First republican. 20 years in the senate. The first ones dont see their success, but what they do does prepare the way for the mechanics generation or the next woman to move to the next level. He, for good or bad, always goes his own way. 25 years in the senate. What, after all, is a democrat like me doing at a Republican Convention like this . At the end of his term they are leaving for good voluntarily. I yield the floor. I yield the floor. I yield. I yield the floor. Today farewell to congress with arizona senator john kyl, massachusetts congressman barney frank, senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of texas, and the connecticut independent joe lieberman. Im candy crowley, and this is state of the union. 35 members of Congress Retired this year. Ten in the senate. 25 in the house. The highest number of retirmts since 1996. I sat down with four of the retirees at senate Joe Liebermans hideaway offense in the capitol to talk about what theyll miss, what they wont miss, the days theyll remember the most and whats still left to do before they go. Let me start out. We are at the end of the year. We are looking at a situation where the country is about to go off the socalled fiscal cliff, and i wanted you to kind of look back and think did you ever believe that people that congress would get so entrenched in different sides that there was a possibility the country would go off the fiscal cliff . Does it surprise you where we are . I mean, what shocks me is that were actually 16 trillion in debt. I mean, we built up this incredible debt over a period of years. I never would have guessed that we would be in this position when we started out. You are all here for that . Were all guilty. Were all part of it. A couple of president s contributed to. Am i surprised we facing this fiscal cliff now . No, because we put it in. We created this cliff because we thought it will be so terrifying that congress would actually be shaken to reach a bipartisan agreement to reduce the debt. Thats what our responsibility is and the time between now and the end of this year. I think congress is reflecting the nation. I think we are very divided. Not in the goal, but how we get there, and i think america is too. I think that is reflected i think we now know that americans expect us to go forward, and we have no choice but to go forward. I think kay has made a very important point. One of the things thats troubled me about the analysis of congress is people act as if were in a bubble and we just were selfgenerated. I mean, there are few people in this building that are here because they didnt get they should be doing selfcriticism. Its exacerbated by one of the great inventions, creations of our humanity, which is the american constitution. At any given time america is governed by the results of three elections. Thats our constitution. There are senators elected in 2006 who are here. Theres a president elected in 2008 and then a house of representatives predominantly 2010, and occasionally the there have been few cases in American History where the public changed its mind so drastically between 2008 and 2010 so they put one group in power here and another group in power there, and there were legitimate differences. I hate it when people say were bickering. Were debating the most fundamental issues, but we still have to make an effort to overcome it, but where it came from was the american constitution and the fact that there was on the part of the voters a very drastic swing in their opinion in that twoyear period. Im going to agree with barney on an important point here. Theres nothing wrong with robust debate among different philosophical positions. In fact, you look at our jury system. The whole idea is you have a big contest between two sides and supposedly truth wins out in the end. Its the same thing with the debate in the house and the senate. You have this robust contest between the liberal and a conservative idea, and eventually something either wins out or some compromise pertains. The notion that we should just compromise for the sake of compromising isnt necessarily the right result, and if there is a will, there is usually a way, and sometimes the pressure is so great that you absolutely have to, but ill just close with this. I suspect that none of us at the time that were coming to a close of our careers, pretty long careers in most cases here, are happy about the situation in which we find ourselves. Yet, youre also zen about it. Let me ask you. You know, this is like, oh, the fiscal cliff is coming, and, oh, my gosh, unemployment is going to skyrocket and the recession is going to come back. Im wondering does it not does the heat not feel as intense here, because youre the fact is that there is no decisionmaker. If there was a Decision Maker who is being complacent in the face of this, you should be very critical. The american constitution and the American People have put people into a shared power situation who have had very different views. Now, one thing is different. Maybe im being it does seem to me that in 2010 some people came to the congress who said compromise is a bad thing. I hope its the result of the last election theres going to be less of that, and every one of us has to be prepared to vote for something we dont like. Since were talking about the constitution, i want to go back briefly to George Washington who in his farewell address warned the future generations of americans against the danger of political factions to which members of our government would be more loyal than they were to the country. In other words, they had served their factions more than the common interest. I wish everybody would sign a pledge mefr to sign another pledge because that is one of the obstacles when you say this, and i have always avoided the pledges. I agree with you 100 . Im going to do everything i can for that, but i cant tell you in a given situation what the tradeoffs will be, what the options will be, and im not signing a pledge. Partisanship has gone to extreme here, but even more a word thats come up, the unwillingness to compromise, to approach every issue saying i will not vote for this medicals i get 100 of what i want. In the end you get 0 . Senator, 102 years, more than a centurys worth of capitol hill experience sitting right here, so i figure you all are pretty good readers of the crystal ball up here. Am i right in reading that you all think were not going to go off this fiscal cliff . We will come up with something . Yes. I believe we will come up with a way forward. Everything by the end of this year, probably not, but i think we will not have a fiscal cliff. We will have a plan, hopefully, to go forward. We will have a blue present. We will set the stage for longterm. I think its likely that there will be a solution thats not a final solution by any means. Its not a big solution. But will get us through the end of the year into next year with a plan for trying to deal with these issues longterm over the course of the next congress. That will require compromise. If i could ju add one more element to that. This contest of ideas that we talked about, i think, is critical to come to the right decision. The contest between liberal and conservetive ideas, and other ideas in between. Whats harmful is the contest between partisan republicans and partisan democrats, and theres a difference between ideologies and pure politics because when politics intervenes, it creates gotcha situations, votes that can be used in 30second commercials by one side or the other and results in gridlock, so i think what we need to try to find here is a way to have the debates about policy and get to the point of compromise when possible and do as much as we can to keep partisan politics out of the equation. Partisanship, i believe, is very important if its done right. You dont have democracy. Its never been the problem im having is there are legitimate difference that is are debated. The problem is when those differences become so embittered that people cant compromise or come together. I think partisanship is an important part of it, and i want to say this in terms of now im going to be a little partisan. I became chairman of the Financial Services committee in 7dz, and i immediately began to work with hank paulson, the republican senator of the treasury and ben bernanke, george bushs appointes, although some would like to forget that. We did some work with them, and in the last months of 2007 george bush went to nancy pelosi and harry reid and said i need a, guess what, stimulus. That terrible word. Pelosi and reid worked with him to do that. Then in 2008 they came to us. John, you and i worked together on the whole response to the financial. I believe we had in 2007, 2008, this is not a longstanding problem. A great deal of cooperation in the bush administration. I do believe that there were elected some people in 2010, tea party influence, who reputinated the notion of compromise, and someave said it exclusively. I think partisanship, you have to start from a position of principle and then you work together. I think in 2007 and 2008 we showed how can you do that. Candy, let me join in the general hopefulness that were going to avoid the fiscal cliff, but its not a done deal. Its not a certainty. The reason is the country the government is on automatic pilot to the fiscal cliff, to massive tax increases and really horrible spending cuts on january 1st unless we act, so if congress does congress has gotten pretty good at doing these days, well go over the fiscal cliff, so theres work to be done and compromises to be reached. Next, an interesting take on the fbi investigation that ensnared general david petraeus. I got to say, what spies surprises me is these people are still sending emails. I dont spend money on gasoline. I am probably going to the gas station about once a month. Last time i was at a gas station was about. I would say. Two months ago. I very rarely put gas in my chevy volt. I go to the gas station such a small amount that i forget how to put gas in my car. 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Choose unlimited rewards with 2 cash back or double miles on every purchase, every day whats in your wallet . Annes tablet called my phone. Annes tablet was chatting with a tablet in sydney. A desktop in zurich. And a telepresence room in brazil. The secure cloud helped us get some numbers from my assistants pc in new york. And before i reached the top, the Board Meeting became a congrats we sold the company party. Wait til my wifes phone hears about this. [ cellphone vibrating ] [ female announcer ] with cisco at the center, working together has never worked so well. Thats right. So its like i won. Sure. Oh my gosh i won i won [ male announcer ] get a 100 walmart gift card when you buy any android or windows 8 smartphone. Through december 1st. From americas gift headquarters. Walmart. So i brought it to mike at meineke. We gave her car a free road handling check. I like free. Free is good. My money. My choice. My meineke. We have the petraeus matter going on. While this works itself out and we find out what actually went on, my thought is anyone disturbed by someone going to the fbi and saying, gee, im getting these really funky emails, would you look into it, and the fbi looks into the private emails of public people, but looks into the private emails and then it ends up toppling the head of the cia . Cyber security is a huge problem. If someone is hacking into the drergt of the cia, you need to know that. General petraeus, who is the director of the cia, and others have questioned about his email account. The fbi is going to look into that, and theyre going to try to determine is something unauthorized happening here . Now, they stumbled upon something totally different, but to your question, no, i dont feel badly if the fbi is going to make sure that director of the cia is not being hacked into in an unauthorized fashion. Petraeus, they had found they stumbled across the petraeus issue when she complained there was no mention of petraeus. What surprises me is that these people are still sending emails. Yeah. That goes to judgment. If these emails are threatening, im want concerned that the fbi has the capacity to make a baseline judgment, is this a real problem that might do damage to this woman and, therefore, we ought to at least do a preliminary investigation . I mean, think more and more crimes that have been person to person traditionally are going to be committed over the internet. Im glad the fbi has the capacity to investigate it. Im very worried about this. Im very worried. I want to know a whole lot more what b what these first emails really were and did it really trigger an fbi investigation of the cia director and a low level and it wasnt raised to a higher level . I mean, if anybody is investigating the director of the cia, the president of the United States should know immediately, and i feel like a, we dont know enough, and, b, i have great concerns about a lot of this. Maybe the way you said it, nobody was investigating the director of the cia. What they were inquiring into was whether or not somebody had unauthorized access or was taking advantage of access to it turned into an investigation of a private life of the cia director that then brings in another general and so that there could have been braechz of security, there could have been braechz of the directors private email accounts or public email accounts. But at what level were these decisions being made . I think there needs to be a whole lot more. Do you suggest there was some coverup, and the fbi are playing games . Im troubled by the implication of your statement and are you suggesting that something wasnt legitimate here . That would trouble me. Im suggesting that i have great concerns about the legitimacy. Great concern is i dont think its a weasle word. I i dont trust the fbi a general who is very high in our military and the cia director to all of a sudden have this kind of upheaval when it appears that the president didnt know until two months later. Two months later to president the question is the fbi stumbled upon it. It seems to me frankly youre hinting at something bad, and i dont see what that could be. Im hinting at something out of control and not with the proper authority. Who are you accusing of not having done the right thing . Ive always had Great Respect for him and Great Respect for general petraeus. I do too. I want to know what the sequence was and when top level people were making decisions about ill tell you what troubles me. If this is an investigation into david petraeuss bank account instead of his sex life all of us would be paying a lot less attention to it. Im troubled by the periods of some of this and the prominence of getting his privacy doesnt totally disappear. Let me move you on. Do you have a single big question about what went on in benghazi or what happened in the aftermath that you think must be answered. I think there are lequestions that have to be answered. Why werent the warnings about the need for heeded. Why werent the requests for help during the terrorist attack answered . Why did the administration think it had to cover up all the things that occurred before by putting out to the American People a maretive that i think will turn out to be absolutely false . I think theres been shortly after i got into congress 280 marines were killed in lebanon on Ronald Reagans watch, and he said when you are fixing up there were delays in the construction. Bad people do terrible things to americans. I dont like it when that becomes a political dispute, and i had nothing critical to say about the reagan administration. I think things will happen. There are americans are exposed all over the world because we have decided to be proactive in that way, and its hard to protect everything. Given that, yes, i would as to the narrative, you have to talk about saying this was a terrorist attack, that was pretty soon disbanded. Saying that that movie i dont think there was a prolonged attempt there. There was something called the fog of war, the confusion, but, yes, i would like us to know what happened so that we can maybe take better account of defending it in the future. There are three different kinds of questions about benghazi. What happened before the attack . What happened during the attack . What was said and decided after the attack . The most important one to me is what happened before the attack . The painful question is why didnt we provide more security for our mission in benghazi. If we do not do it, we could have taken our troops to tripoli where there they would have been more safe. The other thing well focus on is i think the defense department, for instance, tried to immediately to get help to our personnel on the ground in benghazi, but help was far away. It raises a question about whether the after can command of the u. S. Military ought to have more assets and personnel nearby on the ground. The third part about what happened after every afterwards is obviously a real concern. I think particularly in fairness to ambassador rice, there ought to be the widest public airing of what led to her statements and others in the administration particularly obviously if shes going to be mom natured for secretary of state or some other high office. Thats not an automatic no for you if she were to be nominated. No, because, first of all, i think shes had a distinguished career up until now, but secondly, i dont know i dont feel that i know exactly what she was told before she went on tv that sunday morning, and i think we ought to find out before we decide on whether shes a good or bad public servant. Senator kyl used the term coverup, correct, in terms of, like, afterwards saying, well, this all had to do with this videotape and it had to do with this, so there was a riot, turns out. There was no riot. It wasnt abou