And oftentimes argue on the floor. There is not much of they can do in changing the legislation. The house works by numbers more so than the senate. Whereas if the Majority Party pretty much calls the shots of what gets on the floor. So theres only so much you can do on the floor if you do not like somebody. Of course, you have the chamber and even if you do not like somebody you are supposed to call them nice things for you my distinguished colleague, for example instead of you rotten s. O. B. That is part of parliamentary procedure and style. Brian what do they do in the senate . Don Thomas Jefferson wrote the manual of parliamentary procedure to really cool down the tempers that would be there for any legislative issues pre members are not to address each other by name. They are not to criticize another persons state or question their motives and not to read a newspaper while another person is speaking. The senate has a high sense of the koran. I remember senator robert byrd who epitomized the senate and when he was mad at somebody, he would far get poor on the compliment that it will he would pour on the complement to the point that person was being embarrassed about them. The complete opposite of what he was thinking. He never broke his character of what a senator was supposed to do. Brian we had don ritchie and ray smock to join us. Don ritchie retired as the historian and United States senate. Ray smock retired as the whole story in 1995 as of the house was at the robert c. Byrd center. Lets go to this clip of a member of congress no longer alive, out of congress, third time in prison. Here is what he used to sound like on the floor. [video clip] of baseball will eliminate tw teams. Osome surprise. Tickets average 20 bucks. A program is 10. Popcorn is five dollars and parking is 20 and a hot dog and a beer cost about 10 and most stadiums. Beam me up. The amp test of the umpire said play ball, not monopoly. When a family of four needs a second mortgage to see a baseball game, it does not take dr. Ruth to explain to Major League Baseball what has gone wrong i yield back what is left of americas great pastime after the greatest world series perhaps in our history. Ride explain Jim Traficant brian explain Jim Traficant. Ray he was flamboyant and sarcastic and also for the underdog and in this case at this clip and he is saying baseball cost too much and the average family cannot go see it. He made references to being me up. He said it in pretty much every one of his speeches. These are the one minute speeches where he gets to rant and rave where all members can all about whatever subject they want to talk about. A reference to star trek beam me up, scottie, he used as his brand was something was outrageous. Brian what kind of discipline do they use for somebody they do not like when somebody uses though floor like this . Don if members were the rules and something beyond the core, you cant decorum, you can be forced to sit down and not take part in the debates. That is rare. Sometimes we get new senators coming in and especially from the house and they are used to the roughandtumble of it all. Veteran citizens will often take the junior senators the side and coach them on what a senator is supposed to be like. How a senator supposed to dress and act. And they realize it is an important part of the institution. Going back to the 1950s a senator from vermont who came in and he was giving a speech. The democratic leader at the time made a comment about what a great young promising representative he was going to be. This was a Democratic Leaders saying something nice about a brandnew republican senator. Flanders said he was so taken by this he vowed to berkeley after he finished his speech. When they walked away, berkeley came over and said you do not do that. I was doing something thats part of a tradition, you do not mock of the tradition. Flanders was very embarrassed. He realized he was getting a lesson from a Senior Member on how to act as a United States senator. There is the process. Brian this was from 20 10, a member of congress very controversial, no longer there from new york. Lets watch. [video clip] great courage to all members who have spoken. Wrap your arms around the teacher. We see it and us in every day where members say we were all amendment but we are still a no. We stand up and only if we had a different process. You would vote yes. You vote in favor of something you think is the right thing. We are following up i will not yield. The gentleman will not gets up and yells to what today people into thinking he is right. He is wrong the gentleman is wrong it is republicans are wrapping their arms around republicans instead of doing the right thing it is a shame asian a shame brian any comments . Don nobody could get more than anthony weiner. You yield when, you have to yield if you have the floor. Somebody can ask you to yield. It is procedure you supposed to follow. You are addressed the chair and do not really talk to one another. Although they do. Here, he is in a shouting match. He is mad and he is reeling against the republicans. He did that fairly regularly. A number of members throughout history have had been more for buoyant when there been on the floor. If you are there every day and watching this, you just say anthony is being himself or Jim Traficant is being himself. Sometimes they are funny. Sometimes you enjoy the fireworks. It breaks up the monotony of routine business. In the end, not good parliamentary percentage seizure and usually do not get anywhere. Don the house has been a more boisterous. Is a bigger body and passions arise. Sometimes fights on the floor and all times of things. They have a silver rod put into the chamber. If an emotion should break out, the sergeant in armaments in arms lives up of the dignity. And things down. There was an occasion when a member was speaking and she finish, her woman it was up and she was ruled to have to stop her she was so passionate she caps on talking. They kept grabbing the gavel. Somebody yelled get the maze. So many new members did not realize what it was and they thought there were told by a story can of mace. That is not it for you they were looking for the sergeant of arms to hold up the mace to show it is serious and people have to behave. Brian 21 years ago, the following was given. This is senator bob smith from new hampshire. I wonder what each of your comments might be with what he had to say then. [video clip] a very simple underlying commitment and will prohibit to any School System receiving funds under the elementary and secondary education act from implementing any School Program that encourages homosexuality. It merely prevents taxpayerfunded advocacy of the homosexual lifestyle. That is the question here. Should federal tax dollars in this bill be spent to advocate and encourage the homosexual lifestyle in the curriculum of Public Schools in this country . Brian he was in the senate from 1992 until 2003. What is your reaction . Ray on the political side of it don on the political side of it, they have more ability than the house. The senate controls the process of how many members there are. Senators dry history are able to add an amendment on to anything. An amendment is that has something to do with the bill and in many cases it can be different. It is an issue of changing social perspectives. Before bob smith, it would be jesse helms that will introduce similar resolutions. It also suggests not much has changed over time. You cannot imagine a member today introducing legislation like that. Ray they issue that senator smith was talking about, amazing when you look back at that and think it was 17 years ago and how far we have come on that issue politically, both parties. It is still an issue and the current election, it is hardly an issue it was. It is never going to be framed the way it was and the way he spoke about it in 1998. Brian what is the in other words, what can you say on the floor of the senate you cannot say out in the world . Ray members of congress have the ability to say what they think without being arrested and you go back to the king and of the parliament. The king could have somebody imprisoned. You have complete freedom to speak. You do not defame anybody or liable anybody but if you put into your newsletter or go on television and say it, as a member of congress, you are liable a you can be sued. We had a case in which senator of wisconsin used to give the Golden Fleece award to the person who milked of the government for the most amount of money. And he gave it to scientist he thought had done this and identified them on the floor. He was totally free. He put in its newsletter. The Supreme Court said you are liable. The senator was sued. The scientists collected. Brian do you remember any time on the house floor when somebody was get because they were protected . Ray whatever they say is protected. I cannot think of any incident where anything particularly outrageous said was protected. The house floor and the senate floor are aware of america has its debate and where all of the voices are supposed to come together. They are not always going to be on the same page. That is part of the greatness of the place. Someone gets up and says something and something that could be totally outrageous and somebody else will get up and offer a correct or alternative position. Usually they do it with a great decorum and when they do not, the fireworks fly. Sometimes you have to get out the mace. Brian what are the rules today all about the congressional record and editing your comments from the floor . Ray yes. Brian do you identify you edited them . Ray there are lots of different ways the congressional record not only what is said on the floor of the house but material that can be entered in an extraneous manner. You can add later. That usually shows up in a different type of face in the record and shows up in a session called extension of remarks where you do not a it on the floor but want to add it. Sometimes you make reference to an article in the New York Times and you want to read it on the floor but add to the record. The record is more complete than of what is said on the floor. You have the right to edit mistakes or oversights or make corrections. Don it has been going on for a long time. Clay and webster edited the remarks before they went into the record. It smooths out. Sometimes because they misspoke during the debate. In the 19 century when members fall to duels the leading insult was an apology for you is that saved you from having to go to the dueling grounds with that person. And exchange between henry clay and calhoun. How old was various the next day that clay had says something. Clay said it has been removed. It does not exist anymore as far as we concern for you concerned. Ray one television came in, the question then, what is the record . If the Television Camera shows you saying one thing on the videotape and at the record shows you saying something else, which is the record . I remember having conversations since i was involved in some of the earlier debates and discussions about when i first got there the house was not saving the broadcast, they were recycling to them after 60 days thinking they were only newsworthy for 60 days. I said what about history . What about the fact you may have somebody on the floor like an Abraham Lincoln . Why are you erasing history . One lincoln was a congressman, if we had a speech, it would be priceless break brian this is dirks in, a senator from illinois until 1969. Dirksen, a senator from illinois until 1969. He mentioned Abraham Lincoln watching this. [video clip] i sometimes think my desk is piled hig. [indiscernible] they ratify in all corners. All of these papers. [indiscernible] finding the very simple answers. The problems of mankind. We would be benefiting. Without articles and books and essays and all of the problems of the day. Brian in case you missed it, he was talking to a statue of Abraham Lincoln. He was from illinois as was Abraham Lincoln. He said politicians had to get right with lincoln. Lincoln was the model for their party. This is a folksy way of talking about Current Issues and connecting to the past. He was doing that in a recording studio. Many senators over time have done tv programs or little clippings that were broadcast back to their state. A way of trying to communicate with the citizens and show you can talk with their language and discuss things that would be important to them. And to show them that Everett Dirksen and lincoln were close enough to have a conversation on television. Brian what was your reaction . Braving i love Everett Dirksen number one. When i came from illinois, he was my congressman. The first time i visited the capital to get a pass to visit the gallery and the senate and go to the Senators Office and got that. I loved to listen to his voice for he was one of the great orators. He was a real smooth talker. And there was a story that george told, the great photographer for the New York Times about a group that came to visit with Everett Dirksen. He was on the floor of the senate and came out. His style which i cannot imitate but i will do a semiimitation. He said, ladies, i have phone off the mental of the cloak of the senate to speak with you. What is it that you could possibly have in your mind that i can help you with . What is the latest popped up and said, nothing, senator, we just want to hear you talk. [laughter] brian who else can you think of that people want to hear talk . Don when Daniel Webster sometime the entire house would go to the senate to hear him speak. And albert on foreign policy. The press gallery would be full. In recent times, that kind of oratory has disappeared. I loved to hear speaker he was always a bit unpredictable and amusing in everyday. Erudit. Te. Oratory is not the same as it was a century ago. Brian in 1994, a senator and he was a republican from north carolina. You can hear the southern accent and going back to the speech and debate clause, he is talking about people specifically. This is during the bill clinton years. [video clip] i did not say that Cassie Thompson use cocaine. I did say very clearly she had a close business relationship with a man who used cocaine extensively. I said that she was not assuring members of the house that at the people monitoring the white house and drug testing including herself, worked among the especially tested group of white house employees with the history of drug use. Given that fact and get her past relationship with i still believe that the president should certify that and no one in charge of that the Drug Testing Program has a history of a drug problems themselves. Brian mr. Smock . Ray those were ugly times. The clinton impeachment. That was just and that was in 1994. That was the year the republicans took over control of the house. In the election of 1994, a lot of i remember the 1990s as pretty contentious times and of course growing business that have plagued the clintons going back to arkansas was a relentless effort to smear them or what was going on in the white house. Don i was listening to him speaking when i first came to the senate was before cspan was there. A little green box on your desk a you could hear what was going on, like a radio. Without an announcer telling you who was speaking and you had to guess. I was always ankle for senators like Lauch Faircloth because you could identify him. I could identify strong arm and or update Strom Thurmond or others because they had accidents. Then the middle of the country senators who all sounded alike and you sat at thinking, who is that . South dakota or north dakota . Was out of the picture, you are really without the picture, you are really lost. You still get regional flavor. It robs us of the nation and the nation sending people who sound like them. Brian remember some voices from the house but before we do that, here is senator hollings that you mentioned. We run this clip for a couple of reasons. The way he was approaching the budget in those days. [video clip] you can come to washington and forget about it. There was a time and i saw one article with the other day put in relative to president lyndon b. Johnson and said, oh, no. He did not give guns and butter. He came in 1969. The last time the United States government balanced the budget was on the under president Lyndon Johnson. We ended up in the allblack with a surplus. Bride bank he did not give credit to bill clinton balancing data brian he did not give credit to bill clinton balancing the budget. What is your reaction . And somebody you can remember the voice . Ray Fritz Hollings was right out of central casting as the silver haired southern senator preif you was going to do a movie with that kind of character, you cannot pick anybody Fritz Hollings that are then for that role. He cultivated that. That was him no question. I think one senators and members of the house do have a certain style, they probably have magnified it a bit since television. Always the question whether they played the television. I do not think they do consciously all of the time but there are times when they clearly know the cameras are on. Brian do you have somebody you can remember that a distinctive voice, distinctive accent . Ray i like to jim wright that a texas accent and was very precise when he was majority leader and speaker. He was he could speak wonderfully and in a different asleep manner extem poraneoulsy manner. Brian he recently died. He was in his early 90s and suffered mouth cancer and had operations. When you think back to jim wright in the house and what happened to him, 55,000 book deal or something compared to what we have now . What is your reaction . Don too bad his tenure was short and. Working in the senate i do not have as much to deal with him. Ray and i were both working on the bicentennial of congress and a lot a joint meetings. I was was at a ceremony and speaker right came to the senate side and one of his aides handed him a three by five card. I was say 60 seconds before performance was about to begin. I watched him look at the card and make a few mental notes and put the card in his pocket. When he began speaking, it was as he had been studying this for issue. He was wonderful. He presented it in a way that was Second Nature to him. I thought a very gifted man. A very talented man. A shame the ethics charges cut his speakership short. Ray i was very saddened to learn a general rights jim wrights passing. I reported directly to the speaker. He was my boss during his tenure as speaker. And we did a lot of the things for the bicentennial together as don mentioned. We took a huge delegation to philadelphia to go to the old house and Senate Chambers there and reenact a congressional seen. Scene. Jim wright had to be events it was a good idea. I wanted a musical number to be played on the floor of the house during that very special ceremony in philadelphia. And he required me to bring the video in and listened to it and he said, this might work and i will tell you why are you if we get up there in philadelphia and i am presiding and i think the time is right, you have the group ready and i will give you the nod. She would not tell me on to the very last minute. The cameras are rolling. He looked over to me and said, we brought to the group in every body was saying this little song that was the preamble of the constitution. To have members of congress si nging the preamble. Brian these two gentlemen has not been briefed on which clips are coming. We are talking about the past, tapping into your knowledge of history. You mentioned philadelphia, i want to take you back to a program we did in 2005, Walking Around the signers hall at the constitution center. Here you are explaining, i think we walked around. I dont think you missed one out of the 39 plus three that were in the room. Ray i think you helped me with some. Brian here is 2005. You are standing next to, although he is only five foot four inches, a giant. Do you think he has gotten his due in history . I think he has. The funny thing is, if you become president , we are standing next to the two people in the room became president. You tend to be looked at from the standpoint of the president ial administration. I think James Madisons greatest contribution to American History is the work he did in the constitutional convention, and the work he did in the First Congress. He served in the house of representatives the first five. The First Congress that met in 1789, he is the one who pushed through the passage of the bill of rights. Brian 10 years ago. We are talking about george washington, who is on the right, and James Madison on the left. What is the value of that . Part of the reason we randys clips, and i have one we randys clips, what do you think of signers hall . Ray one of the greatest adventures i have had. Being able to work with the sculptures, looking at how the signers looked, what clothes they wore, so they could make the statues as accurate as possible. And then, to learn i was the same size as then franklin, to be able to model for the ben franklin statue, that was a treat. That was based on the fact that we found a suit of his close his clothes that he wore to the signing of the treaty of paris. The suit is preserved, we measured it and we are the same size. Every time i have been to the constitution museum, School Children love to sit in Ben Franklins lap. He is a popular statue. Here is don ritchie, 18 blocks from here, talking to some people about the butlersumner keening. Don some of you may remember andrew butler, associated with a infamous act that took place in the senate, the beating of senator Charles Sumner of massachusetts. He was an abolitionist and had given a speech attacking various southern people who supported slavery, one of whom he attacked was andrew butler. His nephew was a congressman from South Carolina named preston brooks. There is a monument to brooks there. He came into the Senate Chamber and beat senator sumter with a cane while he was sitting at his desk in the Senate Chambers. The only time the United States senator has been physically assaulted on the floor of the senate. Sumner was out of the senate for a few years recuperating. It was a symbol of the sub this coming of the civil war. Brian the only time someone had been beaten on the senate floor. What about the house floor . Don a book has just come out about assassinations and assaults on members of congress. I was looking at a recent convention, and i was astonished how many chapters in the book, there were lots of fights. Most of those were between members. Occasionally, on the grounds of the capital, ok should lead there were members occasionally there were people who took out their frustrations on reporters. There was an instance in 1890 where a congressman and a reporter got into a fight on the house steps. The reporter pulled a pistol and shot and killed the congressman. There have been act of violence around the capital. There are a large number of members of congress from the 19th century buried at that cemetery. Around halloween, i take a bus load of staff to the Congressional Cemetery to pay homage to the famous members of congress who are buried there, including indian chiefs, the original architect who designed the capitol building, j edgar hoover, john philip sousa, matthew brady. A great mix of americana there. Brian we will now show the marriage between two members cap into your memory of either if either one of you can remember if there have been other marriages between the house and senate. This is 1993. Congressman bill paxson from new york and congresswoman Susan Molinari from staten island. Thank you, mr. Speaker. While i acted as speaker pro tem yesterday, i was approached on the podium by our colleague, bill paxson, who notified me that during the course of the debate, which was ongoing at the time, he had proposed marriage to our colleague, Susan Molinari, who came to the podium and said she accepted. I wanted to announce that today. They have been longtime friends and have had the opportunity to serve with susan and her father. We go way back. We were elected to the new York Assembly six years before we started service in congress. They are outstanding officials. Good friends to everyone in the chamber. I want to join my colleagues in wishing them the best of health and happiness. Thank you. I guess so. Brian neither one of them are in congress anymore. They both lobby, slid Susan Molinari for google, i think her husband lobbies for boeing. How often does this happen . Don occasionally. More in the house. In the senate, the one family that sticks out is howard baker who is married to join derksen the daughter of Everett Dirksen. Howard baker married nancy kassebaum, they were in the senate together. That is the first time to senators were married. Nancy kassebaums father ran against franklin roosevelt. They are political families. Brian on the house side, any marriages . Ray not in particular. There were some spectacular marriages, Nicholas Longworth when he was speaker, when he married the daughter of the president of the United States Theodore Roosevelt Alice Roosevelt longworth, a real fixture in Washington Society for many years. I interviewed her myself when she was in her 80s, late 80s at the time. We had early pictures of her and we wanted, she was a beautiful woman. That was one of the most spectacular marriages. I remember finding a slide of Nicholas Longworth as speaker at the time they were being married. He was not listed as the speaker or anything. He was listed as the groom. Alice roosevelt upstaged the speaker. Brian durham over the member of congress who had a wife on the west coast and one here . Ray connie mack and mary bono. Brian how about the guy with two wives . I will mention his name. We had liddy dole and bob dole. Don and a number of cases wives succeeded their husbands. In the dull case, she ran on her own as a senator from north carolina. Most of the other cases, the senator died. Like daddy is haraway thaddeus haraway, his wife took his seat. Brian this is the Nuclear Option. What is that . Don a parliamentary device. It has to do with trying to reduce the number of votes needed to invoke cloture to cut off debate scene can have a final vote. And the senate, the most it takes is 60 votes. In the last congress, the Majority Party was able to engineer a situation in which they were able to get cloture and do a simple majority are all nominations below the level of the Supreme Court. Brian is harry reid, who was behind changing this, you only needed a simple majority . To the average america adapting the rules to make the senate work is common sense. This is not democrats versus republicans. This is making washington work regardless of who is in the white house and who controls the senate. To remain relevant and effective as an institution, the senate must meet the challenges of this modern era. I have no doubt my republican colleagues would argue that it is the democrats fault. I would say, no oness are clean on this issue. No ones hands are clean. But this debate is between those who want to break the gridlock in washington, and those who defend the status quo. Is the Senate Working now . Can anyone say the senate is working now . I dont think so. Brian do they have cloture in the house of representatives . Ray the house works differently. You do have to have a certain number to get things past. They have rules with the rules committee, as to whether or not their will or will not be amendments. What happened in recent years since Dennis Hastert was speaker , it became known as the hastert rule. Hastert was a republican speaker who would not bring a bill to the floor unless he had enough republican votes to pass it. Therefore, ignoring the democrats altogether. That is a different kind of parliamentary maneuver. It kept a lot of bills from coming to the floor. Brian i want to run senator Mitch Mcconnell talking about this at the same time. This is all basically the same debate. Rather than distract people from obamacare, it reinforces the narrative of a party that is willing to do and say just about anything to get its way. Willing to do or say just about anything to get its way. Because that is what they are doing all over again. Once again, Senate Democrats are threatening to break the rules of the senate, break the rules of the senate, in order to change the rules of the senate. And over what . Over what . Over a court that doesnt even have enough work to do . Millions of americans are hurting because of a washington democrats, and what do they do about it . They cook up some fake fight over judges. Brian i dont know where to start with that. Don i tell people if they ask about this, there is really not a republican position or a democratic position about filibusters and cloture. There is a Majority Party position and a Minority Party position. Frankly, both parties have been on both sides of the issue. The Nuclear Option was first proposed in recent times by bill frist, a republican leader of the senate when george w. Bush was president. He was subjected to the fact that the democrats were keeping president bush from getting his nominees, the nominees could not be confirmed. One of them, miguel estrada, the repeal they repeatedly tried to get cloture on his nomination and failed each time. President bush kept saying, my nominees deserve an up or down vote, a simple majority. 60 votes is unconstitutional. Senator frist was threatening to invoke the Nuclear Option. At a critical moment, a gang of 14, seven democrats and some republicans, got together and worked out a compromise abated not have to do this. Go forward a couple years, and now, the parties are reversed. The republicans are no longer the majority the democrats are the majority. The republicans are filibustering the president s nominations, the president senator reid is the leader, some nature read senator reid says, there is nothing else you can do. Mcconnell opposed it. Mcconnell is now the majority leader, but they have not done anything about the Nuclear Option. They havent had to invoke it, but they have not repealed it yet. At some point, it may be to the Majority Partys advantage to have this in place. It is not clear who in that future time will be the Majority Party. The world will look different to them if they are a majority or minority. You have different responsibilities. Brian when you, ray smock were the historian, in the 80s and 90s, you kept a diary. You had been teaching classes at the bird center. You read from your diary. How extensive is it . Ray i kept it for 10 years. Most of it is my observations of things i did or things i saw on the floor. Issues of war and peace, being on the floor when all the state of the Union Addresses were held , when visiting dignitaries from foreign countries, like nelson mandela, were there, and i am on the floor. I witnessed history. It is about 2000 single spaced pages. Brian will you publish it . Ray i hope to, someday. If it all hangs together. That is part of what i am doing with my classes. I am letting people in the class say, is this interesting or not . So far they find it interesting. Maybe i will do something with it. Brian 1954 was a big moment in the house of representatives. This is universal newsreel. See if you can help us better understand this. In washington dc, ruthless than that of violence and rubbed it in the halls of congress. Three men and a woman, believed to be members of a puerto rican nationalist gang that in 1950 attempted to a nasa assassinate president truman, opened fire from the visitors gallery at the house of representatives. Five congressmen were hit. Ben jensen of iowa, Clifford Davis of tennessee, Kenneth Roberts of alabama, George Fallon of maryland, Albert Bentley of michigan, who was seriously injured. Estimates of the numbers of shots fired range from 15 to 30. Each bullet hole found is a grim reminder to those who were present, of the terrible surprise attack. The gang, seized by bystanders, was held at Police Headquarters as a search was launched for others who shared in the plot. All the members, the gun wielders and their accomplices does this distinction of perpetrating a criminal outrage unique in americas history. Brian what impact did that have . Ray a huge impact. But no lasting changes to the house. It was the most violent act that ever occurred in the chamber. There were debates right after that, we cant let this happen again. We need to wall off the visitors gallery with bulletproof glass so this can never happen again. The more the members talked about that and thought about it, they said, no, that is a bad idea. This is the peoples house. The people cant be walled off from the floor and what is going on there. It was a conscious decision made to beef up security a bit, but nothing like the security today. Over the years security, in the modern day of terrorism, the security is so tight you cant hardly wiggle anymore. At that time, some of the bullet holes are still in the desks in the chamber. Since then, the chamber has been improved and a number of ways, including the fact that all the seats, the backs of the seats and the seats themselves, have teflon linings on the inside not teflon kevlar, so it is bulletresistant so there is more protection. A lot of changes like that have been made. At that time, all of those people were convicted. They were sent to prisons, and they were pardoned eventually by president carter. They were sent back to puerto rico. Brian this is from 1971. You will see Howard K Smith from abc, and maybe tom brokaw. Lets get your take on this. At one minute before 1 00, the switch part of the capital received a phone call. A mans wise said a bomb would go off in the building and a half an hour. At 1 30 in the morning it did. In a restaurant on the ground floor of the senate side, near several small offices, including a Committee Hearing room. A report on the first serious damage to the nations foremost structures since the british burned it in 1814, here is Congressional Correspondent bob clark. Alarm, for a time, that other bombs may be hidden in the capital. Police used trained dogs to sniff out explosives in a search inside and outside the building. The single bomb set off by a timing device in the mens room left it in shambles. Rick from plaster ripped from walls. Experts sought clues to the nature of the explosives. Heavy damage to the barbershop. Windows smashed, 100 feet away in the senate, tables were overturned and a stained glass mosaic destroyed. Don the Capital Building is a symbol. That makes it a target. They mentioned the british burning the building there is a bombing during world war i by a professor who was opposed to american support for the allies. There was the shooting in 1950 four. What happened in 1971 was a bomb set off by those opposed to the vietnam war. In 1983, another bombing in the senate side by a Group Opposed to president reagans foreign policy. In 1998, 2 policeman shot and killed by at the capital. There have been instances over time. And yet, the capital has remained a remarkable opening building a remarkably open building. There has been a lot more security. And people in the building are safe, as well as the staff. You can get in and out of the building easier than you can get in and out of any executive branch agency, in part because everyone is a constituent, and the senators and representatives want constituents to see congress at work. Interestingly, the 1971 bombing did not affect security, just like the 1954 shooting. It was not until the 1983 bombing that far more metal detectors were installed the staff had to use badges and id cards were issued. Each of the subsequent events especially 9 11 and the anthrax attacks, security has been ratcheted up considerably. Today, security is different the 1971 when the bombing took place. Brian has anyone counted the number of bollards around the capital . Don streets have been closed off that used to be public. Brian this is from 1986. A man first elected to the senate at age 29. He is currently very available and active in todays politics. Lets watch this from 1986, former senator from delaware. In the 1600s, bold hair voltaire said, if we believe in absurdity, we are bound to contribute atrocities. Under democrats and republican president s, it has been riddled with absurdities. One absurdity is, the notion that the saudis, even if they were predisposed, are able to be agents of change and able to be agents of u. S. Interest in the persian gulf region. Given that the brown decision was one of the most controversial constitutional decision of the century, it is inconceivable to me that a person with such strong views as Justice Rehnquist would not have had a view regarding the correctness of the decision. Brian joe biden, looking a bit different. Ray i guess we will talk hair for a moment. He looks better today, i think, hairwise. I think he had a hair transplant or something, as i recall. But he was then on top at that time. Thin on top at that time. Personally, i admire him a great deal. In his career in the senate, and his role as Vice President , as a public person, he is a fine human being and i have always admired joe biden. Brian how is he elected at age 29 . You have to be 30. Don he turned 30 by the time he was sworn in. His wife and one of his children were killed in a car accident at that time. His other children were injured in the accident. For a while, he thought he was not coming to washington. The secretary of the senate allowed him to travel to done the secretary of the senate traveled to delaware to swear him and in the hospital. He commuted on amtrak every day to the senate from delaware. I talked to his staff, and they suggested he became a better senator because of that. They had an hour and a half every morning to brief him on what the hearings were going to be. He was always well prepared when he walked into the committee rooms. He became chairman of the Foreign Relations committee and the Judiciary Committee and he loved the debate on the senate. It was a great forum for him. I think he was very comfortable here. Brian we only have a minute or so left. Your favorite time in the history of the house and the senate . Don if i had ray if i had to pick, i would say the first five congresses. The country was basically established at this time. You had people like James Madison in the house, you have the bill of rights, the establishment of the president s cabinet positions, you have so many basic legislation, the creation of the u. S. Mint, the creation of the post office. Everything, you are seeing the beginning of this great experiment. A lot of the work, almost all of the work is being done in the house of representatives. The house of representatives at that time with was the center of government. Don we celebrated the 150th anniversary of the civil war. That mustve been a fascinating time to be in the legislature. All of the states rights members had seceded. That allowed nationalist to pass legislation that they had tried to get past four decades. This was a terrific time for people who believed in an active National Federal government. Lincolns First Congress was one of the most productive in history largely because the membership change dramatically when the war started. Brian don ritchie, and historian and the United States senate. Ray smart ray smock, a historian. We thank you for coming and winging it with these clips. Thank you to the producer, who helped us find all of those clips. We appreciate that very much. Thank you. For free transcripts, or to give us your comments, visit us at q a. Org. Q a programs are available as cspan podcasts. If you liked tonights q a author fred kaplan discusses john quincy adams. The author on a book that describes how the 1856 speech on slavery and a vicious assault on the senate floor contributed to the civil war. Pulitzer prizewinning biographer talks about his multivolume series on president Lyndon Johnson from his early political career to his first days of the presidency after the assassination of jfk. You can find those online at cspan. Org. Like many of us, first families take vacation time. And like president s and first ladies, a good read can be the perfect companion for your summer journey. What better book than one that appears then one that peers and the personal lives of first ladies . First ladies president ial historians on the lives of iconic women is a book about women who survived the scrutiny of the white house. Available from Public Affairs is a hardcover or an ebook. Coming up next, prime ministers questions. Then, a