especially since you have a new book that's going to start with the truman administration. we're looking forward to that very much. dennis, let me start by asking about the view from israel. with everything happening, including the hamas reconciliation and the syrian thing and obviously iran being the great exten chal threat, why is it that israel can't do what seems to be a relatively obvious and easy thing to position itself well for the coming crises, which is cut a deal with the palestinians? >> well, it's always easier to say cut a deal with the pal tin yans than it actually is to cut such a deal with the palestinians. because it ultimately does take two to be able to do any deal. but you're asking a question that itself is -- begs for context. i know that context is my middle name. my mother didn't know that when she named me, but it actually is my middle name. so let me -- let me try to set some context. because i think the question is a very important one in terms of trying to understand how the israelis may be looking at a region that suddenly looks like the follow

i mean, is this something to do with this administration, the truman administration, or perhaps even your late husband's administration? >> when the war was over and we began to have to help people to build up again, and we were the ones who had not been bombed and had no homes destroyed, we had difficulty in getting new homes, but we didn't have to carry away acres of rubble of old homes that once existed, and we had our whole production unit intact, and practically no other nation in the world was in that fortunate position. >> so this is history rather than politics? >> this is history rather than politics. there is some envy in it. there is peopley who say they will never be grateful for what we've done, i think there is gratitude. but gratitude is sometimes swamped by the sins of why was this done? was it done in the long run so we could -- we who just freed ourselves from political domination be dominated to political economics? that's not one natural. the history of most of these countries in asia and in some parts of europe is that people who do things for you expect something

and she said that the -- when the white house was reconstructed during the truman administration, it was falling down, they scooped out everything in the inside and built new floors, they ran out of money, so they made a deal with one of the stores and they refurnished that way and that is what it looked like. the restoration of the white house is written off as interior decoration, she had to raise this money which was not easy. she had to keep particularly two or three advisers from essentially colliding with one another. and sister parish to some extent too. if anyone doubts her political skills, the fact that she was able to do it and get it in on time and under budget and for the white house to look the way it does today, if it were not for her, it would still look like a bad convention hotel. >> the eisenhowers do not come off terribly well. president eisenhower is walking around the white house in golf shoes leaving holes in the floor. but i felt sorry for mimi. to have been succeeded by jacqueline kennedy was not the easiest thing on earth. >> i think no but as mrs. kennedy s

but there was a reason for that, which was when the white house was reconstructed during the truman administration because of falling down, they scooped everything out of the inside and built new floors and so on. they ran out of money, so harry truman characteristically made a deal with b.altmans and they restructured the whole floor of the white house. and it looked that way. sometimes the restoration of the white house is sort of written off as interior decoration or just sort of superficial. she had to raise this money, which was not easy, she had to keep particularly to three advisers, architectural advisers, from essentially colliding with one another, harry dupont, and sister parrish, also, to some extent. so if anyone doubts her political skills, the fact that she was able to do all this, get it in on time under budget, and for the white house to look the way it does today, i think if it were not for her, the white house would still look like a bad convention hotel. ztz the eisenhowers don't come off looking terribly well. president eisenhower would walk around in his golf shoes, making li

speaking only for himself and not for any of the previous administration for off accept the truman administration is the only when you will feel confident speak for especially since you have a new book that's going to start with the truman administration and we are looking forward to that very much. dennis, let me start by asking about the view from israel. with everything happening including the palace reconciliation and syrian and obviously iran being the great existential threat, why is it that israel can't do what seems to be a relatively obvious easy thing to position itself for the coming crisis which is cut a deal with the palestinians? >> well it's always easy to say to cut a deal with the palestinians than it actually is to cut such a deal with the palestinians because ultimately it does take two to be able to any deal. but you are asking a question in itself is begs for context and i know the context is my middle name. [laughter] >> my mother didn't know that when she named me but it actually is my middle name and so let me try to set some context because i think the question is a very

also speaking only for himself, not for any of the previous administrations except for the truman administration is the only one you'll feel confident to speak for, especially since you have a new book that's going to start with the truman administration, and we're looking forward to that very much. dennis, let me start by asking about the view from israel. with everything happening including the hamas reconciliation and the syrian thing and, obviously, iran being the great existential threat, why is it that israel can't do what seems to be a relatively obvious and easy thing to position itself well for the coming crises which is cut a deal with the palestinians? >> well, it's always easier to say to cut a deal with the palestinians than it actually is because it, ultimately, does take two to be able to do any deal. you're asking a question that itself is, um, begs for context. and i know that context is my middle name -- [laughter] my mother didn't know that when she named me -- [laughter] but it actually l is my middle name. and so let me try to set some context because i think the question is

nonpartisan also speaking only for himself but for any of the previous administrations accept the truman administration is the only one you feel confident to speak for such as the german u book that's going to start in the administration we are looking forward to that very much. dennis, let me start by asking about the view from israel with everything happening including the hamas reconciliation and cerium and iran being the great extension threat. why is it that israel can't do what seems to be a relatively obvious and easy thing to position the soulful for the coming crisis which is cut a deal with the palestinians. >> well it's always easier to say cut a deal with the palestinians than it is to cut such a deal with the palestinians because ultimately it takes to to be a will to do anything. you're asking a question of itself is it begs for context and i know that it's my middle name. my mother didn't know that when she named me but it actually is my middle name so let me try to set some context. the question is a very important one in terms of trying to understand how the israelis may be looking at

and she lasted as long as the administration of harry truman. and the children they produced, theodore roosevelt jr. was the first and there was kermit, then had was another girl, ethel, and then there was quinton, and i've forgotten archie, too. they had four sons. and two daughters. >> how did each of those die? >> i tell their stories in the epilogue to "colonel roosevelt" and alice, the first to be born, was the last to die in 1918. ted turned out to be a magnificent soldier in world war i. came back in world war ii to be a general who went ashore on d-day with the third army and died of a heart attack just a few days after winning the medal of honor for the d-day invasion. one of the most highly decorated soldiers of both world wars. archie was very similar. much decorated soldier, who died of old age in the late 1970s. ethel died -- ethel was just a housewife through most of her life, but she dedicated most of her life to preserving the memory of her father and preserving sagamore hill, his home on long island. alice became alice, the famo

result, we would like to cite the unfavorable publicity that was given the truman balcony and the efforts of the eisenhower administrationto keep squirrels off the president's putting green." this last reference was too much for my mother, who wrote in the margin, "absurd, how stupid. this is not a concession stand. there is absolutely no connection." importance of the temp temples. she demonstrates an understanding of cold war diplomacy writing. the psychology plis cal argument carries more than a economic one. by saving the temples the u.s. can show they care good spiritual side and realize the importance of saving the culture of egypt. i think my father rolled over on this one too. the temples were safed and now they are at the metropolitan of new york were a gift to thank them for their support. her commitment to history led her to encourage my father to refor pennsylvania avenue. these efforts helped to launch the historic movement where neighborhoods were being destroyed for modern projects. she did not give up, a letter to uncle teddy reads, dearest teddy. you can tell where this is going. i send you pat's letter

administrations. roosevelt, one, two, three, and truman. if alive, serving today based on one confirmation. they were not think that those support to officing would be necessarily changing every time there was a presidential election has as become our election even when it's the same party. they may have assumed that someone appointed to the office would serve forever. so the recess appointment was truly seen as something more temporary. before you have the entitlement to serve for the rest of your life -- >> let me just follow that up, and that is i still don't understand other than the senate staying in session, basically forever, that is not adjourning at all. how they protect their right to participant. and what. >> i'll make one suggestion. the senate of every political persuasion should tell political persuasion, we think this is a proper accommodation. you should not make a recess appointment even in a session -- intercession as long as ten days where it's been fairly well established now by practice you can do that. you should not do that unless you have first given us 60 days to ad

result, we would like to cite the unfavorable publicity that was given the truman balcony and the effort of the eisenhower administrationto keep squirrels off his putting green. this last reference was too much for my mother who wrote in the margin, absurd. how stupid. this is not a concession stand. there is absolutely no connection. like other people who came up against my mother, mcnally didn't stand a chance. not long afterwards, my mother wrote to j.b. west, the white house chief usher, mr. west, the president tells me that jack mcnally, who was against selling guidebooks in the beginning, now says lots more could be sold on the way out. but he says this is your providence and doesn't want to mention it, which is rather sweet of him. i agree we can use the money. every penny is needed. not long after, her commitment to history led her to support my father to save temples. she wrote a long memo to jfk, which you can see downstairs, laying out the importance of the temples and suggested that this would be a nice gesture to nassar, as he promised not to interfere with them in yemen and south arabia. she demonstrates a

truman ran against it and was so successful that the republicans didn't take the house again for forty six years so they've they collapse and they were followed by a rational eisenhower administration massive infrastructure investments eisenhower famously said should any political party attempt to abolish social security unemployment insurance and in the eliminate labor laws and farm programs you would not hear that party again in our political history is a tiny splinter group of a few of the texas oil millionaires an occasional politician or businessman from other areas their numbers negligible and they are stupid so that was the rational eisenhower republicans but then a generation later came the irrational goldwater republicans who oppose the civil rights laws thought it was all about states' rights they wanted a belligerent foreign policy which just handed lyndon johnson the daisy ad you know hey let's have a nuclear war and of course barry goldwater wanted to cut taxes for the rich and deregulate industry he failed and they collapsed and so we got the nixon republicans back to some i rational republicans i mean you could argue nixon was mentally ill but you know it for nixon a

truman to proposal higher taxes in a re-election year. no, there has not. barack obama has according to the administration, $1.7 trillion over ten years.ns say it's $1.9 trillion. whatever. it's a huge chunk of change. it's not the tax increases that he campaigned on under 2008. you've got the buffett rule. airline security taxes, higher capital gains and dividend taxes. he's added on to the idea of raising taxes, in an election year. and that strikes me as more than mildly interesting. because democrats have historically been extremely traumatized by the entire tax debate. it's not just a victory on payroll taxes, which everyone has sort of digested and internalized. the president is now saying, the speech i gave in osawatomie, kansas, is now in black and white, in an election year, and if i get my way, marginal rates will be higher than they were in the clinton administration, adding the health care taxes from the health care law next year, close to 44 or 45%. that would be a whole new dynamic in taxation in this country. and the president feels that's a political asset, not a liability. >> and is it a political asset, not just becau