what wasn't. >> now, i've really faulted president obama's leadership on this issue. remember, back in december had they cut that deal to extend the bush tax cuts, they could have gotten the debt ceiling -- should have insisted the dell ceiling be extended at the same time. you hear a lot of white house folks saying, oh, the situation wasn't right there. no one would have gone for it then. seems to me a terrible failure of advance thinking and negotiation that meant this whole showdown and fiasco could have been avoided altogether. do you fault the white house leadership on this? >> i agree with you. in fact, the president was asked at the time why he didn't try to put this in a deal. he said, well, the republicans are going to be reasonable, not try to blackmail, hold up the country. i think by now the president and others ought to realize what kind of hostage-takers and radicals we're dealing with in this modern republican party. had you had the republican party 30 years ago they wouldn't have done it. today they're radicals, no