he said, i want to thank jim traficant publicly. they said, stay away from traficant. i had an fbi agent who compromised one of my constituents. she said, i don't want my 87-year-old mother-in-law bothered. i'll be dammed if somebody's going to -- [inaudible] one of my constituents. >> the gentleman will avoid profanity or indecent language. >> how much time do i have left? >> 3.5 minutes remaining. the gentleman is recognized. >> i have an affidavit of a scott brodie, sat through the whole trial -- i'd like your attention. i got this affidavit today about an hour before i came here. he was released today's before the trial -- two days before the trial. his aunt died. when he came back, he was dismissed. scott brodie, he said he knew the prosecutor would help him out. he said, i knew jim drop against was innocent. he said, i can see how he impeached the witnesses. mr. berman said there was a recant. this is today's newspaper. mr. glaser said he didn't recant. on the evidence, he couldn't see himself convicting jim traficant. mr. brodie told the woman next to him -- i t

it happened with congressman traficant. but michael grimm will in fact resign his seat.ew york will have to call a special election to fill that seat. grimm it should be noted represents staten island and parts of brooklyn here in new york. this is actually consider add very competitive congressional district. it was before grimm represented by a democrat. this is a seat that both parties will be aggressively targeting in any special election and congressman grimm will be sentenced in june. but for now, a late christmas present as congressman grimm will voluntarily give up his seat sparing the congress from having to make some embarrassing decisions at the start of the year. this news on the same night that another member of the house finds himself in hot water. steve ska lease gave a statement regarding kmiet supremacist. ska lease himself giving a statement to his own home paper that when he gave that speech to a white supremacist group run by david duke that he had no eye deeft group's racist ties or no ideas of the ties to david duke that he was delivering his standa

the only other one was crazy jim traficant who died this year in a bizarre tractor accident after completing his seven-year sentence on many, many federal corruption charges and getting thrown out of congress when he refused to resign. but that's it. for the past 150 years. that's it since the confederacy in terms of guys who the congress has had to throw out against their will because even though they were convicted of a felony, they wouldn't quit. now u thanks to this guy, that is what john boehner will have on his play, day one for the new republican congress. merry christmas. happy new year. frank, it is great to see you. >>> joan boehner has this on his plate in a political sense. can john boehner force michael grim out of congress is grim digs in and says he's not going to resign? >> no, the leadership can't force any member of congress to resign or step down. typically, what they usually do is try to make it very unpleasant for the members of congress to make it unplez sant for testimony to take away committees of them. leadership doesn't have that car to play anymore. the next step h

later congressman james traficant addresses congress. and after that an interview with former budget committee ranking member on the 1990 budget deal. the 114th congress convenes in a little over a week. here's a look at some of the numbers. republicans will have 247 members in the house. the largest g.o.p. majority since the 1928 elections. and there will be 188 house democrats. there will be 45 african-americans in the house including two republicans. will herd texas and neil love of utah. the first ever republican african-american woman to serve in the house. the senate will have two african-americans, republican tim scott of south carolina and democrat cory booker of new jersey. >> new year's day on the c-span networks here are some of our featured programs. 10:00 a.m. eastern the washington ideas forum. energy conservation with david crane, business mag nailt t. boon pick ends. warren brown, and inventor dean kamen. at 4:00 p.m. the brookline lynn historical society holdings a conversation on race. then astronaut walt cunningham on

and james traficant addresses congress before a vote to dispel him from the body in 2002.t from 2007 former senator howard baker talked about his career and his work in congress. senator baker, who died this year at 88, was interviewed by historian richard norton smith for the dole institute. this is an hour. >> i would love to know the difference. >> my dad was in the house. i never was. >> the senate that you came into in 1967 -- how to that differ from the senate today? >> honestly, i have avoided answering that question for a lot of reasons. one, because i try not to second-guess those who followed me. the other is, in all fairness, you do not know the senate there. you just do not know. you can lose it in a matter of weeks or months. the real touch, the real understanding of what the senate is like. i avoid trying to do that. i have always said it would appear from outside that things are tougher now than they were. more personal, more confrontational. but i cannot say that because i'm not there. >> describe the senate that you walked into. >> the senate i walked into