And also, they criticized al sharpton and Jesse Jackson when Rush Limbaugh and sarah palin have said some terrible things. Those are my comments. Happy new year to everybody. Thank you. Host your take . Guest happy new year to you and everyone else in illinois. Mitch mcconnell, i think, is the senator you are referring to who said he wanted to thwart president obama at every turn and did a decent job of it. I think he did that for policy reasons. President obama is the only person that gets elected by the whole country. Im not a supporter of president obama, but you have to give him some credit. He is proving he is president , knows he is president , not giving up just because he lost the midterm. He is doing some things i do not think you should do constitutionally, but pushing his agenda at home and abroad. We cover the congress a lot in the weekly standard, but the president matters a lot. There are people saying foolish things on both sides. I think it is a legitimate question for republicans to ask, and for democrats to ask whether al sharpton is a constructive force in america or not. He has a history, statements that are all public records. It is a legitimate question. I do not think anyone is saying he can make his case. Host charlotte, North Carolina. Bernard is on the line, and he is an independent. Caller how are you doing . This is an example of a big distraction, this whole thing. The guy in congress, the white supremacist, that is typical of the system we live in. A system of white supremacy. That is the way it is. But it is the president s fault. The problem is you all think that al sharpton is in charge of the movement. He is not in charge of any movement. He is one of you all, really. So lets be real about that. That is my comment. Host i do not think it a white supremacist country. I think it is a country that elected barack obama twice. It is a country that has made amazing strides in Race Relations in the past 50 or 60 years. Im not making al sharpton leader of anything. I would be happy if he were not treated as a leader of the africanamerican unity. I think has dubious claims to both. There are more africanamericans who have done impressive things of the past 30 or 40 years. More who contributed to equality under law. People who have achieved more. I am happy to recognize them. They are in both parties. One of the distressing things, i have to say, in the last year, looking back on new years eve, i did not vote for barack obama either time. I disagree with his policies. I worry his foreign policies are getting us in deep trouble. I did think he would help further improve Race Relations in this country. I thought that would be an upside to his election. For the first two or three years, i think that was a reasonable judgment. But he has been pretty responsible and tried not to play the race card too much. I have to say, the last few months have been distressing if you really like to have it healthy, civil relations between races in this country. 99 of the time, they are healthy. And much different than they would have been half a century ago. But the degree of racial tension i think has been some of it has just happened because of incidents we could not have predicted. But some of the reactions have been unhelpful. I do worry i just wish that were not the case. It would be a shame if, after eight years of barack obama, whatever we think about his policies, those sorts of things, it would be nice to say this was a milestone for Race Relations in this country. They are better than they were before he was elected. It is a question whether one can say that now. Host lets go to riverside, where hannah is on the line. A democrat. Caller happy new year everybody. I would like to know what mr. Kristol thinks about the republicans repealing the dodd frank act. The banks gambling with citizens money. And what does he think about the u. S. Defending nazis in the russiau. N. Resolution, where they wanted to condemn the nazis, but the United States for some reason did not go along with it . Guest very different questions. On dodd frank, the real problems in wall street and washington from in 2006, 2007, 2008, i do not think dodd frank was a good solution to those problems. I wish republicans would replace dodd frank. I think this is something that congress could do in the shortterm. They might have the votes to repeal it, but they are not going to get president obama to repeal it. But why not exempt Community Banks . This is something the chairman of the Financial Services committee has talked about. They have not moved this legislation. It is a good example of republicans in congress needing to find things they can do that are not tiny, not just symbolic. Would actually help the country. That are not so unrealistic they cannot get them signed by the president. Or perhaps even get 51 votes in the senate. Im not against passing things the president will veto. But there are middle sized things republicans can do. They have been concerned with doing little symbolic things and, on the other hand, grand things. Dodd frank applies to the meltdown of 2008. A lot of regulatory burdens that they are not set up to bear. Citibank and bank of america they paid a lot of lawyers to fill out forms. Little banks in different states have trouble doing that. It is a burden on them. Why not exempt them . Theyre still covered by regulations, as they always have been. It is an example of something republicans can make progress on over the next few years. Maybe get president obama to sign some legislation, show the voters they are serious, and lay the groundwork for a bigger conservative agenda in 2017. On the ukraine point, that nazis are taking over ukraine, it is a very decent government now. Not everyone has nazi background or proclivity. I think it is an unfair charge. We have had real setbacks. Putin got away with things you would not think he could get away with. Russia is suffering because of dropping oil prices, which is good. Largely due to our own energy explanation. But the occupation of crimea and ukraine is very bad. Host you started talking about this earlier, but looking through the lens of congress what are your expectations going into this congress . What are the areas of compromise and conflict . Guest i have modest expectations. Which i think is sensible. There has been such a talking point since republicans took the house. This is the congress that does not get anything done. They get a little more done than they get credit for. The main reason they didnt get anything done is that harry reid would not bring anything for a vote to the senate. The house passed many pieces of legislation. I think the house will repass an awful lot of legislation, some of it too ambitious for the president to accept. Some of it he could sign. Some of it he could sign reluctantly. I think those pieces of legislation will come to a vote. Some of them will die in the senate. Some of them will pass the senate. I think the key attitude for Republican Leaders to take is lets just do what we can. Do not overthink it. They hate to go to the floor with any bill that will fail. They think it is a repudiation. Let the committees to their work. Let them write out legislation. Let the floor vote on legislation. They do get a fair amount of legislation passed and signed. There is not a great sense of urgency in the house. The economy is growing. Not as fast as it was, but deficit is down. Issues like immigration, i think doing nothing is better than bad legislation. They should not get spooked by the notion of, if they do not get signs up every week, they are a donothing congress. They will pass pieces of legislation like the repeal of obamacare. At the end of the day, i think they will have a reasonablys vessel year and a half. Everything depends on the president ial election in terms of you drove the country. Im as we have a sort of revival after a couple of bad setbacks in 2010 and 2014. By winning the president of vertro time, that would be a big moment for liberals. But the republicans could say ok , obama was pretty unique. It was a moment. Now we can go ahead and legislate a conservative agenda. I think 2016 is the big election. A lot of republicans in congress are going to be spending some time worrying about not messing up 2016. Which is reasonable, but they should not do that either. They can overthink these things. You were there. Terrible government shutdown. Republicans would never recover. You could go back and find headlines after headline including conservative publications. Pulling their hair out about how much damage has been done a year before the election. So, i think they should be a little more relaxed in congress. Let committees do their work. Hope the president signs them. And not over plan and overthink and over strategized, which they do sometimes. Host president obama spoke my npr calling. I want to get your take. [video clip] s there anything you intend to do differently in your approach for congress in order to get results . I can always do better. In every aspect of my job. Congressional relations is not exempt from that. I think the circumstances will have changed. I am frustrated with the results of the midterm election. I think we had a great record. For members of congress to run on. I do not think we, myself and the Democratic Party, made as good a case as we should have. Is a cousin once, we had low voter turnout, and the results were back. On the other hand, you have republicans in a position where it is not enough for them to grind the wheels of congress to a halt and then blame me. They are going to be in a position where they have to show that they can responsibly govern, given that they have significant majorities in both chambers. What i have said repeatedly is that i want to work with them, i want to get things done. I do not have another election to run. Host what do you think . Guest it is nice he things he has a great record for democrats to run on. I think the record was pretty highly well highlighted by both parties. I think the public did not like that democratic record much. At least in a lot of states that are moderately conservative, states like iowa and colorado, swing states where republicans one big victories. A little bit of denial there but i guess he is entitled to that. Honestly, the person i agree with barack obama and that he is frustrated. He is getting blamed for the midterm election. But one person who really should be claimed more than he has been his harry reid, the democratic majority leader. I find that kind of amazing he is running for reelection. Is he really the person they want leading them in the minority. He had the strategy, incredibly determined by not let letting anything to come up for a vote in the senate. Nothing came up in the senate. You had the ridiculous positions of the senator of alaska who had never had anything voted on in the senate because harry reid was so nervous that they had a vote, the republicans would offer an amendment and support. In the short term, he did well the democratic conference was loyal to him. But it was pretty much a disaster in 2014. We watch president obama whatever you think of the House Republicans subsequently, they passed a ton of stuff. And Mitch Mcconnell cap saying, whether it is the beginning of the individual mandate of obamacare, there were many pieces of legislation passed by the house. But they never came up in the senate and so it is just not credible for the president to say republicans were responsible for gridlock. There will be some of that gridlock. But in terms of the actual mechanics it was harry reid that show down. Im amazed they are not looking to someone else as minority leader in the senate. It is not my problem. Internal senate and house the liberations is one thing ive learned, and im sure you learned, you look from the outside and cannot understand that sometimes but it is like high school. People are popular with their colleagues. Some people are doing a good job behindthescenes. So theres loyalty to different members. But rub barack obama was a great candidate. A fresh face. It gave democrats this whole image of new, young, change, different. Now look at the Democratic Party. Harry reid, leader of the senate. Nancy pelosi, mid70s. California, which was the cutting edge, as always, progressive politics in america or has been for the last 20 or 30 years, totally democratic state. Governor of california, jerry brown, 76. Two senators, Diane Feinstein and barbara boxer, 89 and 74. House leaders is 74. That is one of the forward thinking Democratic Party. When you take away Barack Obama Hillary clinton will be in her late 60s. For me as a republican, the most encouraging thing about the election in november was not just the results. Not just the numbers but of all your candidates and youth of republican candidates. You have tom cotton, dan sullivan, cory gardner. All coming into the Senate People in their late 30s, early 50s. Diverse backgrounds. Impressive people. They were all younger than the people they beat in each of those races. The Republican Congress in both houses will be younger than the democratic caucus. Suddenly, the image one had and i had too, which was depressing as a conservative in 2008 and 2012, of the republicans as the party of backward looking, older, hanging on desperately. Democrats are cuttingedge. I think that is going to look different in the next year or two. That could affect the 2016 election. Hillary clinton will be the nominee, who has been around quite a long time. The republican nominee is much more likely to be someone who may be in his or her 40s or 50s. Jeb bush will be a little older. He is a little younger than Hillary Clinton. It is an argument against jeb bush, incidentally. Host you are talking with bill kristol. Stephen on the republican line in texas. Caller good morning. A fairly simple question. I do not understand why the Republican Party and conservatives have not been able to ring the concept and educate the American People of the concept that you simply do not have a nation if you cannot fundamentally defined, secure and control your borders. It does not mean your physical border in mexico. That means immigration as a whole. You do not have a nation. You do not have a country if you cannot do that. Why the immigration debate ends up degrading into titfortat as opposed to the fundamental need to define your borders as a nation. Which every nation in the world does and has that right and obligation to do. And we know the census, to some degree will work. Or we would be able to take down the fence around the white house to identify where people should and should not go. And yet, fences are poohpoohed as something that will work. Lets take down the fence around the white house and see if that will work. Host i agree with your sentiments. Border security is important to any nation. Important to our nation. But president obama does not really want to enforce it i dont think. And people overstay their visas, which i think is most of the people here illegal illegally. Some of the nonenforcement is understandable. You have debates about some of these children, that might be citizens. There are a lot of side debates which are important in the immigration issue. But i agree you need to have control of your border. You need to have citizens securing their own country. Not people overstaying visas. You cant have millions of people overstaying visas. Not all of them, with good intentions. The good news is that the american public, i think, agrees with the collar and republicans on this aspect of immigration. Look back one year. The big conventional wisdom of the year ago was republicans better pass an immigration bill. They will be finished if they do not pay cave and given to the immigration bill. The Business Community was hammering Republican Leadership of the house. Newspapers, wall street journal even. I have been fairly liberal on immigration. But i thought it was a bad bill. Ive think politically rebellions would pay for doing nothing on immigration. Ticket price in the election. Indeed, they got more latino votes than ronnie got in 2012. Romney got in 2012. Is the immigration system broken . Yes. The republicans have to have an agenda for what should be fixed how much immigration there should be, how we verify all these things. These are collocated issues. I am not sure what i think about some of them. Some people say it is depressing american wages. It is an argument that is reasonable for one to have. But i agree. Being serious on border security, internal security, is the right place to be. I think it is a good place to be politically. Host Fort Lauderdale florida. Frank is an independent. Caller hello. I enjoyed watching you on the brinkley show. Your knowledge of washington is good, so i will have to ask you a question. Steve scalise, you might know something about. You might have some ideas on what direction we could go in. One of the things that happened with the Steve Scalise scandal if he keeps getting bigger and bigger, the fact that he had a powerful position as majority whip, if that is correct i saw a film on the Washington Examiner online where he was questioning al gore a while ago. I think it had to do with oil if i remember correctly. Louisiana is a big oil state. Among other things, al gore had some pretty bad connections with people for a man who was an environmentalist. He was connected to armand hammer, who brought as best as mines in the soviet union back in the 1920s. Im not blaming al gore for that. But the fact that al gore never, you know, expressed any kind of regret for that or anything else, you know, we have a problem with tort reform with asbestos also. Steve scalise, i do not know if he is involved in anything like that, but it makes me wonder where this could be derailed or maybe some of the elves, if Steve Scalise got in enough trouble, if somebody else could move into that particular area. Thank you for your reply ahead of time. Host guest thank you for the question. As you said, if the scandal is bigger, he will be in more trouble. Some of the scandals that look really big on the first day o