i also want to thank the ranking member and chair of the senate energy committee, senator wyden and senator murkowski, for their consistent support of this legislation. we hope to get this to the floor when we come back in september with a strong vote. i'm told this will be the first substantive energy bill on the floor since 2007. about time. and i hope that we'll have support from both sides of the aisle. i know it has support on both sides of the capitol. it's going to help job creators all over the country. it's the right thing to do. on this side of the aisle, we focus a lot on an all of the above energy strategy. we believe we ought to be producing more energy, particularly energy sources in the ground here in america, and i demonstrator that -- support that strongly. we also talk about embracing smart, economically viable strategies that produce -- that use less energy. there is less on this part about using less. that's what this bill does. it is supported by more than 250 businesses, trade associations, advocacy groups, national association of manufacturers, the sierra club, the al

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

four democratic senators, four republican senators. the democratic senators, chuck schumer of work, chairman of the immigration subcommittee, bob menendez of new jersey, our hispanic democratic senator, and michael bennett of colorado. across the table you'd be thinking, well, what republicans would sit down with you, they must have been pushovers. sitting on the republican side, john mccain, former republican candidate for president of the united states. lindsey graham, republican senator from south carolina, marco rubio, tea party republican from florida, and jeff blake, the new senator from arizona. we sat there for seven months, it was a lot of work, over 40 face to face meetings. we went through everything under the sun, things we haven't mentioned today. h1b's, these are visas that we offer to specialized training people, special professionals. let me give you an example. over 50% of the phd's that will be awarded at iowa state university in stem subjects, science, technology,ngineering and math, will go to foreign born students.

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

>> 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

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 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 some 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 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 addres

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

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 -

one we need to revisit. >> thank you, senator lee. senator white house. he served on this committee and the intelligence committee. i appreciate you being here. >> thank you, mr. chairman. one of the -- mr. cole, you just said it's worth having a debate on these issues. i think you're right about that. but i also hope that the executive branch takes a lesson from this experience about the value of classification, or what i would consider overclassification. i've seen this over and over now. when we were fighting with the bush administration about the torture program, the executive branch got to tell its side of the story because the executive branch were the declassifiers, we were stuck with facts that we knew that blew up the argument that was being made by the executive branch, but we could not articulate because they were classified. we've seen it on cyber, where so much of the american public is unaware of the cyberthreat we are facing. thankfully, we are becoming more aware. for a long time, we were just in the dark about what was going on because in

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'

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

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

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

senator. flashback to 2007. >> george bush and dick cheney must hear loud and clear from the american people and the congress, you do not have our support and you do not have our authorization to launch another war. >> i want to make it clear. i want to make it clear to the president. if he takes this nation to war in iran, without congressional approval, i will make it my business to impeach him. >> obama didn't know when he was criticizing bush. he didn't know how the world worked. he didn't know there were a bunch of bad guys. demanding that bush go through congress. demanding that bush go through the united nations. demanding that there be a coast guard. >> the war drums continue to beat louder and louder in the middle east. >> u.s. navy warships are standing by. they are waiting order from the president. >> the syrians have said that if struck, they will counter strike and downer attack on tel aviv. a city which they slay burn. >> it is pretty obvious the syrian army used chemical weapon.

senator, always good to have you. i was raising this with senator rubio earlier, sir, and again, with the greatest respect, might be a worthy goal for some like-minded senators, but its herculean task, and what does this cause? >> neil, it guess to be back. it's good to be with you. over half of americans think we should stop obamacare. it's unfair. it's unpopular. it's unworkable. and so this is not just a political or republican exercise, a lot of americans want to be represented in washington, and they want us to stop obamacare. and so the strategy here is -- the president has already agreed he needs to delay the bill. what we're saying is to stop it. the best way in the short term is just not to fund it as part of government funding this year. this is not any attempt to shut the government down. in fact, we at heritage believe the government should be fully funded and shouldn't have a fight over government shutdown, but -- >> neil: senator rubio said that -- if it came to that, even though he went want to depend o

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

, 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

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

we know that it's something that senator bachus can get done in the senate. if we can think about how america can get to the strongest, the most innovative, it brought the world everything from the pace maker to the post-it note to facebook. it's clear we're the country we are today because we were able to invest in those opportunities, to invest in scientific research, to invest in innovation, to invest in entrepreneurship. i truly believe these are things that democrats and republicans can agree on. simple ideas of workforce training, comprehensive tax reform. bringing the debt down in a balanced way. these are things we should agree on across the board. what's the problem? well, first of all, we know that some republicans are willing to work on those kinds of things. i know better than anyone because of 2/3 of the bills i've done have led because of bipartisan. some want to move the country the right way. want to move our country forward. but a group of ideologues in the oules of representatives is holding the country back. let me tell you what i'm talking

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

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

with his senate path. which is curtailing his comments to that select fringe of the republican party. he knows that group can be riled up by such conservatism. and also, that they vote. so he's going out there and he's setting the groundwork four years in advance. the thing about ted cruz that you have to watch out for, as he very hard worker. he lake the free publicity. he says the extreme things but he gets out there and presses the flesh and will touch those people personally like did he here in texas. he will go to the small towns, to the little rinky dinge organizations and bring them into his camp. >> as he tea party darling. are we to read a from this that the taep is out of control and they're even starting to bait back on one of their own when we hear this birther stuff from them? >> you know, i don't know. ted cruz is going to be a very strong candidate in this gop primary. he is going to play very well with the tea party. he will play very well with the far right wing. with the pro-life movement

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

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

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

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 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

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

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

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

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

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

. >>> today began with ted cruz's senate press secretary trying to deny that the senator has ever been a canadian citizen. and just minutes ago ted cruz was forced to announce that he will officially renounce his canadian citizenship that his staff tried to pretend he never had. >> there are many problems in life that we can't fix. >> hillary clinton's early engagement in the 2016 campaign. >> i as a strategist am fairly floored. >> will she regret laying the groundwork -- >> she has decided to enter the public fray so quickly. >> i saw other countries take steps to increase voter participation -- >> i as a strategist am fairfully floored. >> there is no reason we cannot do the same here in america. >> moving on to the other guy. >> chris christie. >> chris christie. >> signaling he's ready for 2016 to start now. chris christie will sign a law to ban gay conversion therapy. >> ban conversion therapy. >> it's a loony loony thing. >> he's certainly already beginning -- >> new jersey governor chris christie's effort -- >> -- what looks like a presidential campaign. >> in the current repub

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