Transcripts For CURRENT Viewpoint 20130301

Be. Cenk later tonight on theyoungturks. Com, a major magazine with a clearly racist headline. Well show you. Viewpoint is next. John good evening. Bob woodward made his reputation based on a third rate burglary. Now, hes losing his reputation because of thirdrate punditry. Does bob realize the emails i get from Canadian Pharmacies are more threatening than the one he got from the white house . Also Bradley Manning has admitted some guilt. The Government Official mistreated him, not so much. And the dow is at a fiveyear high and corporate profits are bigger than ever which means if barack obama is the communist fox news keeps saying he is, hes very, very bad at it today, my friends is the birthday of late Rolling Stone brian jones, he would have been 71. Also the birthday of paul krugman and internationally beloved humanitarian gilbert godfrey. On this date in 1983, the final episode of m. A. S. H. Was broadcast on cbs. How fitting that Pope Benedicts retirement falls on the 30th anniversary of father mulcahys. This is viewpoint. John good evening, im John Fuglesang. If political gridlock was an olympic sport the congress would be preparing to field a gold medal. Maybe we can all do better. But with 85 billion in spending about to be pulled out of our economy by a Sequestration Act that only the tea party seems to want both major parties resorted to finger pointing instead of action today. I really believe that the American People deserve better than what the republicans in this building believe is the right thing. Our job in congress should be to provide a foundation for our economy and the next steps. The very least, we should put stumbling blocks in the way. Thats what weve done. The house did its job. Im happy to talk to the president. Im happy to talk to senator reid but the way things happen around here is that the house passes a bill, the Senate Passes a bill, we disagree, we go to conference. John our political system seems broken but our next guest insists it doesnt have to be that way if citizens act together make it work. Bill bradley is a former threeterm democratic senator from new jersey, a president ial candidate, an nba halloffamer who starred on two knicks championship teams and an author whose latest book is entitled we can all do better. It is an honor to have him on the program. John, good to see you. John delighted to have you here. When you talk about the title of your book we can do better, who do you mean . All of us. Obviously politicians can do better. We all can do better. Imagine what you eat or how much you, size and then we can all do better. John you say in the book that we, right now in the u. S. , are in the middle of a slowmotion crisis. What do you think is really at the root of our predicament in 2013 . I think the root of our political predicament is the role of money and politics and the way we draw Congressional District lines. We draw Congressional District lines by state legislatures and it rewards the extreme ends of each party. Money, do i need say more . The fact is in 2009 and 2010, the financial industry contributed 318 million to politicians in washington. The healthcare industry, 145 million and the energy industry, 75 million. So is it any surprise that you know, weve got watered down financial reform . No public option healthcare and didnt get around to doing an energy bill even though were sending billions every year to autocrats ond the other side of the world. John it seems weve come to accept moderate improvement as reform when it is really the opposite. You, as a threeterm senator im wondering how much have you seen a change in d. C. Since you left office . Well, when i ran for office the first time in 1978, my primary and general election campaigns cost 26 million. Jon corzine won in 2000 which was over a decade ago, spent 63 million. John that was just the buffet. Much of it his own. John i guess Citizens United united is assigned the culpability in this. But it seems like it was going on to a great oh, yeah, Citizens United just turbocharged what was the problem. That 318 million im talking about from the finance industry didnt come because of Citizens United. Citizens united is super paced. These are institutions that make contributions through their own pacs and individuals and money and then visit a congressman or senator and talk about an issue. From my standpoint lobbyists are often very helpful. They bring information. You have to break the link between the lobbyist and money. And so let them off of their advice make their arguments but then an hour later, dont go down to the back room of the bar and get 10,000 check from 20 of them who are giving. Drink. John in the book you talk about a possible solution to this being a constitutional amendment to get big money out of politics. How can that happen when the guys in congress who would be voting on this are owned by the big money . It has happened before. 19th century, for example. We had corrupt state legislators that elected u. S. Senators, the people didnt vote. It was the legislatures. And then the people rose up. When the people rose up, they demanded the right to send their senators to congress and they did that by virtue of a constitutional amendment. It took them eight to ten years but the amendment was passed and now senators are elected by the people not by corrupt state legislators so a constitutional amendment simply says federal state and local government may limit the amount of money in a campaign is doable and weve never been in an age where citizen action can be easier to development than now. Given the internet. John i agree with you completely. I guess the argument youll get from folks who dont want to see a world where corporate money cant own d. C. , this is a freespeech issue. How do you get around that . With a constitutional amendment. When weve had problems in the past with our democracy, we amended our constitution. And free speech is one but you could say if you did this amendment then it is not inconsistent with free speech. I think that equating money with speech and therefore saying you cant limit money because you cant limit speech was the mistake made by the Supreme Court in Buckley Vallejo back in 1976. It was reemphasized by Citizens United two or three years ago. John i think most citizens be they progressive or conservative would agree with you if you laid it out like that. Of course, our politicians wont be doing that. Right now, president obama is being accused by many of our friends on the right and media commentators of failing to lead in this latest artificial crisis that is the sequester. Others say theres nothing you can do to change the Republican House that is dedicated to slowing down Economic Growth through nonstop obstruction because theyre terrified of being primaried by far right Wing Tea Party candidates. The president issued a Statement Today and i thought he was paraphrasing you. He said we should do better. So let me ask, what do you think of president obamas leadership on this issue . I think its fine. I do agree that were facing a 30 , 40 Republican Tea Party group thats so paralyzed the Republican Party that there are a lot of republicans who would like to make a deal but theyre terrorized. Lets take the number three person in the u. S. Senate, john cornyn of texas. He had a Tea Party Guy elected ted cruz. Hes afraid hes going to get a tea Party Challenge in his primary. Remember the road of extremes are rewarded the way we do this. So the result is obama hes not going to cut a deal with people who dont want to talk, who dont even want to be in the room. So he has a choice and that is does he plead and does he try to negotiate and give everything away or does he say look, here it is. We can make a deal. They dont make a deal. And then he says to himself, as i believe he said about eight minutes eight months before the president ial election, fine, im going to follow political strategy. The common view is a president is lame duck after 18 months. In this case, the president could very well take charge of this issue and have a Democratic Congress in 2014 and then have the last two years be his most productive years. John then theres the filibuster. Once again, the obstruction is just going to happen no matter what he does. If he had both houses of the house, how can he prevent a g. O. P. That is committed to obstruction, i spoke to senator lugar the day he got primaried by the Tea Party Candidate who lost. On the one one hand it seems like a way to have unelectable guys like mourdock running but how can anything move through the congress when youve got our republican friends terrified that if they do work with this president , theyll be accused back home of cooperating with the enemy . Those are two issues. One, on filibuster, i think the leader of the senate, whoever it is, ought to make people filibuster. The idea of putting a hold on a bill and you not bringing it up, you know, bring up a bill. Let them filibuster all weekend long. Over christmas. Over all of the holiday vacations. If they really care about an issue, put them out there on the floor and let the American People understand whats going on. And compare the speeches they will make which will get very old, very quickly because they dont have a whole lot to say with say the president who will control the debate anyway because he has the microphone. I take my chances in that case. You have to force people to filibuster. I also think there be be some rule changes. If youre going to filibuster, you ought to get 10 or 15 people who sign say well be prepared to filibuster. That eliminates one guy putting a hold on 25 bills. John were you surprised harry reid caved on that issue saying he would bring about comprehensive filibuster reform . I think harry reid decided he wanted to get some progress. And this was the best he could get at that moment. John immigration already is a major issue in this congress and every day were seeing more and more republican friends open up their minds to Immigration Reform where they were viciously opposed to it a short time ago. And a lot of folks expect some kind of Immigration Reform bill will pass. I think this speaks directly to what you talk about in the book. There are plenty of roadblocks that could keep reform from happening. In your book, you actually write about this. But how do you think this should be handled . I think the magic number when it comes to immigration is 71. Barack obama got 71 of the hispanic vote in america. George bush, that means that romney got about 29 . George bush got 44 . And i think that some republicans recognize that if theyre ever going to be a Majority Party at the president ial level, theyre going to have to be able to track hispanic votes. The problem is they have a primary electorate that fundamentally, most of it is antiimmigration. Joan exactly john exactly. They could be in the position the democrats were in the 1970s. They elected democrats that were too libbual to get elected in a general election. Now they have to get take two conservative issues. John what do you think caused that change and do you think theres any way that could be reversed . Sure, i mean play to peoples higher emotions. I have a show on sirius x. M. Satellite radio called american voices. I interview people about their lives. And i interview people that have jobs that they like whether theyre window washers or Public Health nurses in the aleutian islands. I interview people who do something selfless like the guy who shines shoes at the pittsburgh Children Hospital and out of every tip put that in a fund to pay for poor kids healthcare. The day i interviewed him he put over 100,000 in that fund. Lets have stories about who the American People really are not who theyre not caricatures of people put on by the media or politicians who are auditioning for their own reelection. John im sure you would agree if the people lead, the leaders will follow. So what you think people really have to do to bring about any kind of reform and change in this country is just emailing and calling their representatives enough . No. Were at a time now where direct democracy is very possible. Organize meetups. Start something over the internet. If the arab spring can happen because people organized themselves and change a dictatorship, it can certainly happen in the United States where it is so much easier to make real change. But people politicians have to tell people the truth. And sometimes the truth hurts because weve gotten ourselves into a bad position. John it has been almost a year since you published this book. Are you more optimistic now . Or less . Well, im tremendously optimistic about the American People. It is very clear what we need to do. And we simply need to assert ourselves. John former senator bill bradley, author of the book we can all do better, thank you for coming on the show and allow me to apologize in advance for starting the draft bill bradley for president in 2016. Im afraid thats dead. John a boy can dream. The u. S. Finally agrees to give direct aid to the Syrian Rebels as opposed to the indirect aid weve been giving them all along. Surprise your house was built on an ancient burial ground. [ ghosts moaning ] surprise your car needs a new transmission. [ coyote howls ] how about no more surprises . Now you can get all the online Trading Tools you need without any surprise fees. Its not rocket science. Its just common sense. From td ameritrade. John it is time or our thing of the day the bffs of the day which could mean best friends forever or bad fact finding. Still touring north korea, former nba spectacle Dennis Rodman told north korean dictator kim jongun you have a friend for life. Im glad youre becoming friends of the dictators but whose life do you mean, dennis . The lifetime of someone in the north korean force labor camp . Thats not very long. I think Dennis Rodmans trip to north korea is great diplomacy but kim has enough friends for one lifetime. After two years of unrest and civil war in syria, after tens of thousands of casualties, after unlimited destruction to countless syrian cities and sites, the u. S. Announced their first major policy shift in regard to the conflict. America will for the first time offer direct nonlethal aid a 60 million package to the Free Syrian Army mainly consisting of food rations and medical supplies given to carefully screened members of the fsa. That announcement was made earlier today by secretary of state john kerry who was in rome for an International Conference on syria. This funding will allow the opposition to reach out and help the local councils to be able to rebuild in their liberated areas of syria. John joining us now to discuss this strategic shift in syria policy is p. J. Crowley former assistant secretary of state for Public Affairs for president obama and a former special assistant to president president clinton for National Security affairs who is now professor at George Washington university. P. J. Thank you for coming back on the show tonight. Always a pleasure. John always a pleasure to have you. How major of shift in policy does secretary kerrys announcement today mark . Im not sure i call it a shift. It is more a maturation of u. S. Policy. The focus has been for the last few months and or the last couple of years trying to help build a credible affirmative to the Assad Government and then trying to make that opposition more effective and most importantly, more credible to the syrian people. The opposition, this form of the opposition Syrian Opposition council, now six months or so into his existence they still got some profound issues. And yet now, to be able to have the kind of influence inside syria thats necessary the United States is providing this kind of nonlethal assistance. That helps to build a political capacity for the opposition inside the country and also, you know through equipment and training, can help the Free Syrian Army as well. John i agree with you it does seem like a continuation of something that began awhile ago. But secretary kerry also said that todays announcement was the beginning of a process that will, in fact, change assads calculation. Do you agree that this announcement will have come effect on assads calculation to whether he can maintain power in syria . Thats the objective. This is not something thats going to transform the situation in syria overnight. But nonetheless as the Syrian Opposition is able to gain and hold territory, their ability to deliver assistance, food, medical assistance and so forth to those syrian people, the objective is to try to on the one hand, get some of these elements off the fence. Those that are hedging their bets, theyre not sure that assad is going to lose. Theyre not sure whos going to win. If you can change that dynamic that could in fact, change assads calculations. The other key objective here is to try to make sure that you are minimizing the influence that extremist elements have within syria. Some of the liss islamic type groups deliver assistance to make sure youre strengthen the moderate elements within the opposition and marginalizing the extremist elements within the opposition. John getting some of the moderate elements to get off the fence. The reaction from the Free Syrian Army was not so positive or grateful. Seeming to imply i guess that the aid package was insufficient and called for more weapons to defeat assad. No huge surprise there. What is your assessment from their point of view . Well, there is just an agreement to disagree. There are those who think that the United States should provide lethal assistance, provide more weapons, the United States hasnt taken that step. It is chastened by what happened in libya. Some of them have migrated to syria. Of some them migrated to places like mali and have contributed to the unrest there. The Obama Administration believes theres sufficient weaponry inside syria. They need to make the opposition more effective. John to leave some people optimistic. Do i dare to say too much . If you start from very low expectations, almost anything can be seen as positive. The objective here is just to have the meeting. And now theres an agreement to have another meeting with technical experts in the middle of march and another p5 plus one as its called meeting in early april. I mean you did see the tone was positive. That actually does mean something. Were several months away from the prospect of a meaningful negotiation. Iran is facing an election in the june timeframe. In all likelihood, while this process goes forward, will you have to wait for a new government in iran and see exactly what irans bottom line is and whether theyre prepared to meet International Concerns about their nuclear program. John a few seconds left, i want to briefly move on to other news from today. Of course, the Bradley Manning case. He pled guilty to 10 of 22 counts but he did plead not guilty to the most severe charge of aiding the enemy. You, p. J. , are someone who has in the past spoken out courageously of him while in custody. But regard to the case today, theyre going to pursue the aiding the enemy charge having intimate knowledge of the archive that manning leaked. Do you think he compromised National Security . Well, looks ill leave the legal analysis to actual lawyers. I can attest the compromise of the archive by we we wikileaks put real lives at risk. American lives and others around the world. Those who were sources of information to american diplomats. These are serious charges. And obviously i think the fact that Bradley Manning has pled guilty to at least some of the charges may be an indication that the prosecution has a solid case. But nonetheless, as the case moves toward some of the more serious charges obviously the government will have to prove its case in court. I can vouch for the fact that the government will have to it was negatively affected by the wikileaks compromise. John p. J. Crowley former assistant secretary of state for Public Affairs under president obama, thank you so much for your time and insight this evening. All right john. John thank you. The violence against women act finally cleared congress and it only took a year or more. Comedian and actress susie essman will join us coming up. A closer shave in a single stroke for less irritation, even on sensitive skin. Gillette mach3 sensitive. Gillette. The best a man can get. Cheap is good. And sushi, good. But cheap sushi, not so good. Its like that superlow rate on not enough car insurance. Pretty sketchy. And then there are the good decisions. Like esurance. Their coverage counselor tool helps you choose the right coverage for you at a great price. [ stomach growls ] without feeling queasy. Thats insurance for the modern world. Esurance. Now backed by allstate. Click or call. John welcome back. Last week it was mississippi. This week we took on a blue state. And tonight on our continuing wtf america series, we conclude wtf new york week with a two liter gig gulp salute to michael bloomberg. The five boroughs of new york are made up primarily of humble, modest nonboastful people which is why this is the greatest freakin city in the world. For the most part, ill say mayor bloomberg has done some great things. I have some reason to ask our citys billionaire big brother wtf. Your honor i have been with you on some of your big urban hall monitor policies. I was with you when you banned smoking in nightclubs even though a lot of us find the presence of cancer causing smoke enhances ones enjoyment of live jazz. Im certainly with you on your proposed ban of styrofoam containers. Yes, new york has always prided itself on having some of the stinkiest, most disgusting landfills in america. But if can help save america we have to be willing to take second place to jersey in this category. Mr. Mayor, heres the thing. The ban on the sale of two liter sodas, it is a little silly. Lets say im having new Jersey Governor Chris Christie over to my house for dinner. Now, i would probably have to order about ten double cheese pizzas and have to get some food for myself. So im allowed to order as much fattening food as i want but a two liter soda is breaking the law . Sure, i can order dozens of small soda cans which cause just as much diesht but cause more harm to the environment which nullifies the point of banning the styrofoam containers. Your ban is supersize strange and it is every type of republicans and it has even new yorkers saying wtf new york vo she gets the comedians laughing and the thinkers thinking. Ok, so theres wiggle room in the ten commandments, thats what youre saying. vo shes joy behar. Current will let me say anything. The bar harbor bake is really worth trying. [ male announcer ] get more during red lobsters lobsterfest. With the years Largest Selection of mouthwatering lobster entrees. Like our delicious lobster lovers dream, featuring two kinds of succulent lobster tails. Or our savory, new grilled Maine Lobster and lobster tacos. Its back, but not for long. [ woman ] our guests go crazy for lobsterfest. My favorite entree is the lobster lovers dream. Whats yours . Come celebrate lobsterfest and sea food differently. John welcome back to viewpoint. So we asked our viewers tho comment via twitter on the violence against women act and alicia tweeted any politician that would vote against vawa is a moss onist in that is a misogynist that supports violence. Were talking here about real, physical abuse not just psychological abuse like you see every morning when Joe Scarborough inflicts it. If you have a comment tweet us to John Fuglesang or post it on our facebook page. Now, at least theres good news today about the violence against women act. Somehow the house of representatives finally passed it, sending it on to the president. In particular, they passed the senate verse. The one that includes protections for women who are immigrants in lgbt couples and native american women. The houses own version had none of that and failed, deeply disappointing haters of native american women. I guess thats the ghost of andrew jackson. It was the right outcome but why on earth my friends did it take more than a year to renew this . Joining me to talk about this and so many other important d. C. Policy issues is the comedian and actress known for her role on susie greene on curb your enthusiasm. She will be on long island this weekend. People ofate the funny foxy, susie essman. I think minka enjoys it. John do you really . Shes one of those . I dont know if shes one of those but theres something going on. John i heard the working title is shut up, mica, go make me a steak. They changed it to morning joe. Still fun to watch. Have we not done enough to the native American People . Have we got done enough to them . That were going to allow their women to be beaten to death . John theyve always reauthorized it. Some republicans who dont want a lot of republicans. And i forgot the statistic because im so bad with numbers but when bush was in office, i cant even get that out when bush was in office, like a bad memory john i know. A lot of people have blocked it out. Every republican voted for it. Maybe one. There was one. John now youve got two guys going to run for president in the senate. Rand paul and marco rubio. Today, 27 Republican House members voted against it after beingheim uliated. Including eric cantor. And then they wonder why women arent voting for them. Were against violence against women. What are they thinking . John is there a way for the g. O. P. To get womens votes . I know they have women who are opposed to abortion rights. Women who are in ann romneys income tax bracket. How else can they hope to get female voters . They should keep up the good work they were doing right now. Just keep it up. I mean i actually i know a lesbian john you do . In show business . Shes not in show business but she was a battered women situation with her partner. It is not something that you actually think of when you think of the Lesbian Community you know. Because lesbians are always such fine upstanding citizens. You never see a lesbian embezzer will or counter fitter. But she was actually being severely physically beaten by her partner. Luckily, she had parents that intervened. And also immigrant groups that come from cultures that are so antifemale to begin with. John yes. They come here they come here and behave like indians burning their wives, you know. John when you think about this is illegal immigrants, of course. When you think about it, there is Domestic Abuse in lesbian relationships. You think some of the republicans will have another chance to put another lesbian in jail. Speaking of men who dont know how to talk to women, lets briefly touch on seth macfarlane. What did you think of the umbrage when he was hired to say outrageous things . Exactly. I think Political Correctness is the death of comedy. I hate it. About comedy. I think comedians as long as its funny. For example the teddy bear antisemitic thing it wasnt funny. John it wasnt funny. If it was funny, i would have forgiven it. John of course. The ive seen your boobs i thought funny but ridiculous because almost all of those women had body doubles. John except kate winslet. I thought he could have balanced that out if he just once talked about Harvey Keitel showing his little harvey back in the 90s. If he balanced out the sexism a little bit. What i resent because this happens to me all the time. People hire me for a gig and theyre hiring me because im me then they want me to be completely clean. Thats not who i am. This is who he is. I thought that he was kind of charming and delightful in certain ways and i thought that the fault of the show was actually with the producers. I had no interest to see half of the musical numbers. John really . You didnt feel like having a salute to chicago that won ten years ago. The same producers. I know that. So i drag out all of my old clips . Lets go see my clip that i did in 1999. Whats the point . John it is more like lets see how Plastic Surgery what did you think about seth . John i thought he was really funny and most of the jokes were funny. I think it was Frank Conniff who said the comedy umbrage industry is becoming as big as the comedy. I hate it. I think fine, then dont hire a comedian. John bring in the guy ann whats her face. Hire them who were as dull as ditch water. John well all be miserable and no one will be offended. Everybody wants it to be funny but they dont want it to push that edge. Just get a miami. Just get a mime. John chris brown is a lipsyncer. Susie essman stays with me. The one and only dick cavett will be joining us. Well look at a strange tale of a man named bob woodward. That take you inside the headlines. Real, gripping, current. Documentaries. On current tv. John earlier this week Journalist Bob Woodward wrote an outer loop ed for the Washington Post accusing barack obama of moving the goalpost. He suggested before publishing the piece, he was threatened by a senior white house official. Ooh, it was said very clearly you will regret doing this. Who sent that email . Well, im not going to say. Youre going to regret this. It is mickey mouse. John that was the sound of a tough followup question from wolf blitzer. Turns out it is not mickey mouse. It is actually goofy. The senior white house official James Sperling initially emailed woodward to apologize for raising his voice in their previous conversation and then added i do truly believe you should rethink your comment about saying that p. O. T. U. S. Is asking for revenues is moving the goalpost. I know you may believe this but as a friend, i think will you regret staking out that claim. Hmm. Doesnt sound like that much of a terrifying threat. Which woodward knew when he directly wrote back to sperling you do not ever have to apologize to me. I, for one, welcome a little heat. I also welcome your personal advice. And by personal advice, apparently he means threat. Im joined once again by actress and comedian susie essman. Were now joined by legendary host dick cavett. Ander pummel horse champion. That is so difficult. It is the hardest piece. Thank you for knowing that. Because my kids were all gymnasts. Were they . Yeah, so i follow that. But you dont look like a pummel horse the horse is the one should i take my shirt off . Youll see, i still have my built from that time. John youre following bill bradley who only has two nba championship rings. Pummel horse is much more impressive. Hes a little smarter than i am of the three of us here. John he said he was on your show in the 60s and he was a big fan of yourself. Picture me in the center of this half circle of chairs, standing and the nix standing here. It looked like this and this. John thats back when bradley had an afro. Who is this woodward . I think thats the exact issue, actually. I think why hes behaving this way is because hes afraid of being irrelevant. John hes got a book coming out too. He had his moment it is bad when you peak too young. John im still waiting. All it was a great book. He got Robert Redford to play it in the movie. What more can you ask for . It has been downhill from there. And your favorite gymnast had them on his show. They were little boys. They walk out like two high school kids. They were relevant. John there is another connection because dick, you have something in common with bob woodward. You were on nixons bad side. In fact, susie, here is an audio recording of president nixon talking about his dislike of you. What the hell is cavett. Oh, christ. Weve complained bitterly about the cavett show. Well, is there any way we can screw him . Weve been trying to. Thats great. John i met him once. John you met nixon . I ask you both, how would you feel if the leader of the free world wanted to screw you . It would depend on who it was. [ laughter ] john clinton is a whole different story than nixon. I dont know your type. John dick, what is bob woodward doing here picking a phony fight with the Obama Administration . Is he worried this tone reaches all the way to the highest levels of government . It seems to me probably the west thing since the since it blew up. It is that kind of thing thats happened to all of us. Where you Say Something innocuous really and something innocuous is said about you and the next day you see it in the post. Cavett slams so so and so or sussman rips so and so. John if youre going to rip the white house live on cnn and say they threatened you, it is good if that really happened. Also, there is a paper trail. How stupid is he . John follow the emails. There is a paper trail. John exactly. John are you surprised dick, that a man of this eminence can make a rookie career . Hes getting old. Youre forgiving for the age thing. Those of us who can still get around and dress ourselves have to make mistakes like this. How old is woodward . John hes gotta be what . Late 60s early 70s . He seemed like a kid when he came on my show with bernstein. John they were in junior high when they brought down nixon, werent they . It seemed like it. John he looked just like redford. I actually have found him to be one of the more tedious pontificators on john i would agree with that. Ive enjoyed many of his books. The oped woodward wrote isnt correct about barack obama and about the sequester. He said that the president was moving the goalpost. Hes blaming it all on obama. Do you think it is just obama to blame for the Current Situation . You know what . I have absolutely no understanding of the sequester whatsoever to me, it is like y2k, all of the clips and all of these things and all of this fear. Should i buy an apartment now or should i sell an apartment now. I have no understanding. You dont know where it is going to hit you. All i know is im fly to london in two weeks. Am i going to be able to take off . Im flying down south tomorrow. I hope my plane takes off. You may not be able to tip anybody. I have to confess on another part of your side, when i hear the word sequester something rolls over and goes to sleep. And yet i think its probably a scandal that the bastards all left town today. I think its calculated. John deeply calculated. The president said look, just to make sure you guys will raise the debt ceiling for me as you did for reagan or bush, ill create this apocalyptic thing that will happen and our republican friends thought oh, president romney will handle this then suddenly, theres no romney. Do you think they thought that . John yes, i do. Were you watching karl rove on Election Night . I know him. But hes psychotic. John thats confine confined to just rowe . You think all of them really thought romney was going to win . John i think it helps a lot of them if obama is in the white house. Should we announce to karl rove who did win . John dont ruin his day. Watching that meltdown was porn for moral people. I think were seeing karl maybe woodward auditioning for his job on fox news. He made all of the conservatives look silly because they believed his chicken little story. Theyll jump on any little thing. John ill be back with dick cavett and susie essman and what life has been like for almost the whole seven hours without a pope. vo she gets the comedians laughing and the thinkers thinking. Ok, so theres wiggle room in the ten commandments, thats what youre saying. vo shes joy behar. Current will let me say anything. John im back with my allstar panel comedian susie essman and the one and only dick cavett. She gets top billing. John she was here first. I was here first. John benedict xvi exited the vat dan for the last time as pope and made his way to his summer residence at Castel Gandolfo leaving the Roman Catholic Church Without a leader until his successor is elected. So questions dick and susie theres currently no pope. Is there going to be a chaotic rush of Birth Control until there is a new one . Ill let susie handle it. Being of the hen rayic persuasion, im looking at this from afar. Youre catholic. My husband is catholic. Nothing bad has happened, not having a pope. Who is going to notice . My fear is he will come back. John well, he already has. Cher keeps coming back. The pope will still live at the vatican, still wear the white robe lose the red leather shoes and who knew the magic red shoes made you pope and he will keep the pope emeritus. Is that like the dean emeritus at the fryers club . John his taking his personal secretary the sexy guy, george, he will be the new theyre going to share a secretary. It is really screwy. Wait a minute. He has a summer residence . I thought he was supposed to live in poverty. John have you seen the castle . The nuns get the poverty. Another antifemale thing here. John i hate to break it to you but yes the vatican has women problems too. Mental card catalog, come up with the name of the bishop of boston, they had a hard time booting his butt out. John cardinal law. He was punished and sent to the vatican into a 40room historic mansion with 20 servants and probably a masseur. John under the swiss guard, no doubt. Thats how you punish the rearrangers. Like Cardinal Mahoney whose idea of how to deal with child abuse is keep the priests moving around the globe. John thats something they did here. Mahoney gets to vote on the new pope. Susie . I still cant get over hes got a house in the hamptons. He has a summer residence. John he has a farm. That brings me to tonights f bomb. Really quick thing. It is from the new yorker. Mr. Cassidy. Aisle. Just read you the first line. Spare me any more reverential coverage about Pope Benedict xvi and the decision to give up his office. Wishes him well because of his age and so on but says more than 20 years of the catholic church, enforcer before he became pope has been little short of disaster. John exactly. Hes no friend of women. John on everything. That leads to the final comment here for the f bomb because Pope Benedict xvi gave his final mass on sunday, final public address two days ago made his final appearance this morning. Hes had more final appearances than bowie. But he advocated the papacy. He destroyed the ring, went off to stay at gandolfo castle. Weve been critical of the pope in some areas. The vatican crackdown on american nuns, his calling the idea of women priests a grave crime. Did he that. While nobody doubts he tried to solve the sex abuse problems, he tried to blame it on gay priests. And then selftransferred to a Child Molesting priest. Hes the most famous man alive to oppose the iraq war. He called on the importance of fighting climate change. Even said using condoms to prevent the spread of a. I. D. S. Might not be a totally evil idea. We wish him a long, healthy and joyful retirement. No pope has ever retired shallentarily and been allowed to live in vatican city. He granted himself the title of pope emeritus and he just changed the conclave rules to elect a successor so the process coul