, but it's the evening when all the white house correspondents, the press that are assigned to the whiteouse and their guests, and they always try to outcelebrity each other and invite lots of celebrities come to roast the president. as george said everyone makes fun of the president and he stands up and makes fun of himself. as george said, everyone makes fun of the president, and then he stands up and makes fun of himself. so george was always very funny at every one of the white house correspondents' dinners. but finely he said i have run out of ideas. why don't you surprise everyone and speak? so i had a very funny speech, i think. and george got up to speak to the crowd and kind of laughed and started telling a joke. and i sprang up and pushed him out of the way and said no, no, not that old joke again. and people gasped. i mean, the people i was sitting with thought that i had really just jumped up. but then i talked about being a desperate housewife and how mr. excitement here was already in bed at 9:30. and i said that one night lynne cheney and condi rice and karen hughes, who i

the corona. we knew from white house records that the corona had been sent away from the white house in 1927, so we reproduced all those things. so it's not a real reproduction, because it's neither an office or a bedroom, but instead both. we went back to the same mill in england that had run the carpet for him on the 27-inch loom. >> wow. >> and we knew from the records that the carpet was "g" and "o," which the curators think meant green and oak, which is green and brown. and we went to the same mill, and they didn't have records of what they had actually sold to the white house, but we used a pattern that we think was the pattern. so it was really, really very fun. >> so exciting just to know that lincoln signed the emancipation proclamation in that room. it's a great story. he had shaken so many hands on new year's morning, his own hand was numb and shaking. he put the pen down. he said if ever my soul were in an act, it is in that act. and if i sign with a shaking hand, posterity will say he hesitated. so he waited and waited until he could sign. and it's a really big, bold hand for him. it

. >> the back and forth at both ends of pennsylvania avenue. white house press secretary after a hearing that took place and the comments of the speaker of the house before the session took place. that president serving hoagies at the luncheon, something he picked up at a small business event earlier today. this is hour one of washington today. the hill newspaper and the reporter with his headline the president skpt the speaker clash at the white house over the debt ceiling hike as they are debating today with the speaker telling the president that he was not going to allow a debt ceiling increase without doing something serious about the overall debt. meanwhile, the people of greece continue to pull euros out of the bank, a reflect of the uncertainty there. another round of elections will take place next month. the turmoil in greece causing continued fallout across the markets. dow jones finishing down 33 points lower. in politics 14 days of testimony no witness says they knew john edwards was violating laws. they decided not to call his former mist

. >> what do you miss the most about the white house? >> i always say the chef. >> understandably. >> just like barb said, we miss all the people we work with. we see some still a lot. it is great to see susan and for everybody that has come for this, first lady's conference. it's really the people. people that work with there, butlers and ushers and all the people you live with every single day. you miss the most. all the people that work for george in the west wing. >> i have moved 27 different times. and i have learned -- i don't miss anything. i loved them all. but my life is perfect as it is. >> that is so healthy. >> nobody ever said i was unhealthy. i really think you can't miss -- although, she's the chef was nice. but -- you just go on to other things. we have been so lucky. all the bushs have been lucky. life has been -- i mean, these libraries and these -- whatever center you call your thing, anyway -- i know it's not a library. the people all come back. it is just -- we are very lucky. and we know it. and there are people who

stayed at the white house. and then we went down, gathered and george gathered everyone together, and they went, you know -- and ladies and gentlemen, the president of the united states, and in walks this tiny little funny man. and everybody -- he was wonderful. he imitated george and then george imitated him. it changed the whole feeling of the -- it was so sad. very sad. i mean, all looking for jobs. all in tears. but it cheered up. but george is very funny. >> i remember this is one famous moment when somebody said to lincoln, you're two-faced. he looked back he said if i had two faces, do you think i would be wearing this face? if only -- that seems missing in politics today, too, the sense of looking at yourself from the outside and laughing. you know. it just -- it seems -- >> he must have been a wonderful man. >> oh, i loved living with him. the most embarrassing thing is, one time i was on jon stewart. i fell so in love with lincoln. i said on jon stewart, i said i think he was really sexy, too. but that

but i did get to take her on a tour of the white house the last time she came to the white house, linda brought her and she was in a wheelchair. and she had lost her speech by then from a stroke. she was still so expressive with her hands. if she saw a painting, i showed her president johnson's painting again. and she put her arms out to him and when we met her at the door, the doorman was -- had been the mater d, he had come back from retirement when the johnsons were there, and he sort of fell into her arms and they hugged. so it was really a wonderful pleasure to get to show her the white house that last time. >> she came to the white house when we there were too. and told me a story about the picture of the little grumpy girl. >> thomas aikins? >> that's right. a group standing look agent it, and someone said, maybe lady bird, said, isn't she grumpy? and a voice in the back said she wasn't always. i married her. you know the picture? the little grumpy girl. >> you know, what it shows is when we often talk about first ladies, and i'd like to talk that in a minute. we talk about what

you were in the white house several years later. did you have to approach the job differently upon landing in the white house? >> i had -- i got to know the fords before the day -- the day i photographed soon-to-be president ford, the day spero agnew resigned. i can say that in this room and most of you know who i'm talking about. i give a lot of lectures at schools and it's a little dicy. i even have to explain who president ford is sometimes. but i had an ongoing relationship with him starting -- the first "time" cover i ever had was of him when he was designated by nixon to be the replacement for agnew and then "time" had me covering them. i got to know the family really well. i went skiing with them, taking pictures. that was back in the day when the magazine would pay for my skiing lessons, the good old days as we would call them. but i got to know them really well. by the time he became president i had really got along well with everybody, including the kids. mrs. ford was always a big proponent of having me work in the white h

when their gift shop could be in the white house. so the white house was very quiet. that very first christmas of 2001, you know, we invited friends from all over, for the christmas parties, a lot of people didn't come. lot of people were still afraid to fly. >> didn't come? >> afraid to fly. >> the plane. >> then the street got closed. was that when the street got closed? >> pennsylvania avenue was already closed. remember it was closed when the plane flew into the white house when president clinton was there, the little plane. >> is it closed now? >> it is closed now. >> we were thinking of opening it and then that happened and then we worked with michael, the same landscape architect that's doing the bush library over here, doing the landscaping for it, to then landscape pennsylvania avenue so it didn't look like so much like a closed street. >> is that the one on the south lawn? >> pennsylvania avenue. the south street closes periodically but it is not closed always. >> isn't impossible to imagine in lincoln's time people could just walk into white house. they didn

visiting the wounded in walter reed. as a white house photographer, i was always aware of the fact that i was part of the gray area between public and private and i was there as one of the witnesses, and to honor. but i was also sometimes an intruder. i felt very responsible for how i went about trying to document and what i did with the privilege of being there in those private times. i tried really hard to get it right and to show the multi-faceted people and to make the pictures about the individuals who were there. here is the president blowing a kiss to mrs. bush as we leave to go back to the united states and he stays with his delegation in mexico. just a quick moment after the state of the union with family. flying home for christmas, when your guard is down. coming back from europe with jenna. i would say that it's not always a seamless thing to be a white house photographer. nobody tried to strangle me, though. it's not a seamless thing. i don't believe that you're ever a fly on the wall as a photographer. you go in there

this is in the white house solarium. mrs. ford is trying to strangle me yet again for -- she had to put up with a lot from me, and the queen of england, the queen is a recurring theme here among the first ladies and the social secretaries. a very quick story. this is on the second floor of the white house. as queen elizabeth and the prince were going up in the elevator with the fords before the state dinner, the elevator door opened on the family quarters, and jack ford was standing there without a shirt on. one of the sons, he was looking for cufflinks in his dad's drawer and it was very embarrassing. president ford said to the queen, gee i really apologized for that. she said don't worry, we have one at home just like him. and mrs. ford was really the cheerleader of the family, as all the first ladies are. i mean, the guys go out and create all this trouble and win and lose elections, and the first ladies are there to make the kids feel better certainly, but this is right after president ford resigned or lost the election to

it was not a jewish name. >> in response to these concerns from the white house about the statistics from omb -- >> not about statistics about the press releases on the statistics. i don't think there was a concern about the statistics. >> but i just wanted to ask because george shultz at the time the omb director undertakes a review of statistics, government statistics, as could the four departments that produced most of the statistics, hew. you recall this? >> no, i don't. i didn't recall this at all. but it would be census, bls, and who else? >> well, it was agriculture and commerce. >> yes. >> the census being commerce. and so -- but the first part of it was a reorganization of bls. >> oh, i do remember that. >> but what's interesting about this is that after this review, bls gets responsible for even more statistics than it was. >> yes, right. yes, i mean, george, of course, is a first class economist, knew the statistical business quite well and had enormous respect and regard for jeff moore and thought the bls did a professional job. it was only the press releases that were so

she brought them to the white house. helen keller came to the white house. that was a very important moment for the deaf and blind, that the first lady would recognize them and integrate them, and she had great personality, so she could draw out anyone. she was the opposite of the president, and she made that her work. i was thinking, too, of mrs. hoover, who loved reading and who enabled readers and did enabling of reading all her life. >> she was the head of the girl scouts. >> she was head of the girl scouts, so she's always thinking about how to train up and lead out. she and president hoover translated "res metallica" from latin. having gone over hoover's college records i know this from stanford, and she brought readers to white house. i was just reading a story when her back was out once and she had to lie down and there were new learners, adult literacy people, from the mountains, who did not know how to read until adults, who came to see her, and she was so sick, but she nonetheless received them upstairs because she knew it was important for them t

and i said, send them to the white house. and he says, lady, i'll send them, but you got to tell the president they don't really work. but they were -- the country fairs were a great success. >> laurie, any crystal balls in the first bush white house? >> no, i'm sorry, we didn't get any crystal balls. we would have liked one, but -- >> were there favorite entertainers? >> favorite? >> favorite entertainers? >> well, when you were talking about bob hope, it reminded me he came a couple of times to our state dinners. you know, he would walk in and just act like he owned the place and he'd say, i've been here so many times, you weren't even born when i was here. so he was fun. and we did -- we had elizabeth taylor once, which was very exciting, and she, of course, was very glamorous, and we had don johnson and melanie griffith one year, and that was quite interesting. she wrote the cutest note to the president and barbara afterwards saying, my mother never told me what i should wear to the white house, and the reason was that she

behind and inside the white house we got word the briefing scheduled for the white house briefing room at this hour has been canceled. we believe that is a result, in deference to the president speaking tonight which we will have tonight. we could learn a lot. the critics will say this is about reminding people the president signed the order that took out osama bin laden. and that said it appears at least from the writing from the white house there are important matters on the table. according to the timeline from the white house the president is to meet with karzai and shortly after as the white house puts it, come to a podium at bagram abase and address the nation and osama bin laden will be mentioned but it will not be the focus. the focus, what the american vomit will be between the years 2014 and 2024. if you are one who has friends or loved ones or family members in after the or fighting in any number of conflicts around the world, this could be very important information, indeed, especially in a country where the budget crisis is quite a series crisis. the debt is extremely seri

is that something the white house would be receptive to? did they insist on seeing a comprehensive package? >> we put a lot of effort into taking all these ideas to say, these are the specific things we need congress to do. that brings all these things together. we cannot afford as a country to go part way. there has been a lot of discussion since 2003. it is time to act on it. that is why we need to have these all come together. >> would no bill at all be a better situation than some of the house legislation? >> we hope we will not be faced with that. we hope that cooler heads will prevail. >> howard schmidt, on an international level, what is a country we could look at and see as a model of cyber security? >> many countries are facing the same things we are. government has a tremendous dependency on it. developing strategies. half a dozen national strategies coming out from canada, the u.k., australia. we have a good relationship with the russian government. there is a lot going on in the international world. we are starting at different p

coming into the white house in droves any way. before i go on with the rest of the story. do you remember this was the change that president obama promised. he said that those guys were not going to be in charge any more. you just heard it. but as we're about to show you of course the lobbyists are still in charge. here is a great article in the "washington post" who explain the lifters log in the white house show that the lobbying industry that obama has vowed to constrain is a regular presence at 1600 pennsylvania avenue. so they're still coming and coming, and coming. let me show you what eric schultz, the white house spokesperson, right? he says, this article excludes the thousands of people who visit the white house every week for meetings and event who are not lobbyists our goal has been to reduce the influence of special interests in the white house more than any other administration in history. yeah, i know, a lot of tourists come to the white house. that's not who we're talking about. we're talking about people who influe

. >> this week on "the communicators," the white house cybersecurity coordinator, howard schmidt, talks about attempted cyber attacks against the u.s. and what the administration wants to do better to protect the nation from cyber threats. >> howard schmidt, what's your responsibilities at the white house? >> guest: i'm special assistant to the president and cybersecurity coordinator, and what that means is when we look at the broad issue of security around technology, everything from around consumers up to and including nation-states, my role is to coordinate this across the government and make sure we're working with the private sector and international partners. >> host: from that perch, how do you view the threat of cyber attack? >> guest: it varies from different sectors and levels of people. for example, when we look at state versus nation-states, there's an increasing threats from some countries around the world that basically see this as advantage they're looking to gain. add the other end of the spectrum, we start looking at end users, credit card fraud, identity theft. as we m

here is nancy pelosi. >> here we go again, and i know it came up in the meeting at the white house. i wanted to get your take on speaker boehner drawing the line in the sand once again this week on the debt ceiling. should the american people be preparing for another showdown standoff on the debt ceiling? >> what i believe that the american people want us to work together to find a balanced approach, similar to what the president and he agreed to last year before he walked away from it. that is that you have -- we know we have to balance the budget. we have to establish our priorities and make the cuts accordingly and we have to have revenue on the table and we have to invest in growth because the creation of jobs is what will bring revenue to the treasury and continue our economic recovery which is important to the american people, so to toss this into the mix right now saying we have to have cuts that exceed even the lifting of the extent to which we lift the debt ceiling is really immature, irresponsible, let's get serious. >> speaker pelosi. >> yes. >> when you talk about balance

ed henry is live at the white house where our former president, george w. bush, the former first lady, laura bush, will be along with president h.w. bush and barbara bush as well. >> reporter: that's right. and they're, actually, maybe just wrapping it up, but they've been having lunch in the red room which is right around the corner, you know, from the east room -- megyn: no, i did not know that. >> reporter: well, you've probably been there. come on, you've got access. megyn: no, never. they don't invite me to those events. this is the first time i ever heard about the red room. >> reporter: well, let me give you info. it's near the east room. you've got three presidents, three first ladies as well as other bush family members having lunch together, the obamas and the bushes. very interesting, obviously, coming from two far different political philosophies, backgrounds. as you noted, jay carney just got a question a few moments ago about the fact that president obama has spent a good share of the last three years blaming the economic crisis, at least in pa

>> all the way, capitol, down to the white house, the capitol, back to the white house, to saint matthews, to arlington. but finding out that all these heads of state were going to be there, some of them in their 80's, she finally acquiesced and said, ok, only walk from the white house to saint matthews. even then, that was a problem, but you couldn't talk her out of it. i tried, but couldn't. >> there's more to the story of the salute from john kennedy jr. he had been taught to salute before that day. what was it? >> well, back in early november, mrs. kennedy came to me and said, president kennedy is going to go to arlington national cemetery on november 11 to pay tribute to the troops. >> the agents that were working with him, bob foster, they started to work with him. and they got him going pretty good. he saluted quite well. most of the time he was using his left hand, and he was then 3. not quite. he went, and did he very well. so during the process of the funeral, we were out in the capitol, and he got rambunctious and agents took him down the hall, and they tried to figure out what

that's what carney said at the white house. we can listen to it. an listen to carney because he went on even further. >> the vice president made--what he said about the protection of rights of citizens is completely consistent with the president's position on this issue. secretary duncan was asked about his views on the position, and he went along with them. it's a record that the president is very proud of. >> well, i'm lucky to be flanked again by trisha rose professor at brown university, and michael hastings, both contributers, operator of the operatorrish that's the end of the show. we had time to go over his resumÉ but nothing else. guys, the white house will have to do something besides playing defense to romney's awful record on gay rights. is it time to come out and say i'm in favor of it. >> even in the past few days and even in the past week they'll say privately you know where the president's heart is on this issue. they'll try to have it both ways. they won't want to talk about it come october, though. >> it was not just about the vice

bush portrait at the white house. there are a lot of warning lights and sounds vying for your attention. so we invented a warning.. you can feel. introducing the all new cadillac xts, available with the patented safety alert seat. when there is danger you might not see, you're warned by a pulse in the seat. it's technology you won't find in a mercedes e-class. the all new cadillac xts has arrived. and it's bringing the future forward. to president obama at the white house and the official portrait being unveiled right now. >> to all the members of the bush family who are here, it is a great privilege to have you here today and to president and mrs. bush, welcome back to the house that you called home for eight years. the white house is many things at once. it is a working office. it is a living museum. it is an enduring symbol of our democracy. at the end of the day when the visitors go home and the lights go down, a few of us are blessed with the tremendous honor to actually live here. i think it is fair to say that e

is great price and again last call on the white. ve the red, it is actually more clear than the white. >>guest: were talking about it before, jade is priced they say diamonds and gold have value and jade is invaluable. using what if i dropped it guess what? jade is what they used to make weapons out in the ancient chinese civilization. is such a strong natural gemstones. look at the french greeting on that magnificent castle. do you see what is going on there? everything handcrafted from the polished beads to the beautiful fish, the 14k gold beads and hand braided tassel. >>host: renu- everybody coming up, 700 people have pre order. that means we are down to 200 on the pendant. on bracelet we are down to about 300. i do not know that you have ever had a more popular then named evil eye. every single time you bring this is sells out. we have red sapphire, blue topaz piece tsavorite we have 80 left read sapphire, 100 and a little bit more than that in the champagne corks. you really started something with this. >>guest: what is so amaz

we went to the white house. he was very upset. i had to turn him over to the police because of his activity. they did not arrest him. but they held him for a while. i got to the white house, the first thing that happened, we were in the oval office and there was the president and his press secretary. they said what happened at national airport? i explained the situation to them. the president looked at me and said, "unfortunately, you're going to be the scapegoat in this situation. we cannot afford to have the press angry at us for what happened at national airport so you are going to get the blame and we're going to return the film to the company that he is working for." i gave him the film, to the appropriate company. i answered to my supervisors and explained i was doing the best i could to maintain her privacy. the president understood also. i was going to have to take the blame. >> you did not use a word about his -- did you accuse him of being obnoxious? >> he was very obnoxious. one of the more obnoxious people i ever dealt

the white house former first lady laura bush says walking that seven mile round trip was one of her favorite things to sneak out and do very early in the morning. it's the national mall that brought her back to washington this week. >> and i did have a lunch for the trust for the national mall. i want everyone to know about it because i think everybody can raise some money for the trust. over 24 million people a year come to our national mall and so you can imagine that number of people, the wear and tear on the mall. >> reporter: her five-year commitment to lead that effort is not the only thing keeping laura bush busy. she was last in town a few months ago with a group from egypt for her women's initiative project. >> we're thinking about other countries in the middle east where we really believe women will lead in the democracy movement. >> reporter: and washington is on her agenda again for later this month when she'll join her husband and former president clinton to push for the completion of the national memorial in shanksville, pennsylvania. >> those heroes on flight 93 saved

because -- attacked the white house and then hodgson, because the democrats had been pounding on nixon to use the authority which they had given him to impose wage and price controls. in the expectation that nixon ideological would never do that because republicans were against wage and price controls, so it was a very convenient whipping forum, whipping post or whatever you would call it. connolly convinced nixon in '71 to invoke the authority which shocked the devil out of all of us, certainly me. i had just given a speech to an ada group saying we would never impose wage and price controls, and a week later we had done it. so, that construction industry stabilization plan growing out of in part the concern about davis/bacon, but also concern about construction industry wage rates which were so high led to the white house conclusion that wage and price controls might work nationally. of course, they didn't. and shortly after wage and price controls were invoked, i was put on a committee with herb stein and jim lin to plan our exit of wage and price control. in the meantime, jim hodgs

the white house is many things at once. working office, it's a living museum, it's an enduring symbol of our democracy. but at the end of the day when the visitors go home and the lights go down, a few of us are blessed with the tremendous honor to actually live here. i think it's fair to say every president is acutely aware that we are just temporary residents. we're renters here. we're charged with the upkeep until our lease runs out. but we also leave a piece of ourselves in this place. and today with the unveiling of the portraits next to me, president and mrs. bush will take their place along side men and women who built this country, and those who worked to perfect it. it's been said that no one can ever truly understand what it's like being president until they sit behind that desk and feel the weight and responsibility for the first time. and that is true. after 3 1/2 years in office and much more gray hair, i have a deeper understanding of the challenges faced by the presidents who came before me including my immed

this all came about during a luncheon at the white house with congressional leaders. house, senate democrats and republicans. he called the political deadlock last year not acceptable. but the speaker of the house saying he will not go along with raising the debt limit unless there are real reforms and significant budget cuts. here's more on how aural of this came about today with jay carney giving a readout following the session that took place at the noon hour the a the white house. >> talk about the atmospherics of today's meeting. and also, did speaker boehner's comments yesterday about the debt ceiling change the tone or the meeting? >> well, the president had lunch with the leaders alone. i was not in there, no staff was in there. i spoke with the president afterwards. my sense is that the tone was congenial, the discussion was productive, the sandwiches were delicious and that while the topic was raised and discussed, there was no other issue associated with -- or no problem associated with speaker boehner's ares yesterday. >> what portion of the meeting was tak

he had come to this decision for this -- before this week's events but it was on the white house calendar. there was not a same sex marriage firestorm listed down for this week. saturday, he had launched his campaign. monday, the campaign had started a $25 million ad campaign that was focused around the president, what he had done for the economy, the bailout, the car industry, and then the president launched a to-do list telling congress what they needed to do to put congress on them. that was all blown to the side. this became the issue. they had to move up -- what the president was noodling about the right venue to announce this decision and how to do it, he wanted to show that it was a personal decision, not a plcy decision and wouldn't -- a policy sigs and -- policy decision and advisors felt like what he was doing was leading and the president wasn't and there was a move by the campaign it try and fix that. in the end, though, the president, this helps him in two ways. it helps him with raising money among a lot of gay activists who are very interested in this decision, with young v

that made pink slime coming into the white house where you guys think oh you know. it shows again this this huge gap but also the inevitability of what happens when you boost and goose government i mean for one thing you're not going to get rid of law obvious while you're expanding the government from two point nine trillion to three point five trillion in a single year as obama did you were going to by definition increase the amount of lobbying there have been not the zero lobbyist working the obama white house but fifty according to the examiner is timothy carney but it's an inevitability obama has created with the dog frank bill and obamacare both kicked a lot of the actual rules in these legislative packages to the regulatory agencies which means they don't know really know what these love bills are going to be and so lobbyists are the ones who work that stuff out constantly on a daily basis so it's totally inevitable for every progressive out there who likes big government hates lobbyists sorry it's impossible to write that i would just add that it's it's actual

now, the white house has to make this a choice. they are saying the economy is not where it should be. but, romney would do a worse job. that is their pentagon. and this will be a negative campaign from both sides but democrats are balking at what the white house is doing. >>stuart: a democrat mechanic -- member of the house of representatives is being reprimanded by the white house today. >> something about raping companies and leaving them in debt and setting up swiss bank accounts and corporate businesses in the grand cayman islands. i have a problem. >>stuart: the white house called that inappropriate use of the word "rape." >>guest: he is known for saying what is on his mind going after romney but this is a situation with a surrogate on division in the white house saying that is not quite the way we would have put it but this is a tough day for the white house. they are having to deal with the questions on the attack ad as well as the remarks of the member, and people will go too far during this season between now and november

she -- she showed how to mourn in the white house. in that she became a most important symbol because in that period, many, many people lost their children and the mail was extraordinary. if you -- read the letters, you know, the papers of miss randolph, her secretary, the letters you find that nearly every letter that came to the white house upon the death of calvin began i, too, lost a boy. that unified her with a great part of the country. >> given that, mike hoover -- they all called her sunshine. >> she was the extrovert to the introvert. they called him smiley. >> it was a joke. both of them were very constrained by the fact that they couldn't mourn as they might if they were not the first couple. one of her ways that one way they were covered and demonstrated leadership was they didn't cry in public. it was just a different conception. they did not go on any television show. they didn't talk in that way. she wore white. they got animals. she did many activities with children. both of them. the story that cokie and i -- what else

i actually don't begrudge obama in the white house. hey're bipartisanship in the first year or two of the administration, obama has said, as i said, he was deeply committed to this personally. beyond that come he had campaigned on setting aside the partisan divisions of the past. i think he would have been foolish to not make a good faith effort to live up to that goal at the outset. while watching the stimulus debate unfold, even the health care debate unfold, it was often maddening, i think it was forgivable and maybe even necessary at the time. my quibble is really with 2011. there are any number of data points that this strategy was unlikely to work. the least, obviously, it was unlikely to work because of the experience of the stimulus and health care. you know, their there are other pieces of legislation which i haven't touched on, one of which was doctoring. one of which was doctoring. health care is always a big topic because of the symbolic reason. even though the actual plan itself is, you know, something that the heritage fou

house immediately tried to down play the vice president's comments. whitey carney was asked several times today about the president's views and gave almost an identical answer each and every time. >> there is a little bit of an overreaction here. the vice president supports and made clear he supports the president's policies when it comes to protecting the rights of lgbt citizens. and he also has his own personal views about the issue as does the president as do most people. >> meanwhile, in an interview this morning on msnbc when asked whether he believes same-sex marriage should be legal secretary ofation arne duncan agreed with fellow cabinet secretary shaun donovan saying simply, yes, i do. joining me now is host of the michelangelo show on sirius xm, and editor at large for "huffington post" gay voices. michelangelo. >> it seems not to be calculated move by the white house but does it work in their favor? is the white house saying something fundamental something fund mental has shifted. >> i think there is enormous pressure on this white house to deliv

there were only a handful of staff in the white house who knew about this. the majority of my senior staff didn't know about it. my secretary didn't know about it. my personal aide didn't know about it. >> the first lady? >> the first lady didn't know about it. >> your husband didn't know? >> no. >> mrs. obama didn't know. these are big-time washington diplomatic security secrets? >> yes. this was such an important secret to keep, no one in the state department knew, same, i think, except for those with need-to-know in the pentagon or the cia and certainly the white house. so i just felt a personal responsibility to keep it close, but that meant that i was basically having to consult with myself, to be honest. >> reporter: keeping this secret also meant going on about the business of the presidency, touring that awful storm damage in alabama, while knowing at that very moment u.s. navy s.e.a.l.s were already on the move, halfway around the world. you had to go to tuscaloosa. >> yeah. >> you had to go have fun at the correspondents' dinner. seth myers makes a

george bush, back in the white house today. what did he say to michelle obama that had everyone rolling in the aisles? >>> good evening. as we come on the air tonight, the verdict is in. former presidential candidate john edwards found not guilty on one big count of campaign finance krepgs and there was a hung jury on the rest of the charges. what does this mean for this man, whose life and infidelity played out in the courtroom like some turbulent soap opera? his defense always said this was a sin, but not a crime. and we walked out of the courtroom to say sinner is the right word. let's get right to abc's bob woodruff, at the courthouse in north carolina. bob? >> reporter: good evening, diane. yes, when this decision was actually handed down, i watched john edwards close his eyes in relief and then the jurors left the room. he turned around to hug his daughter and his patierents. his mom told me she prayed for this and his father just pointed to his smile, said, "this says it all." and then john edwards broke his silence. it w