some people here are pulling for me. [applause] i am delighted to see you here tonight, hillary. [laughter] i was thrilled to get this invitation. i feel right at home here because it is often said i share the politics of alfred e. smith and the ears of alfred e. newman. [laughter] it is an honor to be here with al smith iv. obviously, i never knew your great-grandfather. but from everything senator mccain told me - [laughter] the two of them had a great time before prohibition. [laughter] of course i am delighted, but not surprised, by the final repeal of the 18th amendment. i have said all along that when it was properly submitted to the rank and file of our people, they would readily see that it had no place in our constitution. it would be very difficult if not impossible to explain to those who come to this country from the lesson taught to the coming generation, to make it their business to see that no such matter as this is ever again made the subject of federal co
maybe 20 steps from where we are sitting is the speaker s office that al smith used. the current speaker, sidney sheldon sheldon silver, i am so sorry about that. and there is a portrait of al smith. the came from the same district. they both are democrats. they both were speakers of the assembly. it is interesting when you talk about it is almost 100 years ago that smith was speaker. 100 years later we have a speaker from the same district and political party. the neighborhood is still a very diverse neighborhood. smith became speaker on a fluke. new york state reapportionment was so heavily weighted in favor of republicans, that his democrats rarely held in this chamber. he was here 12 years and was only in the majority twice. it only became democratic once in the 1930 s. they had to go to the 1960 s before the democrats took over. i think smith would be proud that they finally got equal representation. they changed the system to make it one-man, one-vote. you could t
[laughter] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] . the series airs live every friday night at 8:00 p.m. eastern through december 9. you can see tonight s program again at 11:00 p.m. eastern. for more information, go to our website, c-span.org. you will find appraisals by historians and portions of their present and portions of the commentary. it has been almost 30 years since the proposal of a memorial to honor dr. king. sunday, what the official dedication of the memorial in washington, d.c. next, republican presidential candidate texas governor rick perry the outlines his energy policy. after that, house democrats discuss currency manipulation legislation. and the c-span series the contenders on key figures who have run for president entrenched political history. tonight, the life of al smith. now, republican presidential candidate and texas governor rick perry on his jobs plan and energy pol