and princeton university s ann marie slaughter. she served as director of policy planning at the state department. nic, what is the latest with former congressman wheldon? the meeting didn t happen. he flew all the way thinking he was going to meet with gadhafi. is he just sitting, cooling his heels? reporter: i think cooling his heels is perhaps all he can do at the moment. it s certainly understandable that he s frustrated he didn t get this meeting. invited here to meet with the government chief of staff or at least moammar gadhafi s chief of staff, a very senior government official here, but it hasn t translated into that meeting he was expecting. and it puts him in a very, very awkward position. there s some sense that maybe the op-ed he wrote in the new york times before he arrived here could have put the leaders back up a little bit, coming out, getting ahead of the story a little, if you will. but this is moammar gadhafi, perhaps the way that many people remember him, compl
was going to meet with gadhafi. is he just sitting, cooling his heels? reporter: i think cooling his heels is perhaps all he can do at the moment. it s certainly understandable that he s frustrated he didn t get this meeting. invited here to meet with the government chief of staff or at least moammar gadhafi s chief of staff, a very senior government official here, but it hasn t translated into that meeting he was expecting. and it puts him in a very, very awkward position. there s some sense that maybe the op-ed he wrote in the new york times before he arrived here could have something to do with it. but this is moammar gadhafi, perhaps the way that many people remember him, completely unpredictable. and mr. wheldon isn t the first person that this leader has kept waiting, anderson. ann marie, are congressman wheldon s proposals even plausible? how likely is something would come out of this? i think you have to see it as
least moammar gadhafi s chief of staff, a very senior government official here, but it hasn t translated into that meeting he was expecting. and it puts him in a very, very awkward position. there s some sense that maybe the op-ed he wrote in the new york times before he arrived here could have something to do with it. but this is moammar gadhafi, perhaps the way that many people remember him, completely unpredictable. and mr. wheldon isn t the first person that this leader has kept waiting, anderson. ann marie, are congressman wheldon s proposals even plausible? how likely is something would come out of this? i think you have to see it as an opening bargaining position. there are different positions coming out of different people. the gadhafi regime itself has presented a position both through saif and the deputy foreign minister in athens. their starting position is
long after we finished meeting earlier today. that was the most sustained anti-aircraft gunfire from multiple positions from around the city that we ve heard for perhaps almost two weeks here. but we didn t hear any bombs or missiles falling here and we haven t really heard any in this city for about six days i would say. again, going back to the interview with eman al obeidy, this was an interview where i describe this lady as strong and courageous for standing up for her views, but it was also i would say calm, controlled, dignified. it didn t get out of hand, if you will, with the officials who were present there. and she portrayed and came across here as a very dignified person. somebody who wants to be seen
states has just said the least we can do is pass a budget, and we went to pennsylvania apparently to work on his campaign budget. the tea party just continues to pull senator speaker boehner further back and back and back. they say they don t want compromise. they say they relish a shutdown. the fact is, both republicans and democrats share plenty to blame here. let s start with the democrats. president obama first proposed a budget for the 2011 fiscal year february 1st, 2010. that s more than a year ago. five months after that, the house passed a few bills but didn t get through the senate. that s the big question, why? at the time, democrats controlled the house and the senate, and this could have been settled before they lost that chance. now here we are, six short term spending measures later, still no agreement. president obama has been mostly mia on this issue until recently. he met with boehner and others yesterday that yielded some grownup lecturing after he was asked wha