing numbers of people on the one hand identify as secular or nonreligious and on the other hand people who identify as evangelical, very strongly religious. this has been reflected in the degree of political polarization in attitudes. if you look back at the last six , and intial elections the 1990's allocate the perot votes a second choices, both democrat and republicans have run between a narrow range. things,y in historical we have not seen anybody win anything

true, but one thing he did, he got into it with strom thurmond and strom was giving whatever business he was and i talked to add to -- to ted afterwards and i said what the hell. he said i will think about it, so five days later, delivered to my office is a 40 or star lag, very rare because there -- this thing delivered to my office. it says, i talked to strom and this is for you. -- here is to my friend l simpson, a great rant and senator, even if he still seems to be playing with 44 stars on his flag. [laughter] [applause] i have that in my den. >> i want to see this flag. >> i wanted to add one thing about the compromise. not only would he compromise, he would stick with and defended -- defend it. he expected that from the other side, and it shows respect and that he -- that a criminal progress was ok and that he was going to defendant -- defend it over and over, long after a lot of others had flaked off. >> can i add to that two things? i go back and see some colleagues who worked on this to in thee offices -- evenings, he was working to negotiate a 1991 civil rights bill with the

nobody remembers that in washington now that strom thurmond is not around. back over the last few years, the last half-century, what i see is we have been in an extended period of static partisan alignments going back to the middle 1990's. it has persisted about as long as any such period in american history. voter attitudes, voter choices seem to be linked primarily more on cultural attitudes rather than economic status. the demographic factor most highly correlated with voting behavior is religion or degree of religiosity. that has resulted in a certain amount of polarization. we have had increasing numbers of people on the one hand identify as secular or nonreligious and on the other hand people who identify as evangelical, very strongly religious. this has been reflected in the degree of political polarization in attitudes. if you look back at the last six , and intial elections the 1990's allocate the perot votes a second choices, both democrat and republicans have run between a narrow range. things,y in historical we have not seen anybody win anything

growing back one of the other one was 188 0 nobody remembers that in washington anymore now that strom thurmond is not around. as i look back over the last few years, last half century, what i see is that we have been in an extended period of static partisan alignments going back really to the middle 1990s. it persisted about as long as any such period in american history. voter attitudes, voter choices, seem to be linked primarily more on cultural attitudes than on economic status. demographic factor most highly correlated with voting behavior is religion or degree of religiosity. that resulted in certain amount of polarization in period when we have increasing numbers of people who on one hand identify as secular and non-religious, and other hand people identify as evangelical and strongly religious. this has been reflected in the degree of political polarization and attitudes. if you look back at the last six presidential elections, and for the 1990s allocate the perot vote according to second choices, when you find both democrats and republican candidates have run, won between 46 and 53% of

strom thurmond had four kids after he was 67. anybody want to do that?nybody think they can do that? join the optimist club. we will need illegal immigration in the future because we are a declining population. what i would like to do is pick people from all over the world, not just mexico. if you come here and study at a school and you have a skill we need, we will let you stay and help our businesses. don't send them back to put us out of business. as to the 11 million, here is what i believe. nobody wants a felon to stay in this country. the best way to find out who the bad people are is to give the good people a chance to come forward, and here is what i would do. if you are here illegally, raise your hand. come forward. if you can pass a criminal background check, you can stay on the following conditions -- you have to pass an english exam to stay. [applause] i do not speak english very well, but look how far i have come. [laughter] you have to pay a fine for the law you broke so that we can have money to build the border security we need. [applause

strom thurmond had four kids after he was 67. anybody think they can do that?uture because we are a declining population. what i would like to do is pick people from all over the world, not just mexico. if you come here and study at a school and you have a skill we need, we will let you stay and help our businesses. don't send them back to put us out of business. as to the 11 million, here is what i believe. nobody wants a felon to stay in this country. the best way to find out who the bad people are is to give the good people a chance to come forward, and here is what i would do. if you are here illegally, raise your hand. come forward. if you can pass a criminal background check, you can stay on the following conditions -- you have to pass an english exam to stay. i do not speak english very well, but look how far i have come. you have to pay a fine for the law you broke so that we can have money to build the border security we need. [applause] you cannot cut in line of somebody who has been patiently waiting. [applause] i do not believe we are going to depor