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Constituents. and pretty soon, theyre taking orders from the swamp rather than the people. so if we want to end the corruption, and move legislation on capitol hill, we need the old timers to do the decent thing and begin to retire! john conyers is the most potent example. the congressman who has just been charged this week with sexual harassment by two women so far in two days is 88 years old. he has held his congressional seat for 52 years! so l.b.j. was president and the film "mary poppins" w...

It mean the only attracted to it are superegos? ive always had a theory, if we lined up all of our presidents they would have some odd chromosome that the rest of us dont have? >> without question. >> in order to seek that office you have to have a massive ego. you have to have a need to be loved, a need for attention, and a need for power. so it is elevated, but youre hoping that your leaders have that plus -- >> a filter? >> not just a filter, but a knowledge of how to govern. a knowledge of h...

Seats makes it very difficult for people to say well politically were going to make deals with people in the house or things are kind of structurally gridlocked. i think this is more a symptom of that than anything else. but the other thing, too, is when we look at lbj, we tend to think about two things with him, which is 64 and 65, the civil rights act and the voting rights act. but this is really about the arc of his career because he does this in 57 and does it again in 1960, like the little ...

Working on a new book about lbj. and raul reyes, nbc latino contributor and columnist for "usa today." thanks for being here. >> thank you. >> julian, i want to start with you. in this moment, do you think that lbj facing the constraints that reid is facing would have made the same decision, that he would have gone ahead and changed the senate rules and seen that as a power play or would he have tried to negotiate in his very johnson time of way? >> i think he would have looked favorably at what...

Must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice. and we shall overcome. [ applause ] in this country, civil rights and voting rights have been purchased with the precious cost of blood and the fearlessness of a leader willing to spend the moral capital those martyrs provided. but today that legacy is in jeopardy. just this week the republican-controlled state senate in ohio passed the bill to shorten early voting, a move that limits the ability of poor people, black people, the eld l...

Are veterans or people, active military. he can continue to expand classes of people who are eligible for that type of relief. he cant grant anyone citizenship but can offer slow, incremental relief. >> so to us its very important, he has the power to stop the connie de bie poration. its a same the first african-american president of the u.s. has deported more than 2 million people. >> the pausing of deportation and the expansion of -- i am bringing the both of you back in as well continue to ta...

Doesnt exist. >> julian, im so glad you brought us there. i was reminded as we were having our lbj love affair putting the show together today, of that moment of the 2008 elections when hillary clinton, then a candidate against then senator obama was asked about sort of, you know, the successes and said that dr. kings treatment only began to be realized when president lyndon johnson passed the civil rights of 1964, when he was able to get through congress something that president kennedy was hop...

When he tab led this problem. lbj did not look at poverty as a black/white issue. there was not that racialized element. and, you know, in the time when america was different, lbj believed we are america, we can do everything, lets tackle it. and the country responded. so many conservatives like to say that it was a failure because we did not eradicate poverty. but there was a success. poverty rates dropped dramatically. i just want to -- >> people lived longer. >> i want to underline your poi...

>> and it colors the war on -- >> oh, yeah. >> but transportation part of what hes talking about. >> one thing we have to remember about lbj right now because this month, in 1965, my father joined a meeting at the white house that the president called to discuss how to take civil rights to the next level. right? and one of the things that happened in that meeting is that -- and my father had just been to south carolina on voting rights looking at how still 50% of blacks were still disenfranchise...

This in the oval office on that level of recognition is that he sees the impact of what fdr did when he cut these deals with southern democrats that effectively cut black people out of the main benefits of the new deal. >> yep. >> hes saying we can actually close this loop. >> yep. >> we see what this difference is. >> i love you made the point about infrastructure. as we go out, well stay on the topic, but i want to listen to lbj making the point that several of you have made about that connect...