the effort was by ted kennedy and trent lott and harry reid. an eclectic group in both parties yet we went down into ignominious defeat. the reason was when i look back on it, i did review that some of you look like you may be in rotc or the military. what happened was we were doing okay on the process and substance. we messed up communications. the man at our position had to be described in three paragraphs and the opposition position was it is amnesty. we couldn't overcome that one word. we were going into details and procedural parliamentary substantive details and got killed. we do need it. it will take a bipartisan effort. we need a president who will lead on it. it is not immigration reform. we will get under the hood and get in his or her hands. we need a congress with leaders who will deal with it responsibly. is it going to happen right away? know. there will be a window of opportunity in the early spring of 2013. i hope the next president whether it is this one or different one and congress will confront this issue. it is difficult an

trent lott tried to do it earlier this decade. earlier this decade. the problem is that he admits we do not do comprehensive very well. he wants to try to do these big debt issues little by little and bit by bit. i am not sure if you can get away with doing by playing small ball because the problem is so big. >> thank you both for being on "newsmakers." >> in my opinion, the bounds of academic freedom have been pushed too far. >> the author suggests that the job for life mentality needs to go. >> there are basically professors of cooking, professors of nutritional studies to have tenure now. when pressed, a professor telling -- towing the party line will say we need someone to have tenure in security studies so they can talk about immigration even though it is controversial. someone in nutritional studies needs to say something controversial about obesity. >> it that and other reasons you won't get to college education you paid for. >> tomorrow on "washington journal, a discussion on the foreign-policy views of the gop presidential candidates. then th

trent lott tried to do it earlier this decade. earlier this decade. the problem is that he admits we do not do comprehensive very well. he wants to try to do these big debt issues little by little and bit by bit. i am not sure if you can get away with doing by playing small ball because the problem is so big. >> thank you both for being on "newsmakers." >> next, "day contenders" on key figures who have run for president and lost it changed political history. next, the life of william jennings bryant. then a senate hearing on strategy in iraq and afghanistan. >> i think the balance of academic freedom have been pushed too far. >> she suggests that the tenure mentality needs to go. >> there are professors of cooking and nutritional studies who have tenure now. professor who is telling the party line will say that we need someone to have security to talk about immigration even though it is controversy. someone in nutritional studies needs to be able to say something controversial about obesity. >> that and other reasons you

it is a pleasure to welcome senators byron dorgan and trent lott. both senators, while partisan, had reputations for reaching across the aisle, working with the other party, and effecting constructive legislation to help the american people. we are fortunate that steven scully will moderate the discussion. he is a senior executive producer and political editor for the c-span networks. since 1990, he is been responsible for the planning and editing of all campaign programming, including presidential and congressional elections. he also serves as one of the regular host of "washington journal" -- a daily, live, public affairs program. he is also a member of the esso shift factory here in washington -- associate faculty here at the washington chapter where he teaches a course about the comprehensive study of american presidential politics in the age of television and new digital media. without further ado, steven scully. [applause] >> thank you. thank you for being with us. let's get into this. in terms of bipartisanship and compromise. we are hearing

if trent lott runs for the senate from mississippi and i am a candidate for the u.s.om north dakota, we come here with different constituencies sending us here. my constituents may feel differently than his constituents on certain issues. we come here with our own notions about how things should work and what we believe. when we get here, let's assume that he and i feel very differently about the issues, taxes, for example. the only way can resolve that in a democracy -- you can decide we are just going to sit on our positions and we will never reach accord. or you can decide as a country it is important for us to come together and do that. the tax issue right now, for example, is a very important issue because we are deep in debt. we can talk about the reasons for that, but we are, and we have been fighting in that war is now for nearly 10 years and have not paid for a penny of it. -- we have been fighting two wars. if you are going to send young men and women ought to risk their lives halfway around the world, shouldn't we at least have the courage to say we are goi

remember, trent lott lost his job when he was -- he made that comment to strom thurman at his 100th birthdayaying, if you had won the seg ra gist dixie -- >> he said, if you won the presidency. he forgot he was running as segregationist -- >> but he says we wouldn't have had all these problems. what was he referring to? >> it's very clear. >> issue of racial justice and equal rights for african-americans. >> what about going forward, would this be a course correction the republican party could take? could there be some compromises they could make with their current orthodox to reach out to other voters? >> it would be very hard to believe that they would do that right now. in fact, herman cain is worried about winning voters, winning black voters. he should be worried about if blacks can vote in the first place. the republican party is launching and coordinating a massive campaign of voter suppression and voter disenfranchisement right now. they are trying to change the law shortening the early voting days in ohio to prevent folks from being able to go to the polls the sunday or saturday or

ron is republican strategist who used to work for former speaker dennis hastert and trent lott. let's take a look at these tweets and talk about them here on the other side. first tweets, said it was inspiring, well deserved reminds officials they were sent to do a job. and another tweet says, the powe tus' angry eyes were back. time for congress to get back on board. let's start with the tone from the president. how did he seem to you guys? >> he was sounding a tone of urgency, which is absolutely appropriate given the sense of urgency that i think people feel out in the kuhn trif. i think he was also the tone was aimed at here are the things that i want to do, but i need your help. i think that's important because we need to remember that, you know, congress is not, can't just sit on the sidelines here. in order to get these things done, we need congress to participate in the process. >> did the president strike the right tone last night? >> i think the president is acting like the professor that he enjoyce being and lecturing congress. that didn't work out too well for him in

trent lott beat me by one for whip before. my decision was based solely upon this fact.y lucky to be here. all of us are political action accidents and i wanted to make sure that i made the best use of this time. and if the best use of this time for me is to work to get results on the issues i care about. in the senate, that means you've got to find some people from the other party to agree with you or you don't get 60 votes. >> senator dick durbin and republicans stood together and were happy 36 pledged to work in a bipartisan manner. >> yeah. >> pardon me for being cynical. 36 is not 51. 36 is not even 60. >> yeah, 36 is a lot, though. any time you get that many senators working together on a single important issue, you made a big step in the right direction. you get 10 or 15 senators on either side who are working together, whether it's on supreme court matters, whether it's on energy, whether it's on preserving the right to work law, and especially to get a third of the senate saying we want a big step to reduce the debt, that's big news, in my book. and that's the k

but in effect exception to the report and the commentary, both trent lott and bill thomas objected to that. would you say to the republicans like thomas or trent lott on the hill now who are uneasy about extending the trade in the program? is that really important? are they right? >> i think they are right in the global context of spending, and with regard to the united states they are saying put it that in the same consideration everything else will be in this deficit-reduction commission needs to say how do you spend money? i also think there are benefits for the free trade and with the benefits it can mean to be shared with people who dislocated it's not that but i'm not just for spending and spending. in the context of the overall federal discipline that has to come in to spending i don't disagree with their tanks to. i did disagree with the reservation because i think we put together a plan that was practical from a political point of view as well and so i think there was some recognition that there are going to be adjustments needed to address people who are on the cusp of in co

. >> well, he was brother-in-law of trent lott, but he was a big democrat.ial lawyer, he got hundreds of millions from tobacco. >> and by the way, one of the reasons he did so well is he owned the legislature, owned the politicians, and mississippi had some of the most lax tort reform law in america. that was the place -- i know because i worked with trial lawyers for a few years, everybody wanted to get to mississippi because the rules were slanted in dickie scruggs' favor. >> it was so bad that it made the trial lawyers look bad. but dickie ultimately got ensnared by a federal investigation and questions of entrapment. that's not to say he's innocent of all charges, but some have raised questions about entrapment. >> it's interesting also, a lot of people shocked that he switched sides in 2007 started working for the insurance companies after katrina. >> yeah, he played both sides with politics. with the law, whatever. he was very successful. >> yep. >> well, this is like brothers interviewing brothers. barnicle, brokaw, and wilkie back together. i met dic

so, what do you say to republicans like bill thomas and trent lott in the republicans on the hill who are uneasy about extending the trade adjustment in the program is that really important, are the right? >> they are right in the global context of the spending and they are saying put that in the same priority in the consideration everything else will be in this does is it reduction commission to say how you spend money. there are benefits for free trade and the benefits could be shared with people who would be dislocated it's not bad, but i'm not just for spending in the context of the overall federal discipline that has to come into spending i don't disagree with their ex to. i did disagree with the reservation because we put together a plan that was practical from the political point of view as well and so i think there is some recognition that there are going to the adjustments needed to address and people who are on the cusp of thanks -- angst just arrived position of the jobs of that is what i favor and i did talk with folks and the former chairman of the ways and means bill tho

it was supported by president bush, ted kennedy, trent lott. an eclectic group in both parties and yet we went down in defeat. the reason was -- when i look back on it, i didn't after action review. that is in military terms. some of you gentlemen look like you may be in rotc or have been in the military. what happened? we were doing ok on the process. we messed up on the communications. the minute our position had to be described in three paragraphs, the opposition was, it is amnesty. we were dead. we could not overcome that one word. we were going into details and procedural and parliamentary and substantive and details. we got killed. we need it. it is going to take a bipartisan effort. we need a president who will get down under the hood and get his hands ugly and dirty. we need a congress that will try to deal with it responsibly. is it going to happen right away? no. there will be a window of opportunity in the early spring of 2013. i hope the next president and congress will confront this issue. it is difficult. it is complicated but we

stronger political position as '96 went on largely because the economy was recovering and that's why trent lottause they felt they needed to show accomplishments to maintain the senate majority. republicans now i think feel that obama is in a weakened position, there will be enormous pressure on the congressional leadership not to provide him any accomplishments of significance between now and november 2012. >> gloria, you remember because all of us covered bill clinton there was something called triangulation, i'm not seeing a lot of obama trying on lags. remind our viewers how clinton used that successfully to get himself reelected in 19 t97 the first year of his second term. >> he made deals with republicans in congress and at the expensexpense, lots of demo thought at their own expense. bill clinton was somebody who was cutting deals, but let me add one other thing, which is the that bill clinton had an easier case to make, following up on ron's point when he was running for re-election. he could say look the jobs are heading in the right direction. the unemployment rate is heading in the r

so, what do you say to republicans like bill thomas and trent lott or the republicans on the hill now who are an easy buttocks extending the program, is that really important? are they rights because i think they are right in the context of global context of spending it and i think with regard to the united states, they are saying put that in the same priority of consideration that everything else will be in wind is deficit reduction commission needs to say how do you spend money i think there are benefits for free trade and that the benefits can be shared with people who will be dislocated come it's not bad. but i'm not just for spending spending spending. i'm doing in the context of the overall federal discipline that has to come in spending. i don't disagree with their angst. i did disagree with their reservation. because i think they put together a plan that was practical from a political point of view as well. so i think there is some recognition that there are going to be adjustments that will be needed to address people who are on the cusp of angst because we are in a free trad

senator nichols, who was the republican counterpart, senator trent lott was senator daschle's counterpart, and the four of us were taken off the west front of the capitol to a secret location where we spent most all the day. the vice president was there and kept us informed as to what was going on. as we left that 219, mr. president, we could look out the window and see the smoke billowing out of the pentagon. it was a very difficult day for all of us. yesterday, we observed the tenth anniversary of those attacks, but the truth is i remember that day as if it were only yesterday. that day, osama bin laden and his radical followers didn't just launch an attack on planes or buildings. they launched an attack on the american spirit. they launched an attack on our freedom and our democracy. rather than be crippled by the terrible acts of these madmen, rather than allowing the uncertainty and fear to rule us, this nation rose again stronger than ever. we really did it in one way, and that was by coming together. the darkness that day reminded us of our collective strength and power. it reminde