>> tom ricks said that you are 04 times deployed, you don't get any time on, your standard of conduct -- >> tom ricks was on our air, and a host -- >> great military writer. >> the host said, "you have known and general petraeus for a long time. were you surprised?" "i'm completely surprised, and i cannot help but think that having four or five tours of afghanistan and then being cia director and the isolation that accompanies that is not in some way responsible for clank in the brain." >> let's say that petraeus could have chosen his biographer. it could be walter isaacson -- >> or tom ricks. >> a woman walks up to you at a lecture it dinner and says, "i want to do some research on you," which i guess was a euphemism. and then he proceeds to give her incredible access. i don't want to be one of these people who blames the woman, but there is no need for match.com if i can go around in my job and say, "can i write a book about you," and that is how i am introduced. it was so foolish of him. >> what was foolish? >> first of all, an inexperienced person -- she is not a biographer could

john, that was tom ricks, a pulitzer prize-winning journalist.you get the impression that the tent that houses the ben z benghazi truthers is getting a little smaller and by the way, if i don't like your response, i will end the segment early. >> clearly they didn't like it. that interview lasted all of a minute 20 seconds. time ritom ricks is a first rat report er reporter. when you watch the clip in its entirety he takes a couple shots at fox news and he does it with confidence and an air of authority that the anchor just couldn't puncture. i think that's why they cut the interview very short. >> yes. the poor chap was struggling to give a response when mr. ricks made that comment about if the journalists knew anything of the numbers who had been killed in that sort of setting prior and outside of the actual attacks on that day. he just didn't know what to say. >> yeah. i mean, tom ricks went at him and said how many contractors have been killed in libya in these conflicts? and the anchor had nothing to say. and tom ricks said, it's somewhere i

going to be political clearly because fox was operating as a wing of the republican party all right tom ricks thanks very much for joining us today. get off that son as quick as you can rick's interview was supposed to be four minutes long but he was cut off after speaking what can only be described as the truth kudos to you tom ricks for calling out fox so-called news and their flow of unfair and unbalanced misinformation the bad virginia attorney general ken cuccinelli everyone's favorite far right attorney general is added again this time cuccinelli went to w m a l radio in virginia and suggested that president obama stole the election and one of the radio shows argued that president obama couldn't possibly win a state that had voter suppression was a blaze agreed to that was. there needs to be a way for people to be able to report this stuff and have a look to i mean just across the country we're hearing so many stories in and people can talk about it but nothing seems to be down in fact in these states where voter id is required todo id photo id voter photo id obama lost every one of tho

it's the good the bad of the very very quickly honestly ugly good tom ricks how dare someone go on fox news and bash that network at least that's what network executives and production staff were saying yesterday after rick's a pulitzer prize winning journalist the last of that network coverage of the benghazi consulate attacks take a look. i think that generally was hyped by this network especially and that now that the him pain is over and i think he's backing off a little bit they're not going to stop susan rice from being secretary of state when i see this focus on what was essentially a small fire fight i think number one i've covered a lot of parts it's impossible to figure out what happens with them sometimes i think that. she is going to be political clearly because fox was operating as a we know the republican party all right tom ricks thanks very much for joining us today you're welcome. that sort of. rick's interview was supposed to be four minutes long but he was cut off after speaking what can only be described as the truth kudos to you tom ricks for calling out fox news a

walter isaacson -- >> tom ricks. >> a woman walks up to you at a lecture dinner, "i want to do research on you," which i guess is a euphemism, and he proceeds to give her a credible access. i don't want to be one of these people who plans the woman, but there's no need for match.com if i can go around and say, "could i write a book about you," and that is how i am introduced. it was so foolish of them. -- of him. first of all, an inexperienced person -- is not a biographer to come on, colby. >> is the obama administration guilty of a cover-up in the benghazi attack? >> i think she knew better, and if she did no better, she should not be the voice of america. . >> for them to go after the u.n. ambassador, who had nothing to do with benghazi, and was simply making a presentation based on intelligence she had received, and to besmirch her reputation, is outrageous. >> they're talking about our u.n. ambassador, who could be the president's nominee to be secretary of state. this is about her appearance on talk shows on september 16 following the september 11 attacks in benghazi. charles krau

>> i'm not saying that tom ricks wasn't trying to be provocative.uthor, peddling a book. what did he do? questioned whether fox news channel is relentlessly hyping and framing as a scandal the administration's handling of benghazi. john scott the anchor, fox told me it's not his style to have that kind of back and forth, could have had a great debate and said, wait a second, the rest of the media are undercovering it. >> don't know how to speak up and respond to criticism. i think if they're right wing journalists and that's their job and people know them for that and that's what the network has a reputation for, then when someone comes on and argues their points, they should be happy to do it. o'reilly, i get in fights with him all the time and we even yell. >> let me read the fox news response here. he writes when mr. ricks ignored the anchor's question, it became clear that the goal was to bring attention to himself and his book. he apologized in our office acid but doesn't have the strength of character to do that publicly. >> by the way, tom ri

and there could be other investigations, frankly, we are not aware of. >> schieffer: tom ricks i was struck by something you wrote in an op-ed or someplace that you didn't approve of general petraeus and paula broadwell but you also thought it was none of your business. >> i think there are two scandals in the whole petraeus affair. the first scandal is why the f.b.i. was looking into lovers' quarrels. the second and more troubling to me is that we seem to care more about the sex lives of our generals than the real lives of our soldiers. everybody can tell you the name of paula broadwell. nobody can tell you the name of the americans killed in afghanistan in the last week. i saw some stats that said there were about 50 casualties in afghanistan, which is dead and wounded, since petraeus-- the petraeus affair came out. nobody is paying attention to that. to me, a real scandal is that we tolerated years of mediocre generalship in iraq before petraeus actually did a good job there. a real scandal is that we've had 11 years and 11 commanders in iraq. that's no way to run any business or

tom ricks, august of can the gen. and our own bob orr and margaret brennan. and we'll have a farewell interview with maine's republican senator olympia snowe, who's leaving the senate because she no longer felt it was a place she could get anything done. it's been a wild week, but we'll try to put it in perspective on "face the nation." captioning sponsored by cbs from cbs news in washington, "face the nation" with bob schieffer. >> schieffer: and good morning again. we want to get right to the story in the middle east. , israel continuing to amass troops on the period with gaza. three israelis are dead, more than 50 wounded by rocket fire. the airstrikes go on. the question now, will the israelis send their ground troops into gaza? we're going first this morning to alan pizzey who is in tel aviv. allen. >> reporter: good morning, bob. overnight the israelis continued to pound positions in gaza. they've expand their operation away from just purely military targets into the hamas infrastructure. interestingly overnight hamas did not send any rockets into israe

. >> all right tom ricks thanks very much for joining us today. >> that was fantastic. i'm almost tempted to do that as a gag with you but i'm not going to. it was a short interview, also a very serious thing. he comes on there and he tells the truth to fox news, who has no interest in the truth. when will the back lash come to fox news. do you have any idea if it will come and if so, when? >> i mean they've got a dedicated audience, two or 3 million people are going to watch whatever lies they tell. this was very telling the fox bubble being punctured. if you watch fox news, 90% of their guests are on staff. even the people who come in to talk about military or politics, everyone knows what everyone's going to say. this was very rare, they sort of leeched out to a pulitzer prize winning journalist and he told the truth said fox hob hyping the benghazi story politicizing it and was a wing of the republican party. he just had the guts to do it on fox news. once someone tell little the truth on fox news, your interview is over and as tom ricks told the new york times a fo

joining me is thomas ricks. tome. >> thank you. >> based on this book, the generals, one of them is general petraeus. you had one earlier called "the gamble." fair to say i think you're an admirer of petraeus? >> yes, and i remain so. >> and what's it like working with him in terms of his working with the press? >> you need to use the media to get your views out, that it's a responsibility of a general to explain to the american people what you're doing with their money and their children in some war overseas, and so he engaged and he use thad megaphone to explain this is what i'm doing, this is what i'm trying to do. >> that's an interesting verb," use" the media. some would see that as manipulating the media. >> i think he did that too. so did dwight eisenhower, explaining it to people, routinely holding press conferences, talking to reporters. >> how much of that courtship and exchange of e-mails and journali journalism, has that affected everything more than he might have gotten otherwise? >> no, i don't think.

good for tom ricks! i love that guy! >> announcer: this is the "bill press show." about global warming. they just want to shut it down and go home. ed is calling from frederick maryland. what do you say, ed? >> announcer: chatting with you live at current.com/billpress this is the "bill press show." live on your radio and current tv. >> bill: hey here we go. 33 minutes after the hour here on this tuesday morning. tuesday, november 27, the "full court press." good to see you today! a lot of comments about what is bill doing wearing that scarf. carol and i took a trip to turkey. carol spent half of her time on turkey on my laptop -- ipad, actually answering e-mails and scarf orders that she's had from this scarf, hand woven by my wife. beautiful piece of art. hand woven by carol press. this is what she does. and our house today is like santa's workshop. i'm tellin' ya! she was answering orders that flooded in from the last time i wore a scarf on the air. so check out our web site. "bill press show." this is one i particularly like. she's got lots of different designs

tom ricks. r joining us today. >> you're welcome. >> fox abruptly ended that interview, saw that, after a mere 90 seconds. but ricks did not back down. listen to his reaction when "the huffington post" reads him fox's public statement after that interview. it's really more of a public smackdown. listen. >> here we have a statement from michael clemente, the executive vp at fox news channel. he said when mr. ricks ignored the anchor's question it became clear his goal was to bring attention to himself and his book. he apologized in our offices afterward, but doesn't have the strength of character to do that publicly. your reaction. >> [ bleep ] alrighty, then. howie kurtz from the daily beast is here with us. welcome, howie. >> thank you. >> so ricks has become the star du jour. his appearance on fox news has hundreds of thousands of views on youtube. some say he planned this whole thing. i mean, was this his "i'm mad as hell" moment? >> i don't think tom ricks planned anything. but he did take qu

tom ricks, thank you very much for joining us today. >> yes, tom, see you later.ake that troop somewhere else. joining me now is joe madison, nationally syndicated radio host of sirius xm, the power and ryan grim from "the huffington post." thank you both for your time tonight. >> thank you. >> i want to talk about fox's role in pushing this scandal but, ryan, let's start with the big news tonight about susan rice meeting with the mccain tomorrow. what are you hearing? >> this was simply an unsustainable opposition. especially after the election for mccain, and graham to be standing in the way of an african-american woman who hasn't even been nominated yet simply because she went on the television and repeated what the cia was saying at the time, that was completely unsustainable. tomorrow ricks said it it right. that was completely political. the facts have shown that she wasn't lying. she was repeating what the cia had said was their best guess at that moment. it turns out to have been wrong. but to try to block her from being secretary of state simply for that

an independent calller on the line with tom ricks.ler: i am a sergeant in the united states army. there used to be a joke i heard coming up that it is requirement to reach a certain respect you have a divorce. there is such a high divorce rate in disconnect between soldiers and their families because of going overseas 70 times. the general was definitely ready for his position of leadership, but the man was separated from his wife for 10 years. he was a highly-respected position. your dedication and service to the military is far greater than a private. the man did not have the time to maintain a connection that was designed by god. temptation sets in after a time. it is sad, but he is human. guest: i agree with you. caller: it is of that the country does not hold his name because of that one act. he was a very honorable man. guest: i agree with you. i think this whole situation has more to do with the nation that it does him. we have a situation where 1% of the country has been fighting our wars, and then -- and 99 percent have been

let's talk a little bit more about what's going on with tom ricks, senior fellow at the center for newcan security and the author of the brand new book, an excellent book, entitled "the generals." great work, tom, thanks very much. how shocked were you by this? >> honestly, i'm not that shocked. you put an officer out there on repeated tours in iraq and afghanistan -- he's done like four or five years out there. he's a human being. if he doesn't slip, i'd be surprised. i think what we have today is shocking proof that general david petraeus is a human being. >> he made a huge mistake. is it a mistake big enough for him to decide he's going to resign as a result of this extramarital affair? >> i'm told that president obama told him that he didn't need to. that they had a long conversation about it. and obama said, you know, i understand that you're troubled by this and so on, but i'm not sure you need to go. and petraeus' attitude is, no, it's a matter of honor. i did something deeply dishonorable and now i must balance it by doing an honorable thing. the only thing about petraeus and o

oxygen in to a story that otherwise we all ought to be kind of tired of at this point. >> you heard tom ricks" a military affairs correspondent long time for "the washington post" suggest this hour that the fbi really shouldn't have gotten involved in this, this was a private affair that the general had with the other woman, no business building it up in to a full scale fbi investigation. what do you say? >> i say that if that was the case he might be right but that's not what happened here. what happened is that someone makes a complaint that they're being -- not just harassed but receiving threatening -- >> jill kelly. >> exactly. jill kelly reports or complains of threatening messages of e-mail over the internet and federal vie ligs and the fbi has jurisdiction to investigate that. the fbi doesn't go in to this looking at somebody having an affair. that comes up later in the case but that's not what started this investigation. >> did they conclude based on what you know that it was paula broadwell sinding the supposedly e-mails to jill kelly? >> yes. >> was that a crime? >> if it -- depend

tom ricks, good to have you with us this morning, david petraeus is featured in three of your books,e you? because i'm guessing you were surprised when you heard this news. >> i have known him for about 13 years. i know paula broadwell as well. i was surprised about dave petraeus himself, personally, but i'm not surprised when we put a human being out in the war zone for six and a half years, subjecting him to enormous pressures, had a bout with cancer, and we're willing to lose an effective general because of consenting behavior with another adult. if we did that to eisenhower, he would have been fired and the war would have lasted longer. so our standards have changed. somehow we care more about personal moral lapses than we do about having effective leaders. and that worries me. >> but is a moral lapse more of a concern when you're dealing with the intelligence community than with the military community? >> my opinion is that paula broadwell looked at his gmail and yahoo account, but knocking around afghanistan, reporters hear a lot of classified information too. if they will star

nicely done, tom ricks. we'll see you tomorrow. stay right here. [ ♪ theme music ♪ ] >> eliot: good evening i'm eliot spitzer and this is "viewpoint." will fiscal cliff jumpers drive the country off a financial brink and into a new year recession? does it matter if the parties can't come together and use a more fitting metaphor defuse the austerity bomb that threatens to explode the economy and could decades of republican orthodoxy on rejecting new revenues finally be coming to an end? with the senate in session for 36 days to go before hundreds of billions of dollars in tax cuts hikes and cuts take affect, white house press secretary repeated everything including entitlement programs would be part of the talkings. talks. meanwhile, many are turning their back on the pledge to grover norquist. >> times changed significantly and i care more about this country than i do about a 20-year-old pledge. >> i agree, a pledge signed 20 years ago is for that congress. >> i'm willing to generate revenue. it's fair to ask my party to put revenu

tom ricks, thank you for joining us today. >> let's turn to michael tomasky.e for the archives. your latest column is on mccain's attacks on susan rice. it's very pointed. these two stories go together because i think clearly john mccain has bought into the propaganda that fox was pedaling out there. how do you see it? >> that's exactly the right thing to see, ed. mccain made it clear in his statements he was going to make this a showdown between him and susan rice. he was going to say, i, john mccain, have the moral authority, i john mccain, have the credibility to block susan rice if i want her to be blocked, and by god i'm going to do it. then yesterday, he switched gears. he back pedalled at warp speed. >> is this just another briefing for three senators that have taken issue with her performance? >> i think it's a savvy political move by rice to say that -- to understand that, you know, she does have to answer mccain's concerns because he still is, to some people, not to me, but to some people, he's still john mccain with a lot of authority. so he has to

let's talk about it with tom ricks, he is author of, the generals. he has spent decades covering your military. he joins us now. senator john mccain said in the past he would block any attempt to nominate susan rice to become, u.n., i'm sorry, secretary of state. she is currently the u.n. ambassador. he seems to be backing away from that. what do you make of that? >> i think benghazi was generally behind by this network especially. now that the campaign is over i think he is walking backing off a little bit. they will not stop susan rice from being secretary of state. jon: when you have four people dead in 30 years, how do you call that hype. >> how many security contractors died in iraq? do you know? jon: i don't. >> nobody does because nobody cared. we know several hundred died but there was never official count of security contractors in iraq. when i say this focus was essentially a small firefight i think number one, i covered a lot of firefight is. it is impossible to figure out what happens in them sometimes. i think the emphasis on benghazi ha

tom ricks, thank you very much. d war ii to today." fascinating. >> thank you, tom. >> you're welcome. >> appreciate you being here. >>> up next, business before the bell with cnbc's brian schactman. ♪ [ male announcer ] a european-inspired suspension, but not from germany. ♪ a powerful, fuel-efficient engine, but it's not from japan. ♪ it's a car like no other... inspired by a place like no other. introducing the all-new 2013 chevrolet malibu, our greatest malibu ever. ♪ [ husband ] transfer! [ male announcer ] free data transfer at home. you just deleted all the photos! you did! no you did! [ male announcer ] or free data transfer when you buy a windows 8 computer at staples. another way staples makes it easier to upgrade. stay top of mind with customers? from deals that bring them in with an offer... to social media promotions that turn fans into customers... to events that engage and create buzz... to e-mails that keep loyal customers coming back, our easy-to-use tools will keep you in front of your customers. se

talking to blogger tom ricks about whether a potential strike on iran has anything to do with the fightingght now. >> some people think that what this is about is in preparation for a likely war with iran, israel testing the rockets that would be fired against it from gaza. so we may something with lebanon soon. it's a preliminary. this is a warm-up round for the real conflict ahead. >> you really think there's a chance that israel would strike iran and try to take out those nuclear? >> yes. especially given the time of the gaza thing. now they are getting down to business after the election. >> i guess that's the question that calls for some speculation, but is it possible that benjamin netanyahu has decided the best way to deal with iran is to get involved in a hot war and then obviously iran's role going for the source of the problem and bombing them as part of a hot war situation. >> reporter: it does require some speculation, but it also requires some analysis. and i think it makes a lot of sense. if you look at this, israel really picked the timing. israel could have gone into a war

. >> you're with tom ricks on this one. >> the main question is why was the consulate in benghazi stillpen when the administration, when even the ambassador acknowledged that the threats against the united states was rising and security was -- >> and the answer could be we had cia agents in that area -- >> absolutely. >> -- that needed to be protected. ambassador susan rice met with her strongest critics on capitol hill today to answer questions about benghazi, and the verdict was decidedly negative from her adversaries. senator john mccain, lindsey graham and senator ayotte left the meeting, here's the word, troubled. let's watch. >> we are significantly troubled by many of the answers that we got and some that we didn't get concerning evidence that was overwhelming leading up to the attack on our consulate. >> i'm more disturbed now than i was before. if you don't know what happened, just say you don't know what happened. people can push you to give explanations, and you can say i don't want to give bad information. >> i'm more troubled today because it's certainly clear from the begi

washington post" columnist david ignatius, very good in the intel community, and also talking to blogger tom rickshether or not a potential strike on iran has anything to do with the fighting going on right now. >> some people think that what this is about is in preparation for a likely war with iran, israel testing the rockets that would be fired against it from gaza, next from lebanon so, we may see something with lebanon soon because it's a preliminary, kind of a warm-up round for the real conflagration ahead that involves iran. >> you really think there's a chance that israel would strike iran and try to take out those nuclear -- >> yes, especially given the timing of the gaza thing. if they waited until after the american elections are over and now they're getting down to business. >> i guess that's the question that call for some speculation, but is it possible that netanyahu and his cabinet and the knesset have decided the best way to deal with iran is to get involved in a hot war and then -- obviously iran's arming the enemy, arming hamas, and going for the source of the problem and bombin

go back to what tom rick says that he thinks this whole thing is overblown.course people have made mistakes. we'll find out what they are and assess and go on from there. >> we'll go ahead and see if the president nominates her to succeed hillary clinton. and then we'll watch the fight up on capitol hill. thanks very much. >>> hundreds of thousands of homes torn apart by superstorm sandy. as people start to rebuild, are insurance companies trying to help? or are they just trying to help themselves? >>> the price tag for superstorm sandy is growing. officials in new york state and new jersey say they'll need more than $70 billion to recover. in some ways the property devastation was worse than hurricanes katrina and rita combined. in some ways. in new york state alone sandy destroyed more than 300,000 homes. that's a lot of homes that have to be rebuilt. and as cnn's national correspondent deborah feyerick discovered, it means a lot of homeowners are looking for answers. >> reporter: when superstorm sandy hit, peggy thought she was ready. she paid decades wort

i want to bring in tom ricks, author of "the generals." ow for new american security. tom, i'll start with you. do you think we should be this should occasion us to take a hard look at the coverage of general petraeus over the last eight years? >> no question that general petraeus recognized he needed to talk to the media. i think, what worries me are the lessons of it. hey, you are too smart like david petraeus and you get in trouble. it's the wrong lesson. petraeus understood one of the roles of the general was to be a megaphone, to explain policies, reach out to his soldiers, to the american people and in iraq to the iraqi people. and give his views out there. he has a ph.d. from princeton. he likes reporters and had a successful first tour in iraq. in the army it's three strikes. you are talking the fbi scandal. i think there are two. one is the invasion of privacy. the fbi looking at a lovers quarrel. the other scandal, i think it's more worrisome is that nobody pays attention to these wars until there's a titillating affair. it makes

which of course is what tom -- tom ricks said. >> bill: on fox news. >> the small fire fight as he referredu don't know. of course you don't know. that's what -- everybody has said. of course, you don't know all of the facts. that's what i don't understand about this. they've all said you don't know all of the facts. even susan rice said that on the day that we don't know all of the facts. the facts are unfolding so i still don't understand the obsession and if you want an obsession, why don't you make your obsession -- why is it that the dod didn't have enough military in place close enough to get there? why is it all of the military was seven hours away? i think that's a reasonable question. >> bill: that's a very legitimate question. why isn't our intelligence better? why wasn't it better in iraq, in afghanistan. and in libya. that's a legitimate question. but to take it out on susan rice. >> to focus on the sunday game shows, i think this is really weird. >> bill: more than weird, i think. so here is a theory that's been floated on our show this morning, i might tell you by a couple of

part of that has to do with the military divide, tom ricks was saying 1% of the people population fightrs, 80% when you don't count family members, don't care. a lot of it is not registering in the american public's mind. when that detachment happens, the distance allows us from a safe move to say i trust the military. the people who are in the military have extremely complicated questions about whether or not to trust the military because people who are in any institution, public school teachers have complicated feelings about the public schools. the more removed from an institution, the more it exists as a cartoonish flawed or -- the less we know about guts and works, i think that is what this scandal is about. is about the fact that we have increasing distance and it's created a way of talking about the military as something separate from american life during the same period of time which we're waging the longest war. >> chris, i'm thrilled that you came to hang out with me in nerdland. thank you to my entire panel. we are shifting gears from the most depressing international topics

i'm rick horrow. >> tom: that's "nightly business report" for tuesday, november 27. we want to remind everyone this is the time of year your public television station seeks your support. >> susie: on behalf of your public television station, thank you for your support. good night, everyone. we'll see you online at nbr.com, and back here tomorrow night. captioning sponsored by wpbt captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> join us anytime at nbr.com. there, you'll find full episodes of the program, complete show transcripts and all the market stats. also follows us on our facebook page at bizrpt. and on twitter @bizrpt.

governors have in common, i'm talking about john casey in ohio, chris christie in new jersey, rick snyder in michigan, tom corbett in pennsylvania, rick scott in florida. let's not forget bob mcdonnell in virginia. and of course, scott walker in washington. what do they all -- sorry, wisconsin. what do they all have in common? they pursued an agenda to limit the rights of workers in their states so they could balance the budget, but also break up the unions. their agenda, last night, was rejected by the people in their state. you know what they all got in common? all of their states went blue. i guess we could say, well, thank you, governors, for defining the republican party for us. it made voting a lot easier for a lot of americans, like these voters, the radical agenda of the right was defeated by these people, the folks who were willing to stay in line, the voter who is made sure that their voices were heard. it didn't matter how long those lines were. they were determined. it didn't matter how hard the republicans tried the to suppress their votes. these americans put it on the line. and they put it