from public service to the private sector. his most notable job came as deputy attorney general under former president bush. oftentimes pushing back on some of the domestic surveillance programs. also well known for prosecuting martha stewart. remember, he went after her. she was later convicted in connection to insider trading. he was a u.s. attorney at the time. again, this is someone who the white house believes has the credentials to do this job. for ten years, this is a ten-year term for him taking over for mr. mueller who was in the job for 12 years because president obama at the time that his term expired, went to congress, asked for an extension. congress did give him an extension. that lasted for 12 years. his job would last for ten years. don? all right. dan lothian at the white house. we see you re awaiting the announcement standing by. back to dan just as soon as the president comes out. dan, appreciate that.
worked his way up to lead police department, jim has law enforcement in his blood. as a young prosecutor in the u.s. attorney s office in manhattan, he helped bring down the gambino crime family. as a federal prosecutor in virginia, he led an aggressive effort to combat gun violence that reduced homicide rates and saved lives. he has been relentless, whether it s standing up for consumers against corporate fraud or bringing terrorists to justice. and as deputy attorney general, he helped lead the justice department with skill and wisdom. meeting the threats we know about and staying perpetually prepared for the ones that can emerge suddenly. so jim is exceptionally qualified to handle the full range of challenges faced by today s fbi. from traditional threats like violence and organized crime to protecting civil rights and children from exploitation to meeting transnational challenges like terrorism and cyber
mueller, of course, seeing james comey coming in. i want to tell you a little bit more, talk a little bit more about james comey. he s a central player in the domestic surveillance debate which began when he served in the bush administration. bush two, that is. in fact, some would say comey was a hero in a dramatic late night showdown with andy card and alberto gonzalez. to talk about that former fbi special agent in charge is david williams. he joins me now from washington. thank you for joining us, sir. good to be here, don. so, mr. williams, on march 10th, 2004, james comey received an urgent late night phone call summoned and escorted, raced sirens pla sirens blairing to the hospital bed of then attorney general john ashcroft. recount that story if you would and tell us why it s connected to the domestic surveillance debate. well, the attorney general john ashcroft had been very ill. he was hospitalized in bed. there was a feeling that he was going to be asked to, perhaps, to
give them to president obama, because i would like to give them to president obama in the sense that i would like to see more spending and that is part of what fuels the recovery, but if you read nem them in the wayt you do, we give them to president p bush and it makes president obama seem more frugalle. well, it is tricky, because the first year of the presidential term is based on the budget that the predecessor adopted but 2009 was different we know because we had lots of extra spending that happened in the, you know, after obama came n and we had the stimulus, and we had another big appropriations bill that was passed under obama and not under bush. so it is very tricky to figure out, you know, who is responsible for what spending. i tried to be pretty careful about the way i looked at the number, and if you ask the cbo, they say $120 billion spent on the stimulus bill, and a lot of people think it is $800 billion, but a lot of it is in tax cuts and not spent until 2010 and
way as the household. no, you don t and one thing thatis interesting in the steve s point is that also in the midst of the spending, he bailed out chrysler. and if you look at george bush, and under bush ii, it is also spending that increased, and to joy ann s point, it is more about what you spend it on. and for barack obama in the midst of an election year, you cannot talk about change as we v have in the midst of the past 30 years. so rex, in the role of somebody who is trying to give us more information, it is hard to watch that information piece become so highly politicized and folks at the table were saying, why would you make the argument one way or another, but is there any room left for us to talk