Became the oldest serving member. In an interview with cspan, Congress Representative hall reflects on his years and the Space Program. This is about 35 minutes. Congressman ralph hall, you have been in the house of representatives since january of 1981. You had hoped to be here for one last term. The voters thought otherwise. How are you processing your departure . Havell, of everything i checked on during that race, i was 12 points ahead. And it taught me that you never depend on people who tell you you are ahead when you are not. Coming back that night at 3 00 in the morning, i had to think as i was driving out to my house, that happened. I pulled out some old elections and checked how i had done, and i finally figured it out. The other guy got more votes than i did i got beat that is all there is to it. It hurt me because it hurt so many of my close friends. How does it feel now when youre getting down to the wire when there is only a matter of weeks until you are leaving the insti
Anyone. I resist on that, totally. We dont go out to dinner very much with people. That part of our life seems to have dwindled. Much more when we came here over the years, whatever the time pressure was, whatever the reason, there is less of that hat goes on. I have too much respect for too many. And oh i will regret it and kick myself and say how could i have mentioned him without mentioning her. Lets go to president s, then. It was the president that you have enjoyed working with and havent enjoyed working with . Ive worked to a degree with ll the president s. I havent had a bad relationship with any president , for starters. I think president obama is very, very thoughtful, very careful. Does how to weigh pros and cons and gets along very well. I thought president clinton was unusual in terms of his ability, not just a think through issues and he has got a heck of a great mind, but he also had the ability has the ability, still very vigorously to connect with people on a personal w
Looked at roberts rule. I figured it out finally. The guy got more votes than i did. I got beat. Thats all there is to me. It didnt bother me but it hurt me because it hurt some of my friends. How are you feeling about leaving . Well, when i wanted a doughnut this morning, i went down and get it. Ive been a member of congress for 34 years and to finally get beat, if i was a manager for a be able 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. I had 18 cochairman who were chairman of my 18 counties in my district that were supporting me and wanted me to run, and i did. Its better judgment was it its hard toe get elected if you are 90 or 91yearold and they dont tell people that you run two miles every morning, that you vote 99 plus percent of the time. Theres a difference between that and old people. That wasnt brought up by the Dallas Morning News because theyre not in my favor.
Various native american tribes. 10 a. M. Eastern followingw. Following washington journal. Justices atcourt 8 30 p. M. Eastern this thanksgiving week on cspan. For a complete schedule, go to cspan. Org. Michigan senator carl levin is retiring after serving six terms in the senate. He recently spoke about his political career in the current state of washington politics. This is a half hour. Senator carl levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services committee, why are you retiring . A number of reasons. I didnt want to spend these two critical years out campaigning, raising money. I just felt there was too much at stake now, and i have a responsibility for some of those things as chairman of the Armed Services committee. It is not the way i wanted to spend my time, basically. The wife and i have been married for 53 years, and now 42 of those years have been in public life. We felt it was time. I am also 80 years old now. I just felt it was time to go home, spend a little more time with th
Whats your secret, how are you running two miles a day . I was told once, i was in the cattle building, if one of your he was has a bull calf. Go out there and lift the bull calf every day over the fence, day after day after day until hes a fullgrown bull. Then when you can still lift him over the fence and throw him over the fence, you can throw the bull enough, you can run for congress. Thats what they told me. So thats how i got into the congress, i left the cattle business and came here. Well, youve switched parties during your time here. Youve seen the parties change so many times. Whats your handicap, lets start with the democrats what do you see when you look at the Democratic Party . Well, the Democrat Party was a twoparty party, democrats and liberal democrats. I wasnt really liked any better by the republicans than the democrats, because i voted in my district. I had the sam rayburn district. Go up there and do a job and tell them youre doing a good job. Im not a golfer. I do