the white house denied it. the white house finally conceded that some conversations happened but their message was "trust us. it was not inappropriate. move on -- nothing to see here." this did not pass the test. it is not up to the white house to judge the ethics of their behavior. that right is reserved to the american people once all the tasks are on the table. demand for these fact continues. after three months of intense political pressure, we were served with a memo from the president's larger admitting that contrary to previous denials the white house did in list former president bill clinton to offer an allegedly unhedged -- allegedly unpaid position. the memo raises more questions than answers. the law does not prohibit a offers of only paid positions. offering an unpaid position does nothing to exonerate bill clinton or white house chief of staff rahm emanuel. sestak would not be able to accept the position and remain in congress, which cast doubt about whether this was the job the white house offered

after all of the stonewalling and denying, what is the white house's latest defense? it was just business as usual. enough is enough. if rahm emanuel has been offering government goodies to inconvenient politicians threatening democrat incumbents, then it's time for him to resign. if it comes out that the president knew about any of it, then we have a larger problem. and, if offering political appointments in exchange for sitting out of a campaign is the president's proposal for "job-creation," then we're in for more economic misery. the time has come for more than just self-exonerating claims from the president's lawyer. the department of justice must step in and assign an impartial referee, either in the form of a special investigator or an independent counsel, who can sort out the facts and answer the burning question what did the white house offer to sestak and romanoff, who authorized the offer, who else knew about it and what was the expected trade-off for accepting the offer? the president promised transparency. all we have right now is a series of transparent

my question is how you rate currently the white house press corps? but the informing the voters or is it to scripted? >> it is a reallhard job. carl has made this point. back during watergate, they had this apparatus to keep us from talking to people and t defend, it is even a better and more professional group of pr people, spin doctors, who are there. you have to penetrate that. i think covering the white house daily is a job and they have already and then tfind a way to get behind the scenes -- behind-the-scenes is difficult for the course it is nust the white house press corps. certainly, the run up or whatever you want to call it to the war was an awful moment for the american press with the w md story, missing it, and the most important thinge do as reporters as decide what is news. leading up to the war, i think we did a pretty terrible job about deciding what is news. >> to confess, i knew as much as anyone about it and i fault myself mightily for not being more aggressive in asking the questions. carl talks about common sense. it was ingrain

guest: yes, the white house pointless expenditure by organized labor. i wonder what we would say about $1 billion in afghanistan, more than pointless and terribly destructive. it seemed to be a message from the white house to organized labor, just let us run the show after 16 months, the results are clear. it was supposed to be a priority of this and ministers in. >> this administration. i commend a group called bold progressives, and other such groups -- those that worked very hard to put up a fight against a blue dog corporate democrat named blanche lincoln in arkansas.. the advice coming from the white house foo progressives including organized labor too just say ok, tell us what to do, that does not comport with history if you look back fdr from the 1930's, john kennedy and others froo the 1960's. all the great movements came as a result of the base mobilizing. to the extent, the press has made a mistake of deferringgto the white house for the last 16 months. we have de-mobilized and de- energized our own progressive+ base. host: here is a summary -

at the white house, mr. obama said if law was not an excuse for insurers to try and increase profit. >> insurance companies should see this reform as an opportunity to improve care and increase competition. they shouldn't see it as an opportunity to enact unjustifiable rate increases that don't boost care and inflate their bottom line. >> sreenivasan: the president also announced a package of consumer benefits including a ban on insurers denying coverage to children in poor health. a new plan to combat the problem of homelessness was unveiled today by the obama administration. it aims to end veteran and chronic homelessness by 2015 and eliminate homelessness among families and children by 2020. to accomplish that, the strategy would provide more affordable housing options and better access to sustainable employment. it would also ensure that assistance programs are integrated with health care and education. a key member of president obama's team is stepping down. a white house spokesman confirmed budget dire

my question is how you rate currently the white house press corps?t to scripted? >> it is a really hard job. carl has made this point. back during watergate, they had this apparatus to keep us from talking to people and to defend, it is even a better and more professional group of pr people, spin doctors, who are there. you have to penetrate that. i think covering the white house daily is a job and they have already and then to find a way to get behind the scenes -- behind-the-scenes is difficult for the course it is not just the white house press corps. certainly, the run up or whatever you want to call it to the war was an awful moment for the american press with the w md story, missing it, and the most important thing we do as reporters as decide what is news. leading up to the war, i think we did a pretty terrible job about deciding what is news. >> to confess, i knew as much as anyone about it and i fault myself mightily for not being more aggressive in asking the questions. carl talks about common sense. it was ingrained there are wmd's in iraq

it comes from the white house. they are asking agencies to cut 5% of their budget, to come up with a list that -- of things that are not high priorities or don't match the president's priorities. peter orszag will speak about it today and he wants the list by mid september. san antonio now, john. republican. what do you think? caller: i guess 5% sounds good. of we don't need the part education, department commerce, department of energy. half of the government, we don't need. ok? is ii don't understand, don't think people who called in so far this morning understand anything about taxation and money. that is to say, you had a few callers the said that corporations need to pay taxes. think about that for a minute. we are going to charge a corporation on their profits 50% tax. ok, what ever. any kind of figure. what is going to happen to that 50 percent that we get from the corporations? it will be passed on to the consumers. unfortunately, very few people i think in government understand that because you keep hearing

should she resigned from the white house press corps? for the republicans, the numbers to call in -- you can always reach us at twitter, send it to c-span-wj, and also by e-mail, journal@c- span.org. if you called in and reached "washington journal" in the last 30 days, give others a chance to have their voices heard. here is the story -- "more thomas balad." lanny davis, former special counsel to present and -- these comments were made to a blog there and have been available online. we will give you a look at those comments. this was posted on line over the weekend. something -- some of what helen cupp -- helen thomas had to say. >> any comments of israel? >> tell them to get the out of palestine. [laughter] remember, these people are occupied. and it is their land. not german, not: -- but where should they go? >> go home. >> where is home? >> poland, germany. >> jews should go back to poland and germany. >> and america and everywhere else. host: that video posted on a ,.com. lled rabbiliv here is "the new york post" this morning. this

do you see a change in the white house approach? >> certainly, today's repeat visit by the president is indication that he has received loud and clear the criticism he had gotten from both democrats and republicans that he was not as visible. his presence was not as visible as it had to bement and now we're seeing the narrative of the whole story, judy, move from the well and the gushing a mile below the surface to the har october, whether it's people's lives threatened and livelihoods threatened, beaches, birds, fish, as we saw in ray's piece. and they just-- the oil is now just a reality. and regardless of when we stop it, even though it hasn't been stopped, that's the story. >> woodruff: so david, did this make it look like the president was more in control of what's going on? >> well, the oil is still gushing. there is the still the bad ambience. the oil is still coming out and nobody knows what to do with it. i think people rationally know there is nothing the president could do about something. but the ambience is bad and they

to the oil spilled from today's white house briefing. on tomorrow's "washington journal", a look at the war in afghanistan with congressman joe wilson. we will speak with congresswoman kathy castor about the gulf oil spill and david michaels on protecting the safety of those working in the cleanup effort. "washington journal" is alive, starting at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. >> she was 8 -- he was a complicated, the press of young man and very adventurists. >> take a new look at alexis de tocqueville and his 1831 tour of america. "q & a." c-span's >> a senate hearing on the costs associated with the gulf of mexico oil spill. testifying are the bp vice president in charge of the claims process, and officials from the coast guard and government accountability office. senator tom corporate shares this hour, 45 minute hearing -- senator tom carper chairs this hour, 45 minute hearing. >> we will come to order. i want to welcome my neighbor from across the delaware river, my colleague. before i call on him, i would like to give an opening sta

what is the white house reaction? >> this is something that the president's discussed with his team prior to the release of that that halted the 33 existing drilling actions. take lightly, but i think isnot important that we understand exactly why this accident happened, and insure that -- ensure that if there was something that was preventable, then we in surensure that every one of these drilling permits takes everything into account. understand that what happened in this incident to those people, after the drilling reached the reservoir of oil, in the process of tapping -- capping ttat well. each of these actions is in some part in reaching that well. let's ensure that we are capping those walls with probable out pretenders -- preventers and so forth. i think that is important. the president thinks that is important, and i think the citizens of the gulf think that is important i will say this, gov. jindal sent that letter. he has been very critical, rightly so, of bp for those -- of bp. four of those drilling permi

my question for you is how do you rate currently the white house press corps? are they doing their job? are they informing the voters? >> it is a really hard job. and carl has made this point back in watergate they had this apparatus to keep us from talking to people and to defend. it's even a better more well-founded, more professional group of p.r. people, spin doctors who are there. and you have to penetrate. but i think covering the white house daily is a job and a half already, an then to find a way to get behind the scenes, difficult. >> it's not just the white house press corps but let's look at the bush presidency. that certainly the run-up or whatever you want to call it to the war was an awful moment for the american press in terms of the wmd story -- w.m.d. story, missing it, not really -- the most important thing we do as reporters is decide what is news. and leading up to the war i think we did a pretty terrible job about deciding what is news. >> just to confess, i knew as much as anyone about it and i felt myself mightily for not being more aggre

after he and others met with the president at the white house. we interview one person who was at that meeting. b.p.'s managing director, bob dudley. >> ifill: and we assess the political fallout from the continuing crisis with cynthia tucker, michael gerson and ellen fitzpatrick. >> woodruff: then, a report about a project aimed at moving from fossil fuels to wind energy just south of the u-s mexico border. >> ifill: and a second mexico story ... an update on the drug violence which has killed hundreds in the last week ... and thousands in the last four years ...ray suarez reports >> plus jeffrey brown tells the story of tap dance great maurice hines passing the torch and tradition to a new generation >> ifill: that's all ahead... on tonight's newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: this is the engine that connects zero emission technologies to breathing a little easier, while taking 4.6 million truckloads off the road every year. bnsf, the engine that connects us. and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting scie

we need to demand the political atmosphere where we can force the white house to move. host: "still glad that obama is president? agree or not? think we should give him the time line in the way he proposed? guest: is a high jump over low standards to say i am glad. certainly i am glad that he is not bush or mccain. but this could go on for a very long time, like in the vietnam war. we are going over a cliff with a bigger chance to compound moral felony. host: when the president went to afghanistan you compared it to the lyndon johnson visit to south vieenam. guest: it was chilling to read an article about that day regarding lyndon johnson and howl of be the soldiers were to hear the president's energy. he said something like we're going to nail the cap to the wall. there was his own rhetoric, putting on his jacket and so forth. but it does not do us any good because the reality is that this war is still going on. it is clear in "the new york times." yes, they are different countries, but the psychological mechanisms and the process along pennsylvania avenue and in washi

the white house had no comment. so the article goes on and discusses in quite some length about the 9/11 trial and the problems and figuring out what to do about it. and then while i was looking % this weekend, i saw some great news. this is from the "new york times" and this is exactly quoting from the "new york times" article, five charged in the 9/11 attacks seek to plead guilty. so they're going to plead guilty. great news in guantanamo bay, cuba. the five detainees charged with coordinating the september 11 attacks told a military judge on monday that they wanted to confess in full and a move that seemed to challenge the government to put them to death. well, that's great news, because we have this article on sunday saying the attorney general and this administration can't decide what to do about the trials great news, they're going to plead guilty. another quote from the article said at the start what has been listed as routine proceedings said they had written a statement from the five men charged or dated th

was the white house pushing for that? >> i don't know if others had conversations with admiral allen. i don't think there is any doubts that we have seen comments from the ceo that he has apologized for, and rightly so. i don't think a ceo needs to tell people on the gulf that there is not any pollution. there are 11 people we would all like to have their lives back there were killed the very first thought of this incident. the harm that is being done there will take years to fix. we will hold bp responsible throughout this process. >> with the preeident in the rose garden threatening are talking about the possibility of criminal actioo, has that made the relationship with bp difficult in any way? it really seems to be a hostile relationship right now. when you are talking about bringing criminal charges against one and then trying to work with them as a partner to solve our problem. >> they have an obligation to fix the whole that is on the bottom of the ocean floor. we have an obligation as the federal government to ens

where he could manage the census of counting the people, real or imagined, in the white house. and the public uproar over acorn caused him to back away from that and sever the relationship that he had, that acorn was to be working as a contractor with the census department. doesn't mean because they decided not to have a formal contract with acorn that acorn wasn't going to be involved in the census. we know that people are policy, that there are a lot of acorn people involved in the census. how could there not be with nearly half a million people working to create the 306 million or so people that we are. when we follow the money, when we track acorn, if the path -- the path leads us to the white house. acorn should be investigated by any legitimate justice department. kinston, north carolina, didn't need to take place. the voice of the people said, we don't want partisan elections. we don't want to vote for the political party, can selled by loretta king and the justice department. we don't need to have voter intimidation with new blackk panthers out there with billy clubs an

i will say, though, that if the white house wanted to sweep this under the rug and keep general mcchrystal, they could have easily done that. they could have -- there's a number of ways they could have swept this under the rug. so i think actually their response confirms what i wrote in the story, which is the relationship between general mcchrystal and the white house was obviously fraught with tension. >> larry: all right. is there a part of you that's feeling a little sad for the general? >> well, obviously general mcchrystal is a very impressive individual in many ways. i write about that in the story. he's a great warrior so to speak. he's the kind of person you actually do want out there fighting, you know, wars on behalf of the united states. i think the problem becomes in my view is when guys like general mcchrystal who spent their last nine years fighting these wars and they've made huge sacrifices to fight these wars, unimaginable sacrifices. general mcchrystal himself would only see his wife i think less than 30 days a year for 5 out of the last 7 years. but i think when war bec

the next song we'd like to do is a song i have been itching to do at the white house. i hope the president will forgive me if i sing this one. (laughter) (applause) ♪ michelle, my belle, these are words. ♪ that go together well, my michelle. ♪ michelle, my belle ... ♪ ♪ let it be, let it, let it be, let it be. ♪ there will be an answer, let it be ♪ ♪ let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be. ♪ whisper words of wisdom let it be ♪ ♪ hey jude, don't make it bad, take a sad song. ♪ and make it better , remember to let her under your skin. ♪ then you begin to make it better, better, better, better ♪ ♪ nah, nah, nah, hey jude ♪ ♪ nah, nah, nah, hey jude ♪ >> lehrer: the entire concert will air july 28 on most pbs stations. it's part of the in performance at the white house series. >> woodruff: again, the major developments of the day: b.p. managed to cut the pipe spewing oil deep in the gulf of mexico. the next step was containing the flow, and pumping the oil to ships. and thousands of turks mourned those killed when israel raided six aid ships, off gaza. the israelis rej

. >> but i'm ashamed of what happened in the white house yesterday . i think it is a tragedy of the first proportion that a private corporation can be subjected to what i would characterize as a shake-down. >> brown: that statement drew a hail of criticisms from white house officials, congressional democrats and even top republicans. in short order, barton apologized for his apology, apparently under duress. it was widely reported house minority leader john boehner and others had wander he'd lose his committee position otherwise. there was also new criticism today of b.p. over the slow compensation of victims of the spill. the house judiciary committee reported the oil giant has paid less than 12% of the damage claims submitted so far. the newly appointed oversear of that $20 billion compensation fund made his first visit to the gulf region today. ken feinberg previously served as special master of the september 11 victim compensation fund and more recentlyalities the so-called compensation czar monitoring executive pay at companies that received gover

we do anticipate they're going to talk about her years at the white house. a couple of years and her time as dean at the harvard law school. to what extent, marcia, though is this criticism that she's inexperienced likely to stick? because as several of the senators pointed out a third of the justices who have ever sat on the supreme court had no judicial background? >> well, i think it will stick to a certain degree. i mean she is a very different kind of nominee for these senators. perhaps not for the senators who sat more than 50 years ago. she doesn't have the practical legal experience of actually being in the courtroom , handling trials, talking to juries that other non-judicial nominees to the court had. many of them though also had political experience . so in that sense, she has a thin record. but i think what we're going to learn is that she brings a different kind of experience and the public have to judge whether they feel that is sufficient. she was or has been for the past year solicitor general of the united states. many say that that is the b

the white house. never before in a bankruptcy court. you can't get justice out of a scenario of a chapter 11 bankruptcy court that allows the same entity that's setting the terms to be the entity that's buying. the white house is saying, here's what the value of chrysler is and here's what we're willing to pay and nobody else gets to be better and in the case of general motors, take these shares away from the shareholders, take the assets away from the secured bond holders and hand them over to the united auto workers so, what, so they can run the business of general motors for the people -- the benefit of the people affected by it. doesn't that sound good? doesn't it sound great, madam speaker? run a fortune 500 run by the people affected by it. where have i heard that language before? run a business for the benefit of the people affected by it. oh, yes. i know where i heard that language before, madam speaker. i read it on the socialist website. you can go read it yourself. dsausa.org. they want to nationalize the fortune 500 companie

we know that bp has not been to the white house to talk to the president. have any of the rest of you had conversations with the white house about the management of the situation in the gulf? mr. tillerson rrmark >-- mr. tillerson? >> that was a very brief conversation. >> with the president or with his advisers? >> with both. >> let me ask you a question. a week ago we went down to the gulf and had a hearing on the investigation. we heard from workers on the rig. i did not get a bit of information that date from yourself, transocean, halliburton, and others. i learned a lot more from the ladies talking about the phone calls that they had with their husbands, phone calls, when they came home for visits. there seemed to be a lot of concern about things that are happening on the rig. have any of you work on a rig? >> not a deep water rig, but i have worked on rigs during my career. >> it is that unusual? i go home and complain about mr. markey a lot. [laughter] it is that usual to have that level of anxiety that these people were sharing with their wives abou

what about the idea of a white house summit on democracy issu?ve had a summit on the fiscal ficit. what about on democracy stuffs and what we can do about it? what about engaging and leading on these issues going forward? these will not be the easy things to do. tremendous challenges remain for all of us who are in the field. but the stakes are too high, the consequences of continued goes our democratic failure to fighting for us not to make every effort that we possibly cato make real progress on these fundamental democracy issues. it's a tall order, but we have no choice but to attempted. and i want to welcome all of you who have come here to participate today. we are starting out. if we go to our panels with a real treat, think him as we begin will hear from norm eisen. let me introduce and properly. knowg has served as special counsel to the president for ethics and government. reform since the beginning of the obama adminisation. in that capacity he has helped lead the administration's initiatives on government ethics, lobbying regulation an

my question is how you rate currently the white house press corps?he informing the voters or is it to scripted? >> it is a really hard job. carl has made this point. back ding watergate, they had this apparatus to keep us from talking to people and to defend, it is even a better and more professional group of pr people, spin doctors, who are there. you have to penetrate tt. ihink covering the white house daily is a job andhey have already and then to find a way to get behind the scenes -- behind-the-scenes is difficult for the course it is not just the white house press corps. certainly, the run up or whatever you want to call it to the war was an awful moment for the american press with the w md story, missing it, and the most important thing we do as reporters as decide what is news. leading up to the war, i think we did a pretty teible job about deciding what is news. >> to confess, i knew as much as anyone about it and i fault myself mightily for not being more aggressive in asking the questions. carl talks about common sense. it was ingrained th

we will take you live to the white house. admiral thad allen briefing reporters, along with robert gibbs. >> produced 11,000 barrels of oil. they continue to increase over theefirst three days of operation. we have gone from 6000 to 11,000, tried to increase the production rate and ultimately closed the valves and move to greater capacity. bp anticipates moving another crafted that can actually handle additional production. the combination of the two, the so-called q4000, capability of 20,000 barrels a day. looking to increase production, as i said, so we can slowly close those drips and see have a containment cap is dripping. in a long run, also looking at bringing larger production vessels and to create a more permanent connection that can be disconnected easily in case we have a hurricane or bad weather later on in the hurricane season. and we will continue to optimize the production out of the well and contain it. as i said several occasions though, the longtime solution will be drilling the relief wells, targeted early a

>> not that i know of. >> is the white house trying to arrange a meeting between the white house and the chairman of the board? >> there are concerns we number of things. i would not rule out. >> [inaudible] the families is a drilling is our economic lifeline. what are you going to allow now and is there a danger of you cutting off our livelihhod? >> i don't think senator landrieu was there. i know that governor jindal and senator vitter were there. he is and have to wait six months for them to come to him. as they look to these issues, it is looking at them sequentially to figure out a regulatory structure that works for deepwater drilling. that does not have to wait six months. obviously, we are looking at a number of ways to ensure their economic livelihood. i would not be surprised if you had people in some of these parishes and have kids that work on rigs and ids that fish in the sameefamily. 37% of the gulf is closed to fishing because of an accident involving a deep water drilling operation. the president, while understanding of the economic cost of pausing those ongoing drill

we saw the white house just last week ask each government agency to kit 5% from their budgets. while we applaud their intentions, house republicans are offering a way to cut spending, not tomorrow, not next week, but right now with youcut. there's no doubt that our debt situation is reaching a crisis point that demands a united, bipartisan effort to solve it. i'll be the first raise my hand to say that the republicans have played a part to contributing to problems in the past. but for those americans out there struggling to pay their mortgages, does it really matter to them whose fault it was? i come to the floor today, madam speaker to urge my democratic colleagues to join us in supporting this week's winning youcut proposal to reform fannie mae and freddie mac which received 45% of the vote on youcut. scott garrett and jeb hensarling's proposal would save $35 billion in taxpayer money over the next decade. the two government-sponsored enterprises have wracked una tab of $45 billion and counting. if we dot reform fannie and freddie that price tag will only rise. there's no doub

>> we have some cable choices right there in the white house. -- capable choices right there in the whiteouse. i think it is important that you have an economist of orszag's ability. secondly, you need somebody who is very capable and understands the budget, which is not something you can do on the job. it needs to be someone who has a good grasp of the budget process. many would fit that bill. i think the president has several tauruses and all of them good. >> i want to -- several choices and all of them good. >> i want to talk to you about your own race. republicans seem to be going for your district. i wonder if you could talk about the political battle back home. what is the environment when you go out and talk to folks? what are they asking you, and what is your sense of this election season? >> jobs, work, and the economy, no question. i have 14 counties just south of charlotte, n.c. and the unemployment rate in all 14 has been in the double digits for some time now. there is one district of a cyclical unemployment layered on top of structural unemployment. the structural unemployme

is the white house -- in the fund pot. is the white house involved in that? >> there are ways to take care of all of those who made you were not eligible for unemployment, like contractors. we're looking at a variety of different sources were some of those orkers can be compensated. the >>> the president asked his commission to see if they could have en hawes -- cooper have some findings on the moratorium. do you have an eta on that? >> i will have to give back to you. >> is there a challenge in addressing the immigration law? >> this has been addressed, but we will check with the folks at the justice department to see the status on that. >> meaning no decision has been made on the challenge? >> yes. protector the oil rig workers -- >> back to the oil rig workers, can they claim money separately? can money for the oil rig workers be taken from the $20 billion? >> it is a separate pool of money. if there are affected because of some other business that they own or claim that they may, i do not think that will be affected. >> the $20 billion was a goodwill gest

bush and ross perot battle for the white house. stronger numbers now?uest: we thought it was interesting, particularly the 1994 election. you thought there would have been a surge then. but there was not. but there was not. the next highest total was in 1992, when you had that memorable presidential race between clinton and george stage h.w. bush and ross perot. the record 100 candidates that year. -- there were 2100 candidates that year. host: tell us about what you are watching. with the runoff and arkansas, battles and nevada, california. guest: there are 12 states with primaries. it should give another indication of just where the electorate is, just how angry voters are. there are two races were incumbents seem to be on the ropes. in arkansas, blanche lincoln, a two-term democratic senator is being challenged from the left by the lieutenant governor. she was forced into a runoff in the primary and their runoff is tuesday. it is never good for an incumbent when you are forced into a runoff. so she has her work cut out for her. and in south carolina,

i think the white house has been interested in getting wrapped up. president, goes to toronto this weekend to meet with g-20 leaders. this legislation, if wrapped up, would give him leverage when speaking with foreign leaders to press them to reform their own banking systems as well. host: talk to us about what happened yesterday. it sounds like they came near a deal regarding the volcker rule. guest: the volcker rule is a rule proposed by the former fed chairman, now white house adviser, paul volcker, the taliban banks from using their own money -- basically doing proprietary trading to buy and sell securities on the market purely for their own profit, not on behalf of their clients. it has not yet been formalized, but there is a discussion about exempting firms like insurance companies and mutual funds that could secure the support of senator staff browbrown, one ofe republican senators to support the bill on the floor. it is something we will see later in the week, not today. host: you said senate negotiators have a little more power here. will it

and the white house has been an uncertain trumpet.dministration reforms are too often too timid and too readily compromise along the way carr. too often the challenge to entrenched interest was muted in the search for thed deal. it has sparked a rapid reaction on a stream right, but with progressives and managed and legislative battles and with the present reluctant to draw clear ideological differences, the fate populism on the right gained greater attraction that might otherwise have gotten. focusing public anger not on l'wren is conservative policies that caused the crisis but on the administration's -- not on the ruinous policies that caused the crisis but on the administration. now they are taking over the asylum. they portray speaker pelosi as deville.ve bicruella newt gingrich has a book out indicting the secular, socialist obama regime. if obama succeeds, america will cease to be a free enterprise nation. this is nonsense and hysteria is needed by the right to distract from the bankruptcy of their own ideas. west virginia, the

and the white house has played been-- been playing catch-up. i think they've done it better with 245d allen. the coast guard admiral out there i think he is a very effective spokesman. i do think there is a sense, the president's own involvement now and continuing involvement which they have somehow downplayed at the outset. >> lehrer: how do you feel about the language issue, david in. >> well, when i look at the problem of the gulf i'm reallying this thinking i really wish the president would be cursing more. so i agree with mark. it was extraneous t was unnaferment and unusual for him. he is the sort of person that doesn't look like he needs public approval. it isn't going to go out of his own skin in order to win it. and yet in this case, he did. and i thought, so i thought it was an unfortunate moment. but you know, the political pressure is racheting up of the polls are extremely negative now when people are asked how do you think the government is handling this. the polls are more negative than how they thought bush was handling katrina.

a white house statement said mr. obama expressed condolences for the loss of lives and he promised support for a credible investigation of the israeli raid. >> lehrer: now the other news of the day. here is hari sreenivasan in our news room. >> sreenivasan: al qaeda acknowledged today its number three leader has been killed. the group announced the death of mustaf a al yazid along with his wife and other relatives. it gave no details. u.s. and pakistani officials said it happened in north waziristan along the afghan- pakistani border. they said he was killed by a u.s. missile attack last month. iraq has moved one step closer today to a possible end of its election impasse. the country's supreme court ratified the results from last march. the secular alliance, led by former prime minister ayad allawi, won two more seats in parliament than the prime miles an hourster a.l. maliki and his coalition's total but no one claimed a majority and the parties remain at odds over how to form one. in afghanistan, elite government

we heard a lot about memos she wrote when she was an aide in the clinton white house. why would you say the republicans were not more able to turn those-- and other things that she's done-- into negatives? >> well, judy, i don't think there was just a whole lot for them to latch on to. we heard an awful lot from the republicans about the recruiting of military at harvard law school and the law school's nondiscrimination policy. and i think senator sessions and senator graham came closest to actually questioning her honesty when she said that she was trying to juggle the solman amendment, which required equal access for military recruiting at the law school, and the law school's nondiscrimination policy . they felt that she was making a political statement when she did not allow the military to use the office of career services at the law school. so at that point, it's just who do you believe? the other things they had to look at, for example, they questioned memos she wrote when she was a law clerk. this was back when she was in her early 20s and was clerking for justi

. >> ifill: at the white house today coast guard admiral thad allen who is in charge of the federal effort said a second ship is on its way. >> b.p. anticipates moving another craft in that can actually handle additional production. and the combination of these two vessels, it is called the q-4,000 combined will have a production capability of about 20,000 barrels a day. >> ifill: but allen said government scientists have not yet settled on a firm estimate of how much oil is actually flowing from the well head. >> we're no longer dealing with a large monolithic spill, we're dealing with aning aregave of hundreds of thousands of patches of oiling go in different directions. we have had to adapt and need to adapt to meet that threat. >> ifill: allen said about 100 large ships and 1500 small fishing boats are now involved in the cleanup. skimming and in some locations burning oil from the surface. for fishermen up and down the coast h that help can't come soon enough. >> the area we're in right now this is some of the best fishing in the whole region and the oil's coming in, just wave after w

host: well, the context is this white house has already done other white houses, and the idea that if someone from within one of the agencies or spread some type of information that's meant to be secret to the media, that the white house is very active in prosecuting this legally, and probably -- according to the "new york times," has done so more than any other previous administration, and so in light administration, and so in light of that, we wanted to see, you know, the need for secrecy in a democracy and how much is needed. paller: well, this expertise they're using in prosecuting the leaks there, if they could gather all that together and plug that big leak down there in the gulf, i think they'd all be a lot happier. host: rome, wyoming, is next, on our independent line. gene, go ahead. caller: yeah, hey, how you doing this morning? it's actually rollins, wyoming. it's kind of a funky little republican more or less town in wyoming. i would advise anybody from michigan not to bother to move to. anybody, i read a really interesting book about 10 years ago, published in 2000 by jim

white-haired man. he has gotten more than the whole house and senate will ever know. the united states of america will miss the beautiful white- haired man. i miss him right now so much that i could cry. host: thank you for calling in. joseph on our independent line, washington, d.c. caller: hi, peter. i'm a west virginian. i lived in washington -- live in washington. i have a lot of memories of the senator byrd. i have to say that i will offer condolences to his family and your the historic figure. -- and him as a historic madri -- a historic figure. not have the same views of robert byrd as the lady who just called it he took too long to change. 1964, he filibustered the civil rights bill. there are the things he could have done for minorities -- other things he could have done for minorities. i think he is called some, with his views on the war of late, -- he evolved some, with his views on the war of late. his relationship with ted kennedy is well documented he is one of the greatest orators the senate ever had. i met him twice. his mind was not as it once was, but

what about the idea of a white house summit odemocracy issues?ve had a summit on the fiscal deficit. wh about on democracy stuff is and what we can do about it? what about engaging and leag on these issues going forward? these will not be t easy things to do. tremenus challenges remainor all of us whare in the field. but the stakes are too high, the consequences of continu goes our democratic failure to fighting for us not to make evereffortthat we possibly can to make real progress on thes fundamental democracy issues. it's a tall order, but we have no choice but to attempted. and i want to welcome all of you who have come here to participate today. we are starting out. if we go to our panels with a real treat, i think him as we begin will hear from nor eisen. let me introduce and properly. knowing hasserved as special counsel to the president for ethicsnd gvernme. reform since the beginning of the obama admnistration. in tt capacity he has helped lead the administration's initiatives on government ethics, lobbying regulation nd open government.

any wonder that the white house budget director plans to resign next month. if the hard work of budgeting can be ignored by the majority in congress while we are facing trrllions in debt, why worry about a budget. so the budget director must ot feel needed at the moment. the power of the purse resides in congress. we all look forward to the ideas that may come from the commission that may be inspired and the answer to our prayers. but the commission is not the reason for and difficult indicating our responsibility to start work now on reducing our % debt. and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from ohio rise? >> address the house for one minute revise and extend. mr. boccieri: today, i rise to acknowledge two businesses in my ohio district helping to combat the b.p. disaster in the gulf.%% stanwood boom works is one of 10 companies producing oil booms to help contain spilled oil. boom works has hired 80 new local workerssand producing 250 booms a day. boom works supplied more than 1,000 oil booms for the gulf coast work