Furniture, hosiery and tobacco textile and tobacco capital of the world. Not true anymore. But theres still hanging on, all of those different occupations or professions. My mama was a textile worker so textile legislation was close to home with me. So id say accessibility and looking out for the back home, that the country did not suffer as a result. How has your district changed since 1985 . Oh, tremendously. When we were elected, we had a very compact threecounty district guilford almassas and davidson. Northern North Carolina . Northern North Carolina, northcentral North Carolina. Now, ive only stood one election under the new redistricting plan but now we have eight new counties continue to embrace part of allah mas and guilford, picked up portions of granville, orange and durham and coupled with the five complete counties, all new. It was quite an adjustment. Most recently, we had that was altered somewhat. We kept portions of guilford, allahmas, davidson. Picked up a portion of road, which would be salsbury, randolph, solid republican county home of the one of the best zoos in the world, mine pinehurst, golf capital of america, lost all of that can redistricting. I tell you a story about pine pinehurst. Dr. Charlie norwood, now deceased, dentist from augusta georgia. I went to his funeral in augusta. There was an old man about my age with a big sign with these words, thanks, charlie. I wish it had been in the next mornings paper. But norwood always would go out of his way to put down pinehurst as opposed to augusta. Never missed a chance to do that. So one day when i left the floor, one of my colleagues said, whats the makeup of your district . Norwood heard the question and i said my district consists of the furniture capital of the world high point. One of the best zoos in the world, i said to my colleague. And then knowing that norwood was listening, i said it in a condescending tone, i said the golf capital of america in pinehurst. He came out of his seat. He said ill give you furniture and zoo but you aint taking golf. I told that story to the rotary club at pinehurst, or southern pines, one of them. I think it was pinehurst. That story was told to them. Someone in the committee knew norwood, called norwood and told him when i had done so he was waiting for me the next week but i fondly remember that exchange. Of course, i was right. It was furniture zoo and furniture, zoo and golf. So were you able and has it been the same here in congress to develop relationships with other members . Pretty much so. Yeah you hear a lot talk about how partisan everything is. And it is partisan but we live in a republic where there are only two major parties. Partisanship will be inevitable so that in and of itself doesnt bother me. I have many good friends on the democrat side. My mom and daddy were democrats. I was reader in a democrat home. But i would say easier than much of the media would portray it to be. Congressman howard coble, over the Years CongressApproval Ratings have gone up and down and currently theyre pretty low. Why do you think that is . Very low. Im not sure that i can put my finger give me fist around it because i dont so that much changing from the time i came here three decades to ago to now within the chamber but its very low. Of course, elected officials are easy targets. Some folks are not going to be happy unless theyre blaming some elected official for his or her problem. That could probably be a lot of it. But i think the president ive tried to be as nonpartisan as i can go this. Its difficult to do. I think the president particularly when it comes to foreign affairs, has been very inept, very disinterested, and i think it shows. That may well contribute to the most recent low marks. Youre right were at the bottom of the barrel. Youve worked with speakerrers since jim wright. Who do you think has been most effective . Newt while he was here. I remember one time just after we the contract with america. And newt had us working until 11 00, 12 00 at night. And i had pretty good rapport with gingrich and one of my buddies about 10 00 one night said howard why dont you go to the speaker and see if he can make this 100 days 100 legislative days, give us an extra four five, saturday, sunday, maybe even friday. I went to newt, i said, speaker the troops are restless, they wonder if we can extend the 100day time frame to 100 legislative days. He thought pensively for a few seconds. He said get back to work. I said, ayeaye, sir. We got back to work. But i think newt. Youve also worked with president s since ronald reagan. Who do you think had the best relationship with congress . I think reagan along with both bushes. Im very high on the bushes. Why . Easy to be with. I just called george w. Bush within the past month to wish him well. He called me back a week later. Im glad i should have told some folks i had called him because normally one time, the senior bush, sonny montgomery. You remember sonny montgomery. Democrat of mississippi. Longtime democrat of mississippi, good friend of the bushes. He said to me one day, you called the president after the defeat. You need to call him. And i did, sonny gave me the number. I called him that day. Voice message. Left my name and number. Didnt tell the staff what i had done. The next day, george bush calls our office. I dont recall back who answered the phone. Kimberly, i believe. I think it was our front receptionist out front. She said sure, youre george bush, and hung the phone up. The Administrative Assistant called and mrs. Bush picked up the phone and he hung up the phone. You always need to tell your staff what youve done to avoid unpleasant surprises. But id say id go with newt as the speaker. Congressman coble during the Clinton Administration you served on the impeachment committee. Looking back that the period of time how do you think that will be viewed in future generation . You know, the late henry hyde, i wont each qualify to say probably, the most eloquent orator in the congress. Henry told me one time, i think i remember this correctly, he said im not wild about this impeachment but there are 23 americans serving active prison sentences for having committed perjury. How do you justify that and turn a blind eye to the president . He said, i cant do it. And ill always remember henry saying that. And your question was how would it play with the passage of time. The order of it which this came, and i believe he may be only one of two president s who was impeached. Am i right about that, peter . Thats correct, he and andrew johnson. North carolinian, by the way. Via tennessee. Via tennessee yeah. Congressman coble, what brought you to congress in the first place . What made you decide to run for congress . It started probably some years earlier when an old time lawyer Duke Law School im not a duke fan, but Duke Law School, called me aside one day and he said i want you to run for the state legislature. This was 1968. He said when you go to vote, you turn to the republican side of the ballot and theres no names on there. How do you expect to build a party with no one willing to run for office and he convinced me i needed to run for state legislature and i did and was unfortunate enough to be elected. That was in 1968. A good year for republicans. And then i served three terms in raleigh. Strike that. I was appointed assistant u. S. Attorney after my first term in our state capital of raleigh. Thats what started looking ahead, maybe, the seat was known as the revolving door district. Congressman Richardson Pryor, do you remember the name . Pryor was elected in 1968. Former federal judge, very good man. Ran against bill ostein who later became u. S. Attorney. And then ultimately was appointed to the bench. I forgot where i was going with this. Why you got congress, how you got congress . Back to mr. Mcnary, the old lawyer. He encouraged me to run for congress, as well. The revolving door started with the election of Richardson Pryor in his race with bill ostein. In 1972, upset of the year, gene johnson defeated Richardson Pryor in a solid democrat district. It would probably have been classified as the number one upset in the country. Oneterm congressman, gene was. He was defeated im sorry the 1970s the first one. Then 1972, he was defeated by a rookie, good guy robin brett. And i ran against robin in 1974 1984. So thats that was the track. How long youve been on the Judiciary Committee quite a while, too, all 30 years . All 30 years. Why never the chairmanship of that committee . Well, i told somebody i told ed mcdonald, chief of staff this. I believe that lamar smith and Bob Goodlette both have served goodlette is serving now, i believe they were better lawyers than i. Why that . Just having observed ive not always been a trifling student, indolent, lazy. And i just felt like i think i could have handled it but i think they were i think they were better equipped and more talented than i at the bar. Congressman coble, one of your chairmanships is the subcommittee on the internet, intellectual property, et cetera. Youve been pretty active on that issue protecting intellectual property, et cetera. When you first came here, the digital age was just kicked off. Its been 30 years. What have you done to promote, protect, in your view, telecommunications . Well, the high mark of my congressional career would be serving on the intellectual property subcommittee. Thats been a good fit for us and ive met so many interesting people as a result thereof. Ive tried to emphasize the significance of intellectual property. Patent trademarks, copyrights. What it means to the wellbeing of our economic society. And weve done a good job i think of disseminating that word. I would not be qualified to be an intellectual property lawyer. Im not that good. Because its very complex, very intricate. You do it wrong, you pay a high price. But that would be the highlight of my career up here. Youve also worked on Prison Reform and prison issues, as well. Yet did that pique your interest . When i was practicing law, my two areas would have been criminal law and the law of negligence. So it was coming into an area of the law with which i was not unfamiliar. And what where would you like to see the prison systems in america go . Which direction . How would you like to see them reformed . I think prison overcrowding is one of the severe problems facing society today. I think probably we need to look more carefully at sentencing. There may be there are many people confined in prisons today serving active serving active penalties for one of this, that or the other. Those people probably should not be in jail. There ought to be some sort of second tier to free up some of the space because theres a time bomb waiting to explode, that is prison overcrowding. Do you think maybe drug laws need to be reformed . Which a lot of conservative republicans have called for. Probably. I think that might well be first step. And i dont say let every jail bird loose on society. Im not suggesting that at all but i do think that certain sentencing measures could be adopted that would result in freeing up space behind bars. Whats your advice to john boehner . Well, im not sure he needs my advice. I think boehner hes been criticized from within and without, but my reading on john boehner has been favorable. I think hes been a pretty good speaker. Comes from a hard working family. His dad, i think, was on the bar. So johns duties were cleaning up the bathroom and cleaning up the decks at the end of a business day so hes been there, done that. Looking around your office here on capitol hill, two things i wanted to note. Number one, there are photos of you with cigars, with cigar smoke. Longtime cigar smoker . Theres a cigar picture right there. I like what i call small cigars. At one time i was smoking probably five or six cigars, strike that. Three or four cigars a day. Now that changed to three or four cigars a week. Then finally said i the heck with it and part of the reason was the staff didnt like it. Some of my colleagues didnt like it. Chief of staff, i think, led the fight on that. And i figured, what the heck, if its annoying to them, uncomfortable for them i dont have to have a cigar in my mouth every day. And i have been free of cigar smoke probably in excess of five years. Congressman coble youve worked on a couple of issues that may not strike your colleagues as positive such as limiting congressional retirement, term limits, cola increases, being careful about cola increases. Have you gotten pushback from colleagues on capitol hill . When i came up here, i said i would try to get rid of the congressional pension. The pension of a lot of senior members who splayed things today. Just to make a point i vowed i would not take the congressional pension which ive not done and thats going to cost me a lot of money. Thats one of the issues back home, todays issues, jobs, jobs and the economy unemployment, all put into one hat. Im drawing a blank. We were talking about money issues, youre not taking the pension. Yes, sir. I have i have a bill in the hopper now that would change the eligibility date. Now the congressional pension vests at five years. My bill would increase that to 12 years. Not one cosponsor. Now, term limits subject to interpretation. Some favor it, some abhor it. I think a good argument could be made that we have term limits now, if you want to vote, you have a right to do that. If you dont thats you exercising term limits. But arent there a lot of builtin advantages for incumbents . Oh, i think thats why the folks back home dont like it because its obvious that its ultimately highly favored on the one hand crumbs on the table from the other. To this day folks complain to me about congressional pension, how i may be the only one who has refused the pension and the thrift plan. We have two pension routes, called the thrift plan and the pension. Not my most brilliant financial decision i might add. Youre a lovelong bachelor. Yeah. Why is that . I told a girl i was dating one time, she asked me that, i said ive never had time. Normally that would be a bachelor copout but knowing me thats probably the truth. Ive dated girls i liked more than they liked me and conversely, dated girls that liked me more than i liked them but it never did play out. Why retire today . Why are you retiring . Ive got a bad back. I got skin cancer. Neither of which is imminently failing my health but with eight new counties and a total of 10 counties in all, with a bum back, a lot of these folks dont know me as opposed to the old district. I just felt like it might be a good time to walk away. Where are you going . What are you going to do . Someone asked me that the other day and i said i hasnt thought about it. He said, hadnt thought about it . He said youve had 30 years of no spare time, youre going to be in a position where you have nothing but spare time, you better be thinking about it. I wont fail retirement. Ill try to stay active. But colleagues that ive met up here, democrats and republicans alike, they are very endearing to me. And i apologize peter, to you and your staff. Im coming down with my annual late summer, early autumn cold as you can tell with the raspy voice. What are you going to miss most about capitol hill . Tomorrow im scheduled to go meet with the judicial conference at the supreme court. Meeting with them periodically. Infrequently but periodically. Ill miss meeting with them. I will not miss my weekly trek to the airport. I recall, peter, some months ago, actually its been years ago now, i was being driven to the airport by one of our staffers for rural randolph county. 95degree day and you can see the sun is my enemy. 95degree day. Bumpertobumper traffic. I said to her, i wouldnt live in this town. She said you do live in this town but you dont think of this town as being home. But that aside, it is still recognized as the cradle of democracy, the cradle of freedom, the cradle of liberty, and im proud, when i look out that window and see the capitol if im griping and complaining it pretty well falls in line this is the best place to be. You heading back to the district after january . Oh, yeah. I feel sure i will be. Where will you keep your papers and your Office Records . University of North Carolina at greensboro. Why there . My alma mater guilford college, did not have an adequate library that could handle it and u. N. C. G. Has an appropriate library and they expressed interest in it so thats where theyll be. Who are you going to miss here . Well, im going to miss i have been richly blessed with a good staff, peter. So ill miss my staffers. Ill miss my colleagues. Both sides of the aisle. But i really am indebted to a good staff. I tried to treat them right. They, in turn, treat me right. Youve had longterm staff havent you . Attrition has not been a problem with us. People come and they stay. Which, of course, affords reliability, affords upper most confidence without walking back and forth, in and out the door one day, one day here, one day gone. Any regrets . Maybe should have taken the congressional pension. [laughter] i say that halfway in just. Congressman howard coble after 30 years, retiring from congress. Thanks for your time. Thank you peter. Wednesday cspan interviews with retiring congressional members continue with senator carl levin of michigan and senator ralph hall of texas at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan. There is no economic purpose served when microsoft or apple are able to shift their revenues to ireland or puerto rico or someplace to avoid paying taxes. There is no economic purpose served when one of these new intellectual property giants that produce good stuff im not quarreling that apple, with apple, they produce wonderful products. My quarrel with them and other Companies Like them that have huge profits is the way they avoid paying taxes on those profits and shifting profits and their intellectual property to themselves to their own shell corporations in tax havens to avoid paying taxes. Those are the loopholes we need to close and we need the revenue from that in order to avoid another round of sequestration which is this absolutely mindless way to budget where everybody gets cut, including the National Institutes of health. I mean were in the middle of an ebola problem and research has been cut at the National Institute of health, National Institutes of health because of this sequestration method of budgeting which has an automatic, cookie cutter approach. Weve got to end that. Most of us, not all of us not the tea party guys and maybe not the libertarian guys in the senate and house but most of us really want to end sequestration. Wednesday cspan interviews with retiring congressional members continue with senator carl levin of michigan and congressman ralph hall of texas. Thats at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan. [captions performed by national captioning institute] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2014] next on cspan, a look at alternative ways to improve education. Then remarks by attorney general eric holder about the federal investigation into the shooting of Michael Brown in ferguson missouri. Followed by missouri governor jay nixon on the protests in ferguson. On the next washington journal, former national highway Traffic Safety administrator, david strickland, talks about travel expectations and safety precautions for the thanksgiving holiday. Then former Deputy Director of the National Security agency discusses the agencys Data Collection practices and efforts to change them. Retired colonel cam richie looks at the availability of Mental Healthcare for the military and veterans. This thanksgiving week, cspan is featuring interviews from retiring members of congress. Watch the interviews through thursday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern. As much as weve accomplished in 36 years and i dont want to look back that the so much as to look forward to the next couple of months, and in the next couple of months theres a couple of things id like to do. One is to get my Defense Authorization bill passed. This is an annual effort a major effort involving large amounts of staff. I also want to finish up some work on the permanent subcommittee on investigations looking at some gimmicks which are used to avoid taxes. I have been a member of congress for 34 years and to get finally get beat, if i was a manager for a baseball or Football Team and i had 341, id be in the hall of fame. So doesnt bother me. And really it didnt bother me to get beat because i wasnt just set on going but i had 18 cochairman who were chairman of my 18 county in my district that were supporting me and wanted me to run. And also on thursday, thanksgiving