senate. the clerk: washington d.c., august 1, 2013. to the senate: under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable brian schatz a senator from the state of hawaii, to perform the duties of the chair. signed: patrick j. leahy, president pro tempore. mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: i note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: mr. reid: mr. president? the presiding officer: the majority leader. mr. reid: i have a few matters -- the presiding officer: we are in a quorum call. mr. reid: i'm going to consent to terminate it. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. reid: mr. president, following leader remarks, the senate will be in morning business until 11:00 this morning. the time until that will be equally divided and controlled between the majority leader and the republican leader. at 11:00 the senate will proceed to executive

it wouldn't pass the senate. and you would try to come up with some sort of compromise in conference that might delay implementation of the individual mandate. plenty of bills gone to conference that have not worked out in the end. there is no compromise so the law is enacted as it is. do you think that's going to happen in this case? >> you know, i don't know. i think there is always a great desire not to shut the government down. and you use that desire to try to get a compromise. and i think ultimately you could in conference committee either make the lawless bad or delay the individual mandate or delay the whole thing. even the president is very concerned about this law because is he delaying the individual-00 employer mandate because he is concerned maybe about what it will happen in the elections when it is seen that insurance premiums go up and actually, there are more problems than there are benefits. >> you have said, that you would not vote for a continuing resolution in the senate if it includes fundin

connecticut reds 22 then the senate stands reds 22 then the senate stands in the senate today lawmakers failed to advance a 54 billion-dollar bill that would have funded transportation projects in housing and are looking -- urban development programs in 2014. in a vote of 54-43 the chamber fell six shorts vote votes short that would have set a vote on final passage. after the boat harry reid and other senate democratic leaders spoke with reporters about the outcome. >> we have heard the cry for a couple of years now about regular order. i would hope those people would ask for regular order would refer to the constitution which says no money shall be drawn from the treasury but in consequence of appropriations made by law. it's hard to find a more basic duty of congress than to pass appropriations bills. and to pass appropriation bill we have to start the process. the senate needs to act in the house needs to act. we need to work something out in conference. we chose the transportation bill because it's a matter for which there has been broad bipartisan support. the committee reported th

senate. >> chris christie, one of his latest moves as new jersey governor has outlawed therapy designed to turn gay people straight. for children 18 and under. what do you think of that decision? >> i like chris christie. i think he is a straightforward, brash sometimes blunt speaker. i think he's someone who has managed to stand up and defend his principles in a state that is historically not very friendly to republicans. and i'm glad for that. the decisions that states make, locally about health care, i think are best left to the states. >> could you see yourself on a ticket with chris christie? >> i am not going to speculate about the future. i can tell you my focus is 100% on the u.s. senate. because the senate right now is the battleground. >> so if it says, if i read and i did, that you were quote seriously muscling running in 2016, that's incorrect? >> you know, i find it amusing. these stories that speculate about, i don't even know what seriously muscling means. what i can tell you -

>> guest: senator senator you alluded to how quickly the communication landscape is changing the. is that part of the explanation for why we have seen reluctance from congress to take on some of these larger technology focuses in legislation things like the rewrite of the telecommunications act? we hear people say these laws are outdated but the same time there's a real risk of legislating and seeing the market shifted to your feet. >> guest: that's exactly right and if you think about something like À la carte i don't know if there will be a need for À la carte. i don't know but it's possible if congress gets in and tries to legislate too much into specifically in these areas then all of a sudden we stifle innovation and we prevent the investment that we need to keep the cutting-edge in the u.s. economy like we have. i have people sit in my office thing we need to rewrite the 1996 act. tell me why you think so. the internet is only mentioned twice now in office two that then they say again about than in 95 and 96 the telephone companies local versus long distance. we have moved

senators, welcome. >> senator chambliss, let me start with you. your republican colleague in the house, peter king, said this threat, this al qaeda threat, is the most significant that we've seen in many years. what have you been told about it? >> well, the one thing that we can talk about, david, is the fact that there's an awful lot of chatter out there. chatter means conversation among terrorists about the planning that's going on, very reminiscent of what we saw pre-9/11. we didn't take heed on 9/11 in a way that we should, but here i think it's very important that we do take the right kind of planning as we come to the close of ramadan. we know that's always an interesting time for terrorists. we're also, what, 38 days, 37 days away from the september 11th anniversary. so we're paying very, very close attention to the chatter that's going on, and i can tell you, david, this is the most serious threat that i've seen in the last several years. >> can i just press a little bit? what makes it so serious in is it the nature of what the attack coul

senate. they should have gained it in 2010 and doubled up on it in 2012 but because they have this fight and vote on shutting down the government could end up again nominating people like sharron angle sharron angle and why they nominated her in nevada. looks like 2014, republicans should have a great shot at senate. may not happen. >> okay let's talk about that. let's look at landscape for 2014 after a special election in new jersey, which the democrats are expected to win in october there will likely be we will assume that, 55 senators voting with democrats. 45 republicans. which mean the gop will need a net pick up, net pick up of six seats to take back the senate. but republicans have one advantage. they are defending only 15 seats in 2014 while democrats are defending 20 seats they now hold. chip, i know it is a little silly but we like to play these games. looking at it from the vaptage point of summer 2013 how good are republican prospects for november of 2014? >> i'm going third time'

there he will usher senate democrats out of town for the recess. but it is becoming clear that this president needs a vacation that is still 10 days away. president oba headed to an amazon distribution center in chattanooga, tennessee. there he delivered a wide range of speech on jobs, the economy, obamacare, just a little spin on the sequestered in the keystone pipeline. take a listen to this gem today from president obama. >> this same group has kept in place this meat cleaver called the sequester that is just splashing all kinds of important investments in education and research. if public-sector employees were like the last two sessions cme in the unemployment would be 6.5% instead of 7.5%. our economy would be much better off. we are now as president obama using two hypotheticals, slamming the sequester and the incipient cause of all of our unemplment problems. he did not ention that that is the ve same sequestered in his white house proposed. the same sequter that he signed into law. ed henry will have more on the president's speech speech in

as our senator. privilegeeasure and a to be able to introduce her today. please help me welcome senator kelly ayotte. [applause] >> thank you. thank you so much. i am deeply honored to be here tonight, especially with my wing man, joe, who is with me. i want to thank joe. at the ambassador and augusta, everything they have done for the party, and time and time and again hosting this event, their activism -- we are so blessed to have great americans like augusta and joe petrone. thank you so much, both of you. ambassador, you are wonderful. and i want to thank our party chairman, janitor horn -- je horn, for her dedication, for her tenacity. she does not back down from a fight. principles,or our and she works very, very hard. we are grateful for what you are doing for our party. i know that jennifer and all of you are working incredibly hard to make sure that 2014 is a winning year here in new hampshire for republicans. ad i will tell you this -- winning year we need not just in new hampshire, but we

you have senators like senator wyden and udall and others who have said, and senator leahy, who don't the program is effective. as to whether americans' privacy is being violated, just ask my constituents. if i go back home to a town hall or meeting, they will tell you that their privacy is being violated. the court case that the justice department, the intelligence community, rely on so heavily is a court case from the 1970s where one person was under suspicion for a limited period of time, and they collected his records. that's very different from collecting the phone records and other data of every single american in the united states. >> well, general, let's get directly to this, answer these two concerns. to the congressman's constituents in grand rapids, michigan, explain why their privacy is not being violated. specifically why do you need this information on every phone call that's made by every american? again, just the fact of the phone call, not the content. why do you need that to fight terror? >> well, let's start with the legal premise here, chris. i realize smith versus

gwen: and that was before the majority leader told senators to sit down and shut up. acrimony, gridlock and politics as usual. >> it's almost like there's a gone campaigning sign. outside the oval office. >> i have now run my last campaign. i do not intend to wait until the next campaign or the next president before tackling the issues that matter. >> the agenda of the republicans saying to the president our agenda is nothing and our timetable is never. >> we'll take this one step at a time and i'm sure the august recess will have our members in a better mood when they come back. gwen: is this is new normal for democrats and republicans to fight amongst themselves until the next election? we dig deeper on that tonight with dan balz of the "washington post," jackie calmes of "the new york times" and john dickerson of "slate" magazine and cbs news. >> award-winning reporting and analysis. covering history as it happens. live from our nation's capital, this is "washington week with gwen ifill". corporate funding for "washington week" is provided by -- >> we went out and

but the senate has the ability to amend it. and the senate democrats have the vote to amend it to send it back to say, okay, we now approve spending for obama care, we took back your exact provisions and we're sending it back to you. >> apparently sensing that he was getting nowhere with the procedural argument, karl rove summarized the politics this way. >> and who gets blamed? does anybody think that the republicans are going to escape being blamed for our troops not being paid, our prison guards not getting paid? our border patrol not being paid? let's not kid ourselves, we'll be blamed. >> joining me now, msnbc's krystal ball and ari melber. what do you think is on the other side of the play here, the republican leadership will get passed among this? >> it is going to have to be something like that. because the rand pauls of the world, the mike lees of the world, the ted cruzs of the world, they are too invested in their future of placating the tea party to totally back down on this. so they're going to have to do something

aama's nevada yes-man or kentuckian to run the senate question mark -- senate? thank you for all you are doing. we are going to have a lot of fun. [applause] >> we want mitch. we want mitch. we want mitch. >> i would like to thank saint jerome for hosting the annual fancy farm picnic. it is great to be back here in west kentucky. to i only have six minutes speak today and i have a great piece of advice. he told me i could take two minutes for my speech by using i instead of referring to myself as alison lundergan grimes. alison lundergan grimes is a long name. where else would you find a name -- [booing] my name was so long that my grandmother decided we would do something about it. with your help, come january 2015, you can call me senator. [applause] [booing] now i know senator mcconnell will say i am not right for the job because unlike him i have not been in washington, d.c. for 30 years. do i really need to apologize for having more government experience than rand paul? i know many of you want to see rand paul here today. he is spending the weekend with his

but the difference between senate and house is that senate realizes it still does need to be legislated. they did pass the farm bill and sent it back to the house. same thing with the budget and with immigration. it is still very much on the house site to learn how to legislate and recognizing their role in order to not just make sure they continue working but also because they realize they may have a shot at regaining the senate in 2014. and more importantly a shot at white house. that's not the dysfunction right now, seeping through the republican party on the house side, doesn't just past mustard. and is the house satisfied controlling the republican side or do they want the big gem, the white house. but mcconnell, one of the problems with his race is that his platform is a referendum on obama care and both candidates in the race on the democratic side and the guy in the primary, they make a referendum all about him. >> also to this point about obama care, we also know that within the republican caucus there are very different ideas about the house will just keep voting to repeal it.

senator, let me start with you. this is frankly, i'm sure sarah remembers this during the bush years. always comes up when the country is put on a terror footing and nothing happens. then we have this debate. is it a relevant debate? are we now overdebating? >> i think it's pretty much a thoughtless debate. in the sense -- put yourself in the oval office and have intelligence officials come to you with threats you think and they think are credible threats. my hope is president will always exercise caution on behalf of this country in the face of those so-called credible threats. it doesn't matter what action a president will take. the president these days, and this political system is always going to be criticized, i think the president's willing to take some criticism for his action here based on what he thought was the right thing for the country. based on the threat. >> you guys dealt with this criticism as well when the -- back during the color alert levels. there would be a big pronouncement. >> i think you're

why do you want to be a senator, though? after years of being in a do-nothing congress do you want to join a do-nothing senate? >> i want to make them a do-something senate. i want to get there with elizabeth warren. >> stephen: everybody wants to get there with elizabeth warren. (cheers and applause) >> i just want to make sure that kids get the health they need to get to college. >> stephen: you're running against newark mayor corey booker. >> or he's running against me. >> stephen: if cory booker is elect head would be the first black senator from new jersey. tell the people of new jersey right now why you think it's a bad idea to elect the first black senator from new jersey. (laughter) why is that so important to you to stop that? >> you know, race is something that is losing its meaning. when you realize that most people in america are of mixed heritage --. >> stephen: all right. you were on "jeopardy" -- let me rephrase that. this man has five wins on "jeopardy" and even beat the i.b.m. supercomputer wattson. >> who i

lou: on that, senator mccain talks about the immigration debate. and the "chalk talk", we will ow you how that might be a little uncomfortable for t my mother made the best toffee in the world it's delicious. so now we' turned her toffee into a business. my goal was to take an idea and make it happen. i'm janet long d i formed my toffee company through legalzoom. never really thought i would make money doing what i love. [ robert ] we created legalzoom to help people start their business and launch their dreams. go to legalzoom.com today and make your business dream a reality. at legalzoom.com we put the law on your side. lou: senator john mccain is making a lot of friends in the republican party. in this interview was a lot of rambling. there he slammed my colleagues at fox news. calling their coverage of the immigration legislation ebate so let's take a look at it the senate. you are part of president obama's new best friends forever. just today. >> don'tget me wrong, you have earned the applause. >> to joke it would be a tough choice is the cand

, of course, democrats run the senate, that they are considering bringing back the senate before the scheduled return date, which is september 9. nothing has been decided yet. the house side, which of course is run by republicans, i was just in touch with a member of the republican leadership who said that the plan is still to wait until september 9. now, this is all very, very fast-moving, so all of that can change. but it's entirely possible that both could come back. if the senate comes back, it would be hard to see the house just kind of staying home next week and not returning to follow suit. that's in terms of the schedule. the thing that i would add in terms of the critical question, which is, would this pass, that is why we n-- we now have a bet sense of why the administration has become hyper-aggressive in getting information to members of congress. right about now, there should be a conference call starting with senate republicans. a little bit later there will be a conference call with senate democrats, and then tomorrow, on a sunday, labor day weekend, they are going to h

entered the senate, which is rare for senators. but he was both serious and deliberate about the causes he believed in and was willing to push as hard as he could on certain causes. but he's also very careful because it was always in the back of his mind that he was running for president. he eventually did. and the people who go into the senate serious about running for president ultimately play within fairly careful boundaries, ryan. that's what i expect to see him do. >> i think he'll be very tactical about it. and i think that you'll see him behave differently than senators in the way that he uses social media. but he'll do it in a very tactful kind of way that doesn't offend his -- you know, the rest of his colleagues. he's a very smart actor, very smart, and i think that will continue. and i think you're more likely to see him probably anger folks on the left by working with republicans on issues like pharmaceutical issues or -- and sticking with the white house rather than annoying the white house and sticking with, say, the

senator or lieutenant governor? >> i can say i will run for either my state senate seat or the governor. [applause] >> one more question. this person asks, would you consider running as dp candidates with hillary clinton? -- vp candidate? [applause] >> in answer to that, we will have to find out whether she is planning to run for president first. what can you parlay this into next? >> i do think the extraordinary outcome is what i talked about in my speech. and continuing the conversation in texas. not just about reproductive rights. whether it is the dramatic defunding of public education that has put us into a battle in the court system texas really is not listening to families. i think it can be attributed to the fact that so many people feel disconnected. they feel like it does not matter. it would be a share to -- it would be making sure i played a part to fix that in texas. >> which legislative rules did you consider when planning the filibuster, those that help you do that for so many hours and those that mig

the same senator mccain and for that matter, senator graham who have spent the last several years calling the president soft on foreign policy. and a threat to world order. i mean, is this for real? like is this for real at all? john mccain is going to egypt on behalf of the president who's foreign policy he called ffectless and written in can disappearing ink. besides the whiplash you may get from just hearing this news, it's real and it may matter for our politics beyond the question of egypt. if it's true that the log jam in congress has been hurting the country, if it's true as the data suggests that refusal by congress to do anything is dragging down the economy. and making it impossible for the nation to address basic problems, then two republican senators wading into egypt on behalf of a democratic president might signal some sort of actual change in that republicans who have played a specialty of refusing to govern are suddenly choosing to take part in government. and it might be that the log jam in washington is breaking. i mean, just a little, with republican leaders no longer u

senate seat. after u.s. senator frank lautenberg died in june, new jersey governor chris christie appointed a replacement senator to keep that seat essentially occupied until new jersey voters could choose who they wanted to take that seat for the remainder of mr. lautenberg's term. well, as of tonight, we now know that the two candidates in that election to take frank lautenberg's u.s. senate seat will be for the democratic party the mayor of new jersey new jersey's largest city, cory booker. the republican party, the former mayor of new jersey's 280th largest city, a place called bogota. looks like bogota but say it bogota. lonegan is the former mayor. if you want to get a little flavor of what this race might be like, cory booker versus steve lonegan, mr. lonegan's previous preelection effort as mayor of bogota was subject of a spectacular documentary called "any town usa." >> steve lonegan is an outright liar. >> i hate lonegan. >> put a monkey up against him, i think a monkey would win. >> i have no int

i would have challenged that senator, that southern senator. i would have challenged him and said what the hell are you talking about? to say the word exotic, that's a dog whistle. president obama has -- has reached out to republicans from the north, to the south. i think senator harkin should have challenged him. the notion that they laughed after the senator made those comments, that's reprehensible. so i'm out raged by it. i think it's stupid. it doesn't even in my judgment, it doesn't even meet the standard test that we should give to all our politicians which is if somebody say something wrong, you talk about it. you speak out. he should have challenged him. >> all right. we're going to have to leave it there. donna brazile, ross, jonathan martin, thank you so much. great to see you even if it is long distance. >>> hail to the nfl franchise from washington, d.c. doesn't sound quite right. but one online magazine just dropped the name redskins from its vocabulary. will the nfl care? our sports lead is next. just by talking to a helmet. it g

i was also told by another republican senator who was on a call this afternoon with senators hagel and kerry and others that several republican senators pushed them to say, why are we waiting, this doesn't make a lot of sense. if you think that this is so important, militarily and for others reasons, if we wait, what's to say that assad won't get some civilians and put them in and around the target areas to make the collateral damage worse? the answer was that they were on a non-secure line and they couldn't give the classified reason why they feel comfortable. but it's an excellent question and one that they have debating within the democratic-led senate whether or not to bring them back early next week. >> stick with us. we're going to continue to break down the president's speech. mom, dad told me that cheerios is good for your heart, is that true? says here that cheerios has whole grain oats that can help remove some cholesterol, and that's heart healthy. ♪ [ dad ] jan? >>> welcome back, everyone. i'm john berman with cnn's special coverage of the crisis in syria. we're analyzing

congressman or senator if you do that you will not be prosecuted and we will investigate the wrongdoing both of these gentlemen refused to do that they chose the most public and potentially embarrassing method to the united states to do that maybe said you know that's the only way out is we maybe that the way to change thing is to embarrass the u.s. government because it tortures people we know that it's not the only way to change overnight here on you know you know now having i take issue with it but having a great discussion we're having a great discussion now in the u.s. about privacy we should thank mr snowden for that certainly. yeah absolutely we're having and we should gradually in a conversation about privacy with people on all cut people on all different sides alleging all kinds of different things nobody is really sure what the truth is if we had gone through for instance a congressman or senator and what congressional investigation is this i don't really trust. they had this information it would lying to us for years it took someone else outside the loop to do something time

senator rand paul, senator marco rubio. both are on board with this. but you have a lot of very experienced senators, republican senators, who've been there a long time who are very, very opposed to this. there is going to be a big fight between two sides among republicans. >> you've been reporting that. we've been reporting that. the question how they will pursue that, whether it's defunding or revision or just trying to get rid of it altogether. we don't know. but what about now this new reporting that you're doing about democrats? >> well, obviously you have some democrats who've become very nervous about obama care. you had at least a couple of democratic senators say that it might be a train wreck. and you've had senator harry reid say that it's actually just a step on the road to single payer, which makes a lot of democrats very nervous. what you're going to see is some discussion about whether the individual mandate in obama care could be delayed the way that president obama unilaterally delayed the employer matching. >> take a look at this new

in other words, you like the way the senate works, but the senate doesn't work like it did anyway. in other words, this is a wholly new world. >> and i want to -- >> i wanted to ask bob on the filibuster, but you first. >> i can't argue with the numbers. i understand them, but what you're asking me to accept is because we're going through this, and the numbers are dreadful, you're going to take an institution that's begin us the protections against very bad ideas historically because there was a place where you had to think twice about what you were doing. to me, you give that up, and you lose a great deal. i said it, it depends on where you sit and whether or not you think these are great rules. because of them, i think, are terrible. again, the leadership and the ability of people to know each other, something you or bob pointed out, which i find one of the worst conditions, and that is, you got a staggering number of people now arriving here on monday night, tuesday morningings, leave thursday night or friday mornings, don't know each other at all. no institution, public or priv

joining us with reaction is senator rand paul. senator, welcome back to fox news sunday. good to be with you. >> good morning. >> it was a little more than a week ago that the president insisted to the american people that there was oversight of the program and there was no talk of abuses. >> what you are not reading about is, the government actually abusing these programs. and listening in on people's phone calls or reading people's e-mails. what you are hearing about is the prospect that these could be abused. >> senator paul, what do you make of that statement now that this new information has come to light? >> you know, i think that the president missunderstands the constitutional powers. the checks and balances come from independent branchs of government. if they tell him everything is okay, that the nsa can police themselves. one of the things that our founders put in place was they wanted to separate police power from the judiciary power. they didn't want police to write warrants. they wanted an independent responsive to the people with open debate in public. i thi

are you concerned about senator john mccain? >> i am always concerned about dealmaking for the sake of dealmaking. if one party says here is what i stand for and another says here is what i stand for and in the process you have to say how do we get something done? that is different from saying it is really cool to get some people in the room and let's try to negotiate something. sometimes you look at what senator mccain has done. he has had great accomplishments. he has had a heroic path for the country. other times there is an enthusiasm about gangs for the sake of gangs. >> this is a little broad, hypothetical. for those people who are watching, if someone out there and the audience happens to be a conservative who has substantial financial means to give money to some group in washington and they have not done so before, why would they get it to you incident the club for growth or americans for tax reform or some other organization? why is yours the one they should be giving their money to? >> there are a lot of good groups ou

senate. >> chris christie in one of his latest moves as new jersey governor has -- >> i like chris christie, i think he is a straight forward, brash speaker u i think he has managed to stand up and defend his principles in a state that is historically not very friendly to republicans. and i am glad for that. the decisions that states make locally about health care u i think are best left to the states. >> could you see yourself on a ticket with chris christie? >> i am not going to speculate about the future. i can tell you my focus is 100% on the u.s. senate. because the senate right now is the battleground so if i raid and i did that you're seriously mulling running in 2016, is that correct? >> i find it amusing because i don't know what seriously mulling means. i understand in the media, it's fun to cover the game, it's fun to cover politics all the time. but we have got huge challenges in this country. i am a big, big believer that good policy makes good politics. if you do the right thing

senate seat. after u.s. senator frank lautenberg died in june, new jersey governor chris christie appointed a replacement senator to keep that seat essentially occupied until new jersey voters could choose who they wanted to take that seat for the remainder of mr. lautenberg's term. well, as of tonight, we now know that the two candidates in that election to take frank lautenberg's u.s. senate seat will be for the democratic party the mayor of new jersey new jersey's largest city, cory booker. the republican party, the former mayor of new jersey's 280th largest city, a place called bagota. looks like bagota but say it begota. loneg narks lonegan is the former mayor. if you want to get a little flavor of what this race might be like, cory booker versus steve lonegan, mr. lonegan's previous preelection effort as mayor of be fwrks gota was sujt subject of a spectacular documentary called "any town usa." >> steve lonegan is an outright liar. >> i hate lonegan. >> put a monkey up against him, i think a monkey wou

out of spite. >> senator mcconnell offered this welcome to president obama on the senate floor in advance of his visit to the hill. >> it really would be nice to see president obama work with congress for a change. to get some important things done for the american people. republicans have been eager to do this all along. but really, it is almost like there is a "gone campaigning" sign outside of the oval office. a "gone campaigning" sign outside the oval office. and on the rarest of occasions when he does come to the hill as he will today, you find out it is basically just another internal campaign rally with democrats. >> president obama visited with both house and senate democrats. he went to the house side first, where congressional reporters asked him about symptoms of the disease of dysfunction. >> jobs, middle class, growth. >> are some republicans treating you like -- >> what has he done to shut this down? >> what would you do to negotiate with republicans? >> joining me now, krystel ball, and ezra klein, she is a very powerful speaker. >> she is amazing. i think she is a very pow

what has senator paul been up to? >> senator rand paul of kentucky heads to iowa. >> he has planned to visit south carolina and nevada. >> tomorrow he headlines a g.o.p. dinner new hampshire. >> i know rand paul, i think he'll run in 2016. >> what stands between the paul dynasty and 2016? >> well, i'll tell you the first thing that stands between them, three (bleep)ing years! (laughter)

congressman or senator if you do that you will not be prosecuted and we will investigate the wrongdoing both of these gentlemen refused to do that they chose the most public and potentially embarrassing method to the united states to do that well maybe so you know that's the only way out is we may be that the way to change thing is to embarrass the u.s. government because it tortures people we know that it's not the only way to change overnight here on you know you know now we're having i take issue with having a great discussion we're having a great discussion now in the u.s. about privacy we should thank mr snowden for that certainly. yeah absolutely we're having and we should gradually in a conversation about privacy with people on all cut people in all different sides alleging all kinds of different things nobody's really sure what the truth is if we had gone through for instance a congressman or senator and what congressional investigation is to this i don't really trust. they had this information it would lying to us for years it took someone else outside the loop to do something

the same senator mccain and for that matter, senator graham who have spent the last several years calling the president soft on foreign policy. and a threat to world order. i mean, is this for real? like is this for real at all? john mccain is going to egypt on behalf of the president who's foreign policy he called fectless and written in can disappearing ink. besides the whiplash you may get from just hearing this news, it's real and it may matter for our politics beyond the question of egypt. if it's true that the log jam in congress has been hurting the country, if it's true as the data suggests that refusal by congress to do anything is dragging down the economy. and making it impossible for the nation to address basic problems, then two republican senators wading into egypt on behalf of a democratic president might signal some sort of actual change in that republicans who have played a specialty of refusing to govern are suddenly choosing to take part in government. and it might be that the log jam in washington is breaking. i mean, just a little, with republican leaders no longer un

lee's welcome the former senator. -- please welcome the former senator. [applause] our third panelist was director for howard dean's presidential campaign in 2004 and 2006. she managed a successful campaign out of montana. in 2008, she managed al franken 's campaign and the recount. [laughter] 2010, named president of the group hosting this event. please welcome stephanie. [applause] our final guest is a former prosecutor and the first woman to give birth while being an active member of the missouri legislature. [laughter] in 2006 she became the first woman elected to the u.s. senate. reelection inon one of the most-watched races in the country. its past june, she said is important to start early. please welcome the senior senator from the state of missouri claire mccaskill. [applause] senator mccaskill, let's begin with you. why is it important to start early? >> well, i think we have to realize that in a day of citizens united where there is huge money that can be written behind closed doors and flood airwaves with distorted information, the best anecdo

, senator. he is what i call the grand disillusionist. i think you know it is funny. let me tell you one more thing about mitch. he sold his soul. how many minutes i got? we'll be quick. mitch sold his soul to the corporate elite. i will give my soul to the middle class families that work hard in the country. mitch has sold himself to the pharmaceutical companies out there while i'm going to give my soul to the senior citizens that can't afford their prescription drugs because of mitch. i'm going to tell you one more thing about mitch. you're right, he sold his soul to the wall street bankers that caused this big recession, not obama. i'm going to give my soul to those college students that are owned a burden with the high cost of going to college and with their debts. now i'm about done. i have one minute? well, i'd like to talk about my website, marksberry, 24team.com. when i was running we couldn't get traction with the media, what not. even our party leaders. i came out with a song, what abo

hearing yesterday and they were talking about edward snowden and they were the senators were appalled at what they've seen out of the n.s.a. ron wyden has been saying for years if the american american public knew what was going on behind their backs they'd want change they would be appalled it's time for our government to practice oversight we need are represented. in big washington d.c. to use this power of oversight to get to the bottom of what's going on in the n.s.a. and not blow off whistle blowers bring them in ask them questions find out offer them immunity find out what's really going on in our name in the n.s.a. the privatization of information but again bozell and private organization ninety nine percent of its income comes from the united states government no oversight edward snowden brought to what was what was going on to booz allen to the american public and we should know this information so that we can have a debate in our country about this steve ok steve jump in you know i waded through that whole very nice to look way that you just offered for any attempt at all to

house, and senate have grappled with this. there is no clear answer in terms of consensus, but the economics of providing world wireless are just not as good as they are in urban areas. there is a density of paying customers. 10, 20, 30 miles before you see in the house. , nonetheless, these are all challenges. the economics do not really work to provide state-of-the-art wireless in those areas. that is why things like the universal service fund, we have other names for it, but basically the same thing, that is why that is so important. we need to make sure that those folks are not left behind. we do not want the urban and suburban over here, the latest and greatest, with rural america two generations ago of technology, that is the good for anybody. do youtor, the use it -- foresee reform coming in this congress? >> may be another thing we should have a hearing on. the to one-third of the witnesses in these hearings one way or another -- i bet you one third of the witnesses in these hearings mention it one way or another. it c

senators, welcome. senator chambliss, your republican colleague in the house, peter king, said this threat, this al qaeda threat, is the most significant that we have seen in many years. what have you been told about it? >> well, the one thing that we can talk about, david, is the fact that there's an an awful lot of chatter out there. chatter means conversation among terrorists about the planning that's going on, very reminiscent of what we saw pre-9/11. we didn't take heed on 9/11 in a way that we should, but here i think it's very important that we do take the right kind of planning as we come to the close of ramadan. we know that's always an interesting time for terrorists. we're also, what, 38 days, 37 days away from the september 11th anniversary. so we're paying very, very close attention to the chatter that's going on, and i can tell you, david, this is the most serious threat they've seen in the last several years. >> can i just press a little bit? what makes it so serious in is it the nature o

lee's welcome the former senator. -- please welcome the former senator. [applause] our third panelist was director for howard dean's presidential campaign in 2004 and 2006. she managed a successful campaign out of montana. in 2008, she managed al franken's campaign and the recount. [laughter] 2010, named president of the group hosting this event. please welcome stephanie. [applause] our final guest is a former prosecutor and the first woman to give birth while being an active member of the missouri legislature. [laughter] in 2006 she became the first woman elected to the u.s. senate. in 2012, she won reelection in one of the most-watched races in the country. this past june, she said it is important to start early. please welcome the senior senator from the state of missouri claire mccaskill. [applause] senator mccaskill, let's begin with you. why is it important to start early? >> well, i think we have to realize that in a day of citizens united where there is huge money that can be written behind closed doors and flood airwaves with distorted informatio

i sought out a republican cosponsor, a senior republican senator. i think we have become too polarized, too partisan in the house and senate. just as i did in immigration and -- yang of eight --gang gang of eight, i want to get republicans on board. they shouldn't be republican or democrat. it makes good sense. to have a way to know if you are being snooped on, that should not be liberal or conservative. that should be a good, commonsense matter. i am pleased to see some of the support i've gotten from the right. darnple of these bills are good bills or someone did not read it, someone joked. >> do you trust the nsa? >> the nsa can do a lot of things that can be helpful to the united states, but i think they have gotten too carried away by what is technologically feasible, as compared to what is necessary for our security. i raise the question with them, and i will send a letter today to the republican senator asking what disciplinary steps were why they are allowing a 29-year-old contractor to come in and steal everything they have, going to china

senate. they should have gained it in 2010 and doubled up on it in 2012 but because they have this fight and vote on shutting down the government could end up again nominating people like sharron angle sharron angle and why they nominated her in nevada. looks like 2014, republicans should have a great shot at senate. may not happen. >> okay, let's talk about that. let's look at landscape for 2014 after a special election in new jersey, which the democrats are expected to win in october, there will likely be, we will assume that, 55 senators voting with democrats. 45 republicans. which mean the gop will need a net pick up, net pick up of six seats to take back the senate. but republicans have one advantage. they are defending only 15 seats in 2014 while democrats are defending 20 seats they now hold. chip, i know it is a little silly but we like to play these games. looking at it from the vaptage point of summer 2013, how good are republican prospects for november of 2014? >> i'm going third t