Washingtons biggest scandals. Welcome to book tv. I former apartment chairman of the house government oversight committee. Were here to discuss a book by the retired chairman of the house government and oversight called watchdog. Watchdog tells about basically your political history and also about the investigation that you underwent as chairman of the committee and as a minority member of the committee. Your first election to congress, interesting for readers is the great davis recall in california and behind the scenes story of how that came about and was financed. It has a little bit of chairman toms time in it to. I think youll learn from my mistakes to move out. But what wanted you to write the book. Guest i think of voters right now have lost a little of hope. They seat the wrongdoing, not all of it but some of it. Then they do not see what difference it makes. I thought a book that took these stories and linked it to what difference it makes would really help people. There are things that were done as a result of our successes. I touch on the fact that you send off as you did when you are chairman about 2000 letters in a congressional cycle. Most of those and in government complying, making changes, addressing issues and our investigations. Many of them leading to fundamental change. The gsa and a number of number of other agents including the irs and veterans administration. They all held lavish parties on taxpayer money. Our oversight, making that aware have changed how the administration oversees it to make sure the taxpayer dollars are overspent. These changes or Success Stories id touch on the additional stories. Changes of of the freedom of information act. Of the data act in law and changes in how congress can bring to the Court Complaints about wrongdoing of the administration. All of those are part of what we touch on as the next step. What we are going to do to create a government were responsible to his people. Host we are sponsoring a balance of powers both the judiciary executive and the legislative branch, but maybe im just reminiscing since i left congress, but it looks like the Congressional Branch your book goes to explain some of things he tried to do the oversight and the importance of oversight from the legislative branch to make sure the executive branch does not get out of control. Guest i think youre hitting the nail on the head. Congress has given up much of its power. Periodically they said will punt over to the administration and with the Administration Takes all the power you give them, like most bureaucracies takes more if they can, we often find our constituents saying, where do we go to get fairness, how is it that elected officials are making best about so for . The other part is an interesting one. When addressing the oversight of congress have always sided with the legitimate requirement and obligation of the administration to comply with our oversights. What they have not done is they have not seen the cases brought to the for what our oversight leads to. They are very good at saying, yes you have a right to see these documents and call witnesses. But when we but when we say, but what you are doing is wrong, if the administration shows you the back of their hand and moves on, we have not been able to get back to the courts in a way in which they coincide with us, two against one of their rights and get the administration to do what they need to do. The Obama Administration has taken a lot of well sought and received grief for being above the law. But not really. They are above congress. When the courts have spoke on the Obama Administration has complied. What we need to do candidly is get to the courts when there are differences in views between the American People and administration, quickly. Host administrations never like to give up information. It is a nuisance that they have to put up with. As is the Associated Press and all the things under foia. But when you give a subpoena you give subpoena power. At one point it held members in contempt of congress but the administration had to enforce that and it just gets stymied at that point. Guest that was one of the Lessons Learned both during the Bush Administration and in your tenure when president bush, his people were held in contempt for not delivering witnesses to the judiciary committee. Then again herrick colder when he was withholding unreasonably documents about the statements and cover up in congress and the fast and furious investigation. In both cases we eventually were vindicated by the courts that the administration was over asserting their right to privacy but it took time. These are covered in the book. Both are covered in the book. They run the clock out. Actually the deal on the firing of the u. S. Attorney was made after the election of barack obama. Theyre suddenly willing to cut a deal and make it go away but the head are ready been ordered by a judge to do so. In the case of fast and furious, documents are still coming in but the real closing at that would probably happen if the administration is about to turn in the Obama Administration wants to make this go away before they leave. Host i want to get to fast and freeze but this is a great read. It is an easy read. I enjoyed it. But it is a very readable. You probably if not the wealthiest one of the wealthiest members of congress but you talk about how your roof and how you started to get into it. Tell us about how you got into politics and how you got into business and your successes and some of the trials he went to getting there and how that gets used against you in the campaign. Guest i did grow up just a kid, one of six and a i would say middleclass family who had five less kids. I was like he. I was given an opportunity to go to college paid for by the u. S. Army and another four years, like you, like you to serve as an army officer. That took me from a street kid with the likelihood of a bluecollar job and took me to the opportunities to start a business, to have the education to grow a business, and ultimately to do well enough that i began looking began looking at what was wrong in our society. The class warfare that was being instigated several president s ago. But also the whole question of government probusiness, antibusiness or or did they just not understand. Host but you are in suburban cleveland growing up in an ethnic neighborhood. What was it like . Guest are ethnic neighborhood was jewish. We would not have called ourselves arabs we wouldve called yourselves lebanese. But our neighbors, my School Teachers and so on, i was deep in that culture. It was a great opportunity. It was it was the 60s. But there is also challenges. The arab israeli broke out in 67 happened while i was a freshman in high school. Was a very interesting time to have older brothers with my friends heading off to israel to develop against an existential threat. This was a community of Small Business people. A lot of my neighbors, my friends and families own to businesses. Evything from retail shops and manufacturing. It gave me an opportunity to see that there was, in america, an unlimited ability to join a company and growth that or start with your own company. My father know never had that opportunity until fairly late when he started the business after he had a heart attack and could not, quite candidly his career was stifled. So he started a started a business. Growing up i had a lot of examples. For all of us that sort of live the american dream, theres always that question of whats next. Politics and philanthropy become the next whats next. I kind of have an interesting deal. My wife does the majority of philanthropy and we have a foundation that is able to help people. I participate, but i really had an interest in trying to get back to have government to a better job on behalf of the American People. I started off assembly coming to washington to describe what i was seeing, including in the nafta debate i came and testified on behalf of the chamber. I did get hooked on it and eventually help candidates win and then ran for office myself. You are not a stellar student in college. Youre youre one of the smartest guys in congress. But you had learning disabilities along the way. You ended up inventing a lot of things. You get some of your skills in the army and got in the electronics business. Guest it is an odd thing. I went through college as a business major which has been most appropriate for me. I was a like to tinker. I worked in high school what was to be radios made with the transistor tube. In the army i was fortunate enough to head up and organization of engineers and run a computer facility so i got the balance of big picture a a couple of hundred Million Dollars facility i ran. When i left the military and figured i could do anything so i joined a manufacturing firm. It never really did that well but got me into business and started looking at inventions of my own. By 1982 or 1983i was starting 83 i was starting to invent things. I got my first patent in 1981 an actual invention. Ive had 37 cents. Some have done very well, most most have been radio frequency control products and microprocessors. I was also lucky that industry was changing. When i came into security you stuck it key in the fender to protect your car. Or you locked locked the hood. By the time i left, everything was hightech radio control. It interfaced with the body computers and Engine Computers to shut down the car. Or to open the trunk, what ever you want it to do. It was a lot of fun. Innovating to that end of space as a cargo is a win, win. Host so the subcommittee chairmen on judiciary over patents and trademarks which gives you firsthand experience in this area in terms of how it affects real people. Guest fixing the Patent Office has been something i have been involved in. It is been something very much a passion. I came to congress with the number number of federal judges to become friends after cases. They have been good counselors and helpers. We passed early on in my career the second or third term in today that provides a federal judges who choose to specialize somewhat in Patent Litigation with expertise. They are are able to dismiss these cases, dispatch them quickly and accurately. The calendar of these cases are moving better and the judges are more confident in making good rulings with less overturning on appeal. It is not over. We are innovating as a country and the world, patents are becoming more valuable and as a result, there are there are people who litigate for a living sometimes with very weak patents but for great profit. That is part of what i am working on. Host you are certainly the right guy for understanding this. At every level. So you came to testify for nafta in 1993. You got the bug with the San Diego Chamber kind of adopted you in your ran for the senate at that point. Guest i ran for the senate not till 98. Everything early you have the rest of the night to party. It did allow you to have an early supper followed by a long enjoyable evening and sleep in a little bit. I was a freshman congressman at that point and a delegate from virginia. So 1998 you spend a lot of your own money and voters probably give you a favodid you a favor g you enact their. I have a soft spot hes now passed away. He was the state treasurer, graduate of the air force academy, great candidate. He didnt win but he did do better in the primary than i did as he became a nominee of our party. And through losing in the primary, i gained a friend and an opportunity to be seen as somebody to fight hard for what they believe in. But then to support the nominee of the party that they after you get your butt kicked in the primary having to show up at the unity breakfast and say good things about somebody but i have some hurt feelings when you begin to understand politics its fighting hard and losing at least half the time and then coming back into picking a gentle man about it and knowing theres another day it was good training and he remained a friend until he passed away of cancer. I never ran for office again because two years later my congressman announced his retirement and i was already pretty close to issuing in many ways and i was well garded and ran one and have been there ever since. Since. So your opponent who represented a good part of that his district was bigger than the congress. He was a formidable opponent. Tell us about the ad that blew up on him. Guest politics is interesting. They took the ads available in the senate and try to rerun it. A sergeant said i was a data private. He responded everybody has a sergeant that says that you were bad. Guest i was 17. I will never disagree the 17yearold private can be pretty questionable, and i was but i responded with efficiency ratings i served with some medal of honor recipients and some from kernels that retired threestar generals, and two of them general wesley clark in the two separate commands. That shut them up and took care of the question. I was a good lieutenant and captain. He went after my background and claimed some of the money was tainted because the gulf state company by the way the guide that headed the company we dont be ambassador in there and he had been the former head of protocol to Ronald Reagan and have gone on to be the ambassador and he said by the way its the gulf of mexico and so again it made him look foolish. The man accused was an incredible figure in history and a great help to the president , and those kind of mistakes change the rate. He had served well and might have one, but if it came between somebody, a false accusation he tumbled and never really recovered or ran for office again. Host when you came to washington you were fortunate to get on the committees. Usually you get one or two in the judiciary committee. You ended up it makes sense for somebody with your background and connections and government oversight which was probably your third choice at the time. You dont quite eat bluetooth do that in the buck but it was your first. Guest i always seem a thirsay mythird choice was the e on Small Business and they put me on that and i didnt want to be a Small Businessman. We start off as Small Businessmen and so i got off of that and went to energy and commerce for a long time and because of the work that you were doing and the fact government oversight often did not enjoy first choice but i saw the potential and buy him a third term i realized the work k youre doing even in the Bush Administration of holding the Administration Accountable was important and so with the help of the former speaker i got the temporary transfer and that lasted for a decade. Host there is a balance of power but when you have one Party Controlling the senate and presidency they see themselves intertwining and you investigate who did that as you know. We talked about that leadership that i will never forget whenever we go after something the Bush Administration did wrong, he wouldnt call me, he would call the speaker to try to get us off the sand and its our job and a balance of power we have the responsibility when wee see the wrongdoing in the executive branch. But we need to shine a light on those things that go unchecked until you word the subcommittee chairman because i saw your capability. Tell us about what you found there. It was amazing they created the service i was cobbling together organizations have seemed logical at the time and they oversaw three parts of federal land. They did andsign tv could seem to write a thesis accurately where we have a lot of billions. One of them had to do with the deepwater horizon. They had written exclusions into the leases even when the natural gas went up, huge amounts of revenue not to be recognized we found that they didnt even know how much they were entitled to until the Gas Companies told them. We found they were too cozy that in fact they went to parties and stayed overnight and even when their employees became pregnant and the father was one of the people she was supposed to oversee, this kind of a this kind of dysfunction was quite a scandal of the Bush Administration to set we will handle it but you didnt shut down the investigation we provided and we thought was good guidance in particular some guidance on the fact that the safety oversight was so bad that they never solve a problem or came off the oil rig and you figure at least once they showed, so it was sad after the chairmanship when henry waxman came into play and he had two years and during those two years we havent said another word about it and you would have thought it would be continued. Just as you would congress and president obama came in, what we found was the deepwater horizon, the service inspectors were on the raid that morning and left with a clean bill of health and the thing blew up. Loss of life, billions of dollars in damages all because nobody pulled the stop button so there is an example of a successful investigation and failure to starve to stop something bad. You cant just end by telling people something is wrong. You have to provide at least a proposal for change. Host so you came on and i left him the Ranking Committee member on the committee they captured the houscapture the hoe chairman of the committee one of the first investigations i think the viewers will note is the fast and furious, which was an investigation of gunrunning. You described the end it even has some applicability today just a few weeks ago. Host that continues fast and furious was a program that didnt make any sense but was done anyway and the idea of the inspiration we found went from an agent who tried to get it done similarly in the Bush Administration and i they had bn shut down because it didnt work and you woul he would allow theo be sold to those that were buying on behalf of the cartels and then you would try to find them later and make the link. So they had no way to track them when it was sold and where is at the scene of a crime which is where this program didnt make any sense but more than 2,000 weapons were taken and the videotape captured the actual purchase but the straw buyer was of no value unless they could lead you to the next level and that never happened. As you say, as late as just a few weeks ago in the terrorist attack one of the weapons turned out to be one of the 2,000 weapons. Host it was a wife in the federal government sold. Guest they knew it was being sold and they recorded it being sold and didnt follow it. And of course the proceeds of the book go to the foundation. Host he was a Border Patrol agent . Guest the chief agent in san diego today. The fact is this was a family where everyone was in some form of Law Enforcement. He had been at a different level and wanted to join the secret service. It was just before christmas the gift to his family in detroit had already been shipped back to detroit. He comes onto what turned out to be a drug cartel that is probably human trafficking. He comes up with a normal non lethal attempt and he gets gunned down because he finds himself very highpowered in the assault type rifles that were sold in fast and furious and are at the scene of the crying along with his dead body and that was the tragedy of fast and furious. The coverup began almost right away. Senator grassley sent a letter inquiring about it and he got a false answer and that began because the whistleblowers going fast ancoming fast and furious a failed program and try to figure out who is responsible. The u. S. Attorneys, the drug enforcement, fbi they were all part of the task force and everyone pretended like it was a rogue operation only later through this process did we find a sequence of events leading all the way up the chain and by the time we got the last argument ive seen, you have eric holder dieting his people on how not to deliver documents pursuant to the committee, and thats where the buck has to come to the end because it is continuing still before the courts but it will be an example of where Law Enforcement doesnt act in the form of the Justice Department does end enforce the basic law when you received the subpoena you turn over the document and in this case they did everything to obfuscate and not turn over the documents because they were embarrassing. Host tell us about the fight to get these documents and what you didnt get in some of the obstacles he faced. Guest when you have to chairman and hundreds of investigations going on and a highprofile it takes a lot of fourtime but we also had other documents and other investigations going on t on the were Getting Better cooperation but what we found in the case they just shut down and said they are not going to give us anything after brian terris death and it was the period after in which they said there was no link and it was off the most interesting defend the documents before hand, most of which should have been delivered immediately. They claimed that they were an important part of the investigation leading to criminal prosecution so before the murder of brian terri they wouldnt give us the documents because they were part of the criminal investigation. Afterwards they wouldnt give it to us because it was in the jurisdiction and it was conversations in between the lawyers and the justice to part and that it was conversations about the conspiracy to cover up and thats how we ended up before the federal judge. To be honest, she was an obama appointee and a little timid at first so it took a long time to get the decisions, but it eventually gave us what i would call a great many documents. Host they are so being sold out their. There needs to be continuous oversight and predictability. 74 in the federal government when we speak with about 10,000 employees. These are executive branch employees confirmed by the senate and these people have a mandate to investigate their own entities and they are brave men and women. If somebody leaves the agency and goes nextdoor and they are working together there is a wa wall. There are reforms in the system that can do so much more. The most important though is we need them not to be shut out and if the department of justice for were example in the book. At the department of all lawyers and so even if it is Sexual Harassment and battery and all kind of things, its locked out in the review and not all of it in the best would be making sure these people have much better access and access for the idg. Host the chair man darrell issa is talking about some of the investigations that he undertook as the chairman of the House Oversight reform committ committee. I want to get into the irs a little bit. The government went after her Money Laundering and tell that story and its fascinating. We have a wall that is pretty arcane and its outlived some of its usefulness. Its 10,000 or more and the idea of that law is to look for the transactions. The figure would be about 39,000. If it was indexed for inflation is a chance of having a 10,000dollar transaction. If you are a dairy ranger or any number of other professions and receive money in cash, you then have a problem, which is you may have more than 10,000 to send or receive and your bank doesnt want to have to go through this reporting, so what you end up with somebody will say that it happened in this case could you keep it under 10,000. Theres 12,000 on the weekend so they can do this but when you do if you trigger Something Else which is the circumvention law which is that if anyone else tries to evade a 10,000dollar input or output thats a separate crime if the fbi comes or the irs to ask you a question do you see anything that isnt true. Thats a crime and so in this case the money was seized based on the theory host why were they taking out money less than 10,000 . Guest because they were told this would be a problem. They suggested the bank said just these and it would be easier for us. Guest they did what they were suggested to do. And this problem we are mostly not a cash society these days and as a result on the other hand, 10,000 to the Business Operation is a lot of money these days so we have a lot of issues in the buc book. We had an example i like to tell. The Young Musician hopeful host so the couple ends up taking out smaller and the irs comes after them, freezes their assets and it does nothing wrong except in the way they deposit their money and they have to pay like 29,000 in forfeitures. Basically they find themselves in the position the only way to get free is to let the irs abuse them and that happens a lot. Let me tell you this other one. Its equally one of these things where the government needs to be overseas. Of the young man gets on the train, oneway ticket to los angeles. He goes to hollywood to get into the business with a oneway ticket. They come and see him and take the money away from him. He says this is my money i dont have any credit cards. He said thats your problem and they took his money. He had more than 10,000 a suspicion. There was a band that was touring for charity. They were doing contests for charity and as it happens they dont become the various contributors. The publicity chained the forfeiture and this was not through the Law Enforcement into getting it back. When the federal government passed the law and use the actual implementation, we need oversight as to the specific into the example of the book is a good one. But we also need to have change. Maybe we dont catch every bad person but we dont attack an ak innocent citizens with these rules and thats part of what its all about we have to create what i used to deal with in business which was a quality circle. You do something you think is good and send your product out and theres a defect. People need to tell you about the defect, you need to redevelop th the product so prot goes out without a defect. Now this is natural. Sometime defects are never cured because there isnt enough oil because people say if you deal with the problem you might lose the benefit. The answer is when it comes to the American Peoples freedom and the right to live freely tou have to err on the side. Host if you dont admit it and keep your head down for congress for the oversight that comes in. Guest you come from a swing district and im now in a district that wasnt going to be won by the nominee of the party and wasnt won by the four years ago you have to be willing to be unpopular. You become unpopular with your party and dont lik adult like e and time again. Its both parties but if youre not willing to do it you shouldnt be on the oversight. There were times when Elijah Cummings or ed towns, both of whom i served with were willing to cross the party lines. In my book i try to make a point sometimes we could agree and we did things together. That gets lost sometimes because that isnt news. We were ready to pass the major reform act and my cosponsor on the bill was Elijah Cummings. We have fought for two congresses to get it passed. Thats a pretty darned happy event with the speaker signing of the bill. Eli usha cummings was a good partner on that because the left and right have a vested interest in transparency. Host sometimes you find it and sometimes you dont. You have a chapter in your committee did investigations on that. Theres a lot of talking points that go across this and my recollection of this is when some documents turn of out to he been subpoenaed that havent been produced turned up in the freedom of information that was under tremendous pressure to say this i isnt the end of it, they are hiding something. This issue doesnt go away during the campaign. Guest youre exactly righ right. It went very deep and this was the situation in which we had an obligation to investigate. They become so close they want to avoid embarrassment in the pentagon. Your Foreign Affairs committee becomes so close and the state department they want to cover the state department. Thats the nature of the committee so the congress created the committee that would be beholden to the agencies they regulated. Guest the Foreign Affairs and intelligence community. What happened before hand, we did not do what he should have done to defend and protect. Its pretty clear that there were mistakes made and its politically sensitive but the fact that it occurred is undeniable. But during that time, it was very clear that he was moving towards the sound of the gun and the seven hours between the attack. So you obviously have those events and then afterwards you havyouhave toyouhave the covere statements and so on. What we diwhats needed is whatd the process of the committees at least it is important to begin the investigation in the first hearing. Host this is after susan rice arrived on the tv shows. Guest it wasnt true and we were beginning to bring people in and we were on the ground in libya with people who could testify in debated. Host if you look at the state Department Emails going back and forth at that time that shes off the reservation and we are not sure what prompted that i assume Hillary Clinton didnt want to go on the talk shows and was the highest ranking person that did get susan rice and it probably cost her being secretary of state. Guest in retrospect saying we have a terrible tragedy at the hands of terrorism we will Work Together to get to the bottom of it and change history instead susan rice went on and talked about some crackpot in la and we are going to hold him accountable and that also changed history. For the committee this is one of the chapters was hard to write. We reviewed a lot of it but very little is known about what you mentioned which is the intelligence committees wanted to say they did nothing wrong and we wont supply you any of these people even if she will they are not clandestine operators. Even in star wars these are not the droids youre looking for. The chairman issued a statement that we received a copy of and the department of defense not producing people Foreign Affairs was much more naturally and they felt they didnt have the Investigative Team and it wasnt the nature. It was the accountability review board that the chair man over there sort of study you take the lead and we will keep an eye on it. If they assigned a person to work with us we have these committees one was hostile and one was pretty neutral. We began the investigation and as we discovered that the department of defense wasnt innocent. As a matter of fact the they had been the worst thing you could do. They created the african command and that command was toothless. They didnt have any truth to speak up for the ability to launch on its own and it pretty much looked to the assets for guidance on what to do and that of the general who was in washington at the time of the attack in a bad position he didnt have independent authority and didnt assert the order after to get things moving towards the target. They have a limited culpability here and at the state department clearly had double the mistakes and not being on the staff but after being written some people have lost track of benghazi and wont read the 800 page report over the failure to secure our men and women overseas because they are interested in the next chapter that obviously is Hillary Clintons decision to violate the regulations. Its slightly touched but the character that we have seen early in the investigation. Doing business in this country but seldom allocates resources honestly in libya. A lot of that is yet to be discovered obviously. He was paid at the foundation because they refused to put him on the payroll even though they were willing to put, for example, the individual who took care had been working for her campaign, but Sidney Blumenthal had a very checkered past. The state department has a great deal of integrity and they push back in those the host in this hearing on this what i saw from the outside here are just looking at the past chair man as the democrats are obviously in a place like that are going to protect their quarterback and perth this was before and after that to be expected and i dont think that should surprise anybody. But congress can work in a bipartisan way that when you start looking at the president ial candidate or something you see them protecting the quarterback rallying around defending that and thats kind of the way both parties viewed their jobs over the years. Guest you are a tremendous follower of history over the years as we travel with these amazing facts throughout history and political history watergate started off and democrats going after truth or not truth. But by the time it ended, republicans were the ones that went to the white house and told the president it was time to go and they answered honestly before being subpoenaed to the congressional committee. And republicans were the ones that made it clear they wouldnt survive impeachment. I would hope that that is always the case. You start off on two different sides and conduct oversight to get to the truth and it starts leading either for or against your decision you are willing to change that. I havent always seen it. This is the wrongdoing that occurred. Let me explain what it was. If they read the book it is all explained. I want to get them to read the watchdog. Angela mazzola who headed this Mortgage Company to together a program of vip service that included our colleagues staff of congress, postmaster general, anybody they could have influence with. It wasnt just making the process easy because mortgage could be difficult. It was also to make it cheaper. They would waive the fees and provide very favorable discouns in the case of one senator even though they never did anything outside of it for that senator and so when the scandal started to break what he saw were the two directions one was toward angela who ultimately paid a fine and never went to jail and the other led to those who took these. These. He tried to investigate both because what we saw if he had a reason. It was distorting policy. That distorted policy was part of the meltdown in 2008. Youve obviously made some strong resistance to. Guest when i discovered this investigators said what do we do. We have to refer this part of the house ethics. We do not investigate the members of congress but i saw some of my colleagues to two names that i think should be discussed one was ed towns, the chair and Ranking Member and he had received the two loans for this. Another one was congressman sessions from texas. Hes now the bulls chairman rules chairman. We got a good deal. He didnt ask for a good deal so i went to him and told him his name was on this list and he should come clean with it and he did. He was certainly a name on the list. Interesting things with congressman sessions, he actually went out of his way to say i do not want a special de deal. I need to refinance this but i dont want a special. I just want my application. I dont want a special deal. Im not going to talk on television about some of the others but there were some who went back and said i need a better deal and there was an unnamed staff person that was sort of the worst of all. She worked for the senator on the finance committee and received 13 refinances. She didnt charge the planes or the fees. Obviously, she wanted help in any legislation. When the legislation came over from the house to help reform some of this, which was mike oxley and barney frank, its got watered down in the senate. We will never know if the staff critical position did it, but i can tell you she did not. Could be the key staffer would have been the appropriate thing. 13 separate unique deals have to be inherently wrong and something we shouldnt accept. Host i think thats why the public gets cynical about the officials in the establishment getting special deals on many of them are struggling and if they miss a payment somebody is on top of the foreclosure. People get upset that they dont get anything for having a second house and many of them that is the only way they can make sure their kids still go to college. I do belong to a body that has the strengths and weaknesses but what the book talks about is where we can begin and where we excel. When the chairmanship covered a great deal, he was able to uncover quite a bit. Ed towns as the chair man i give a lot of credit to from countrywide particularly when it was hard personally to uncover something that included your own name on a list so theres been good work. I hope people read it and see hope. They see bad things happening but they see hope and some of the actions we have to take to ensure the next 240 years of the republic are as good or better. Host we have just another minute or two but you talk about the media because you could investigate until the cows come home but the executive branch wont pay any attention to it you talk about how they can run the clock and they dont answer and they can run questions. Talk to me just in a couple minutes about your experience in the media. It was good and bad. They went after me you were eventually going to see things and get criticism but they have to cover thhadto cover the workd a tremendous team of people that would feed them the information going on candy crowley. She said youve given a few documents secretly. Well you release all of them in the deposition. Its part of how you get the stories in washington you take the documents you are allowed to release and the minority could selectively release them. But we are trying to tell a story and if you release the documents the others can release documents that show that you misled them. We try to tease them with these things in most of the time it is succeeded and i gained the belief that groups like the sunlight foundation. In the freedom of information because ultimately even the left gets to the truth better than if we dont. Im a big fan of the press. Host for the sunlight and openness in government youve been a champion across party lines and the book is watchdog by darrell issa. Its a great read i recommend so if you look we have gary shapiro a lot of people have written this and we appreciate it. Vice president Newt Gingrich also says we are not plugging anybody on this but its a great read and we appreciate your time today. The book is watchdog. President ial candidate Hillary Clinton and donald trump have written several books many of which outlined the worldview and political philosophy. The responsibility with parents who are raising children, donald trump has also written many books. His first several titles were released in the 80s and 90s are accounts of his business transactions and real estate companies. In the early 2000 he released several financial selfhelp books. In his two most recent books, time time to get tough and crippled america he writes about politics and outlines his vision. Several of these books have been on our show and you can find them on our website. Next up mathematics professor discusses his book the math math. In it he questions whether or not advance math should be