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 quorum, but even if you do not like somebody you are supposed to call them nice things. My distinguished colleague, for example, instead of you rotten s. O. B. But, that is part of parliamentary procedure and parliamentary style. Brian what do they do in the senate . Don well, we are still influenced by Thomas Jefferson who wrote the manual of parliamentary procedure to really cool down the tempers that would be there for any legislative issues. Members are not to address each other by name. They are not to criticize another persons state or question their motives, and they are not to read a newspaper while another person is speaking. The senate has a high sense of decorum. I remember senator robert byrd who epitomized the sense of decorah, decorum, and when he was mad at somebody, he would pour on the compliments 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. To talk about history of the u. S. House and the u. S. Senate. Don ritchie retired as the historian and United States of the United States senate. And, ray smock retired as the historian in 1995 of the house. He is now 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] baseball will eliminate two teams. Some surprise. Tickets average 50 bucks. A program is 10. Popcorn is five dollars and parking is 20 and a hot dog and a beer cost about 1012 dollars in most stadiums. Beam me up. The umpire said play ball, not monopoly. When a family of four needs a second mortgage to see a baseball game and america, 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. Brian explain Jim Traficant. [laughter] ray Jim Traficant is what you would call a colorful character. He was flamboyant and sarcastic and also for the underdog and in this case in this clip and he is saying baseball costs too much and the average family cannot go see it. He made references to beam me up. He said that in almost every one of his little speeches like this. These are the one minute speeches where he gets to rant and rave, like all members do, about whatever subject they want to talk about. His reference to star trek, beam me up, scottie, he used as his brand when something was so outrageous to him. He would say, beam me up scotty. Brian what kind of discipline do they use for somebody they do not like when somebody uses though floor like this . Don if members break the rules and Say Something beyond decorum, you can be forced to sit down and not take part in the debates. That is a very rare occasion. In fact, what usually happens is, sometimes we get new senators coming in and especially from the house and they are used to the roughandtumble of it all. Veteran senators from both parties 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. Ralph flanders. He was giving a speech as a democratic leader at the time made a comment about what a great young promising representative he was going to be. This was a democratic leader saying something nice about a brandnew republican senator. And flanders said he was so taken by this he bowed to the senior senator after he finished his speech. When they walked away, the senator came over and said you do not do that. I was doing something thats part of a tradition, you do not mock the tradition. Flanders was very embarrassed. But then he realized he was getting a lesson from a Senior Member on how to act as a United States senator. And, there is not acculturation process that goes on a. Brian this was from 2010, a member of congress, very controversial, no longer there from new york. Lets watch. [video clip] great courage to wait until all members have already spoken and then stand up and wrap your arms around procedure. We see it in us in every day where members say we were all amendment but we are still a no. And then 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. If you think it is the wrong thing, you vote no. 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 not going to intimidate people into believing he is right. He is wrong the gentleman is wrong the gentleman is proving comment for his comrade rather than doing the right thing on behalf of the heroes. It is a shame a shame brian any comments . Don nobody could get more than outraged than anthony weiner. 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 railing against the republicans. He did that fairly regularly. A number of members throughout history have had been more for more flamboyant when they have 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. And, sometimes they are funny. Sometimes you sort of enjoy the fireworks. It breaks up the monotony of routine business. In the end, it is just not good parliamentary procedure and you do not usually get anywhere with it. Don the house has been a more boisterous. Is a bigger body and passions arise. Sometimes fights on the floor and all sorts of things. The house also has a mace. These senate does not have it. It is a silver rod that the sergeant at arms put in the chamber. But, if a commotion should break out, the sergeant lifts up the mason as a symbol of the gritty of the house of representatives to cool things down. There was an occasion when a member was speaking and her time was up and she was ruled to have to stop. She was so impassioned about what she had to talk about, she kept on talking. The chair kept rapping the gavel. She kept talking. Somebody yelled, get the mace. So many new members did not realize what it was and they thought there were told to get a can of mace. That is not it they were looking for the sergeant of arms to hold up the mace to show it it is a serious legislative body, 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 when you hear what he had to say then. [video clip] this is 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 . Don on the political side of it, they have more ability than the house. The house controls the process of how many members there are. Senators through history are able to add an amendment on to anything. In this case, it was an amendment is that has something to do with the bill and in many cases it can be different. It is also an issue on changing social perspectives. Before bob smith, it would be jesse helms who would have been introducing very similar types of resolutions. It also suggests how much has changed over time. You cannot imagine a member of the senate today introducing an amendment like that. Ray the 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 speech and debate clause . 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 that goes back to the days of the king and of the parliament. The king could have somebody imprisoned for saying something they objected to. But you have complete freedom to speak. You do not defame anybody or libel anybody but if you put it into your newsletter or go on television and say it, as a member of congress, you are liable and you can be sued. We had a case in which a senator of wisconsin used to give the Golden Fleece award to the person who basically bilked the government for the most amount of money. And he found some scientists at the National Institute of health who he thought had done this and identified them. When he said it on the floor, he was totally free under the speech and debate clause. But, he put in its newsletter. The Supreme Court said you are liable for putting it in your newsletter. The senator was sued. The scientists collected because of that libel. Brian do you remember any time on the house floor when somebody was using it, because they were obviously 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 where 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, that someone gets up and says something and something that could be totally outrageous and somebody else will get up and offer a corrective, or in alternative position. And usually, they do it with a great decorum and when they do not, the fireworks fly and 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 have to identify that 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. In other words, you can added add it later. And 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 did not say it on the floor, but you want to add something. Sometimes you make reference to an article in the New York Times and you wont read it on the floor but add to the record. The record is more complete than of what is said on the floor. You do have the right to edit mistakes or oversights or make corrections. Don it has been going on for a long time. Henry clay and Daniel Webster edited their remarks before they went into the records. It smooths out. Sometimes because they misspoke during the debate. In the 19 century when members thought fought duels against each other, the leading insult was an apology for you is that saved you from having to go to deleting insults was an apology and saved you from having to go to the dueling grounds with that person. In an exchange between henry clay and calhoun, calhoun was furious the next day that clay had said something. Clay said it has been removed. In other words, it does not exist anymore as far as we are concerned. Ray once 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 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 . When lincoln was a congressman wouldnt it be great if we had a record of his speech against the war . It would be priceless. Brian this is, a senator from illinois until 1969. This is a little clip from one of his weekly presentations that he would send back to the television stations. What rock this up is when you mentioned Abraham Lincoln. Watch this. [video clip] i sometimes think my desk is piled high. [indiscernible] with articles covering every subject under the sun. For sure, the problems of the country are complex. And they in all the corners of the earth. [indiscernible] all this literature, all these papers. Somehow you have put in the plainest terms and then finding the very simple answers. Strange. We seem to look for the complicated answers. For the heroes and the problems of mankind. [indiscernible] perhaps we would be benefited by the way you without the benefit of articles and books expositions and essays showing all manner of attitude. All manners of the day. Brian in case you missed it, he was talking to a statue of Abraham Lincoln. What do you think . He was from illinois as was Abraham Lincoln. He was famous for having said that politicians had to get right with lincoln. Especially republicans from the midwest. Abraham 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 this in a recording studio. Many senators over time have done tv programs or little clippings that were broadcast back to their states. It was 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 in this case, to show them that Everett Dirksen and lincoln were close enough to have a conversation on television. Brian what was your reaction . Ray i love Everett Dirksen number one. When i originally 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. So 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. In his style which i cannot imitate but i will do a semiimitation. He said, ladies, i have phone thrown off the mantle of the cloak of the senate to come out here to speak with you. What is it that you could possibly have in your mind that i can help you with . One of the ladies 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 there have been some great orators in the senate history. When Daniel Webster, sometime the entire house would go to the senate to hear him speak. When Arthur Vanderburgh spoke on foreign policy, everybody came to the chamber. The press gallery would be full. In recent times, that kind of oratory has disappeared. It is not the sort of televisionfriendly oratory. But i loved to hear Daniel Patrick moynihan speak. He was always a bit unpredictable and amusing and erudite. Oratory is not the same as it was a century ago. Brian in 1994, a senator and he was a republican from north carolina. A couple reasons for running this, one is you can hear the southern accent and going back to the speech and debate clause, he is talking about people specifically. Lets this is during the bill clinton years. [video clip] i did not say that Patsy 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 would not assure members of the house that the people monitoring the white house drug testing, including herself, worked among the especially tested group of white house employees with the history of drug use. Given that fact, and given her past relationship with mr. Lasseter, 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 whole clinton impeachment. The that was just and that was in 1994. And, that was the year the republicans finally 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 had plagued the clintons going all the way back to arkansas. There was a relentless effort to smear them or what was going on in the white house. Don i was listening to him speaking and thinking that when i first came to the senate before cspan was there. We used to have what was called a squawk box. 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 at all times who was speaking. I was always thankful for senators like Lauch Faircloth because you could identify him. I could identify strong arm and Strom Thurmond or others because they had strong accents. Then the middle of the country senators who all sounded alike and you sat at thinking, who is that . South dakota or north dakota . Without the picture, you are really lost. But you still get regional flavor in the senate. That reminds 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. Again, we run this clip for a couple of reasons. Including 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 the other day that was put in the record relative to president Lyndon Baines johnson and it said he did not care. Oh, no. He did. He did not give guns and butter. He paid. The last time the United States government balanced the budget was under president Lyndon Baines johnson in 1969. We ended up in the black, with a surplus. Brian he did not give credit to bill clinton balancing the budget. As is often done today. What is your reaction . And do you have somebody you can remember the voice . Ray Fritz Hollings was right out of central casting as the classic silverhaired southern senator, and if you was going to do a movie with that kind of character, you cannot pick anybody better than Fritz Hollings for that role. I think he cultivated that to some degree on the floor. Although that was him, that was no question. I think when senators and members of the house do have a certain style, they probably have magnified it a bit since television. There is 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 liked jim wright that texas accent and was very precise when he was majority leader and also when he was speaker. He was he could speak wonderfully and in an extemporaneous manner. Both downhome texan and rightonthemoney parliamentary procedure. 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 shortened. I would say 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 of joint meetings. I was once at a little ceremony and speaker wright came to the senate side and one of his aides handed him a three by five card. I would say there was 60 seconds before his performance was due to begin. I watched him look at the card and make a few mental notes and put the card in his pocket. And then when he began speaking , it was as he had been studying this issue for years. 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. But it was a shame that the ethics charges cut his speakership short. Ray i was very saddened to learn of jim wrights passing. As house historian i reported , directly to the speaker. So he was my boss during his , tenure as speaker. And we did a lot of the things related to the bicentennial together as don mentioned. One of the things we did was, we took a huge delegation to philadelphia to go to the old house and Senate Chambers there and reenact a congressional scene. Jim wright had to be convinced it was a good idea. On top of that, 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 he 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. So, he would not tell me until the very last minute. Here we are, the cameras are rolling. We are in this special ceremony, he looked over to me and said, kind of like that, and we brought to the group in everybody was singing this little song that was the preamble of the constitution. It was wonderful, to have members of congress singing the preamble to the constitution. I thought it would be a good thing. Brian if you just joined us these two gentlemen do not know which clips are coming. They have not 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 i dont think so. No. I didnt know. [chuckles] 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. Perhaps, the funny thing is, if you become president , we are standing next to the two people in the room that did become president of the United States. 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 then 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 . Port of the reason we wanted to run these clip, what do you think of signers hall . Ray one of the greatest adventures i have had. Being able to work with the sculptors, 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 real treat. That was based on the fact that we found a suit of 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. Brian here is don ritchie, 18 blocks from here, talking to some people about the butlersumner caning. 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. Sumner was an abolitionist and had given a speech attacking various southern people who supported slavery, one of whom he attacked was andrew butler. Butlers cousin or nephew, was a congressman from South Carolina named preston brooks. There is a monument to brooks here, who died in office. Brookes brooks 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 it was one of the symbols of the coming of the civil war. Good was the only time that someone was beaten on the senate floor. 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. Now, most of those fights were between members. And occasionally, on the grounds of the capital, occasionally there were members who took out their frustrations on reporters who they thought had not done a particularly good job of it. 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 then some acts of violence in and 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 secretaries of the senate, indian chiefs, the original architect who designed the Capitol Building, j edgar hoover, john philip sousa, matthew brady. Quite a mix of americana there. Brian net there is something we will show now of the marriage between two members. Tap into your memory 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. Lets watch. [video clip] 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, i had the opportunity to serve with susans 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. [applause] thank you. [applause] thank you. I guess so. Brian neither one of them are in congress anymore. They both lobby, 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 was married to joy derksen the daughter of Everett Dirksen. Howard baker married nancy kassebaum, they were in the senate together. That is the first time to two 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. In fact i interviewed her myself , when she was in her 80s, late 80s at the time. Because we had early pictures of her and we wanted, she was a we wanted to tell her she was a beautiful woman. That was one of the most spectacular marriages. I remember finding a stereopticon 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. So Alice Roosevelt upstaged the , speaker. Brian durham over the member of brian brian do you remember the congressman 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. The dole situation was different because he was a senator from kansas and she ran on her own as a senator from north carolina. Most of the other cases, the senator died. Thaddeus haraway, his wife took his seat. The first woman elected to the senate. 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 so you 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 reduced to 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 . Lets watch. [video] 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 or 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 that no ones hands are clean on this issue. 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. No. Well you do have to have a , certain number to get things passed. 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. So that is a different kind of , parliamentary maneuver. But it kept a lot of bills from coming to the floor. Brian i want to run senator Mitch Mcconnell talking about this very same thing 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 law 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. Over a court that does not have enough work to do is one interesting comment. 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. Because 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 he was objecting 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 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. The 60 votes is unconstitutional was the suggestion. 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 a compromise so they did 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 senator reid says, there is nothing else you can do. Senator mcconnell opposed it. Senator 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. Because at some point, it may be to the Majority Partys advantage to have this in place. And 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 the minority. Because you have different responsibilities. Brian when you, ray smock, were the historian in 1983 until 1985, 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 am a fly on the wall of history. And so, it is about 2000 single spaced pages. Brian will you publish it . Ray i hope to, someday. Parts of it. I am not sure 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 quite interesting. So maybe i will do something with it. Brian you can come read here. 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 fanatic 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 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 goes the evil distinction of perpetrating a criminal outrage almost 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 saying we cant let this happen again. What we need to do is 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. So the very conscious decision was 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 it in the capital anymore. Since 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, in 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. But 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. [video clip] at one minute before 1 00 the switch part of the capital received a phone call. A mans wise said a bomb would a mans voice 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 abc Congressional Correspondent bob clark. There was alarmed there was a 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. 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 priceless stainedglass mosaic destroyed. Don the Capitol 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 1954. 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 at the capital. There have been instances over time. And yet, the capitol has remained a remarkable opening 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 they and in 1971 when that bombing took ways. 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. We only have a couple minutes left. And, this is 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, voltaire said if we believe in absurdity, we are bound to contribute atrocities. I would suggest to you that our middle east policy under both 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 history for a moment. He looks better today, i think hairwise. I think he had a hair transplant or something, as i recall. Or something. But he was pretty thin on top at that time. But, it is one of the persons that 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 was he elected at age 29 . You have to be 30. Don he turned 30 by the time he was sworn in. A terrible tragedy happened between 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 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. He opened up. It was a great forum for him. He spent many years in the senate. 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 . Ray if i had to pick, i would say the first five congresses. Because the whole 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 much 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 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. Not only because they were concerned with the war, but because all of the states rights members had seceded. That allowed nationalist to pass legislation that they had tried to get passed for 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 smock, a historian. We thank you for coming and winging it with these clips. I must thank our 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, here are some others you might enjoy. 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. And 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. Here on cspan, washington journal is next with your calls and this mornings latest headlines. At 11 00 a. M. , we take you live for a press conference with defense secretary ashton carter. Posted at the center for strategic and international studies. Coming up on this mornings washington journal, David Wasserman talks about the redistricting decision which allows congressional districts to be drawn by independent commissions. Richard norton smith will discuss how president obamas legacy is evolving in light of recent events. And a look at what the government is doing in the private sector and other safety issues in the United States with deborah hersman. Host hope you had a great fourth of july weekend. Welcome to the washington journal. It is july 6. We are going to open up the phone calls for your thoughts on Public Policy issues you may be following this morning. Congress is set to return tomorrow and sprint to the finish before the august reset. Also, the greek people have rejected the measures by the european financial institutions. They were soundly rejected that